Bat activity and species richness on organic and （蝙蝠活动和在有机和物种丰富度）.pdfVIP

Journal of Applied Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Ecology 2003 Bat activity and species richness on organic and 40, 984–993 conventional farms: impact of agricultural intensification LIAT P. WICKRAMASINGHE, STEPHEN HARRIS, GARETH JONES and NANCY VAUGHAN School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UG, UK Summary 1. Agricultural intensification is perceived to be a major cause of the decline in many European bat populations. Because organic farming prohibits the use of agrochemicals, we compared organic vs. conventional farm types to test the hypothesis that agricultural intensification based on high levels of agrochemical use has been a factor in bat popu- lation declines. Bat activity and species richness were compared on matched pairs of organic and conventional farms. 2. Bat activity was quantified using acoustic surveys within specific habitats on farms in southern England and Wales. Eighty-nine per cent of bat passes were identified to species level using artificial neural networks (ANN). A further 9% were identified to genus. 3. Total bat activity was significantly higher on organic farms than on conventional farms. Significantly more bat passes were recorded over water on organic farms than on conven- tional farms. Foraging activity (quantified in two ways: total feedings buzzes and feeding buzzes per pass) was significantly higher on organic farms than on conve