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Urban tolerance is phylogenetically constrained and mediated by pre‐adaptations in African bats

With increasing urbanization, particularly in developing countries, it is important to understand how local biota will respond to such landscape changes. Bats comprise one of the most diverse groups of mammals in urban areas, and many species are threatened by habitat destruction and land use change...

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Autores principales: Marsden, Genevieve E., Vosloo, Dalene, Schoeman, M. Corrie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9994473/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36911303
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9840
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author Marsden, Genevieve E.
Vosloo, Dalene
Schoeman, M. Corrie
author_facet Marsden, Genevieve E.
Vosloo, Dalene
Schoeman, M. Corrie
author_sort Marsden, Genevieve E.
collection PubMed
description With increasing urbanization, particularly in developing countries, it is important to understand how local biota will respond to such landscape changes. Bats comprise one of the most diverse groups of mammals in urban areas, and many species are threatened by habitat destruction and land use change. Yet, in Africa, the response of bats to urban areas is relatively understudied. Therefore, we collated data on urban presence, phylogenetic relationship, and ecological traits of 54 insectivorous bats in Africa from available literature to test if their response to urbanization was phylogenetically and/or ecologically driven. Ancestral state reconstruction of urban tolerance, defined by functional group and presence observed in urban areas, suggests that ancestral African bat species could adapt to urban landscapes, and significant phylogenetic signal for urban tolerance indicates that this ability is evolutionarily conserved and mediated by pre‐adaptations. Specifically, traits of high wing loading and aspect ratio, and flexible roosting strategies, enable occupancy of urban areas. Therefore, our results identify the traits that predict which bat species will likely occur in urban areas, and which vulnerable bat clades conservation efforts should focus on to reduce loss of both functional and phylogenetic diversity in Africa. We, additionally, highlight several gaps in research that should be investigated in future studies to provide better monitoring of the impact urbanization will have on African bats.
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spelling pubmed-99944732023-03-09 Urban tolerance is phylogenetically constrained and mediated by pre‐adaptations in African bats Marsden, Genevieve E. Vosloo, Dalene Schoeman, M. Corrie Ecol Evol Research Articles With increasing urbanization, particularly in developing countries, it is important to understand how local biota will respond to such landscape changes. Bats comprise one of the most diverse groups of mammals in urban areas, and many species are threatened by habitat destruction and land use change. Yet, in Africa, the response of bats to urban areas is relatively understudied. Therefore, we collated data on urban presence, phylogenetic relationship, and ecological traits of 54 insectivorous bats in Africa from available literature to test if their response to urbanization was phylogenetically and/or ecologically driven. Ancestral state reconstruction of urban tolerance, defined by functional group and presence observed in urban areas, suggests that ancestral African bat species could adapt to urban landscapes, and significant phylogenetic signal for urban tolerance indicates that this ability is evolutionarily conserved and mediated by pre‐adaptations. Specifically, traits of high wing loading and aspect ratio, and flexible roosting strategies, enable occupancy of urban areas. Therefore, our results identify the traits that predict which bat species will likely occur in urban areas, and which vulnerable bat clades conservation efforts should focus on to reduce loss of both functional and phylogenetic diversity in Africa. We, additionally, highlight several gaps in research that should be investigated in future studies to provide better monitoring of the impact urbanization will have on African bats. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2023-03-08 /pmc/articles/PMC9994473/ /pubmed/36911303 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9840 Text en © 2023 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Marsden, Genevieve E.
Vosloo, Dalene
Schoeman, M. Corrie
Urban tolerance is phylogenetically constrained and mediated by pre‐adaptations in African bats
title Urban tolerance is phylogenetically constrained and mediated by pre‐adaptations in African bats
title_full Urban tolerance is phylogenetically constrained and mediated by pre‐adaptations in African bats
title_fullStr Urban tolerance is phylogenetically constrained and mediated by pre‐adaptations in African bats
title_full_unstemmed Urban tolerance is phylogenetically constrained and mediated by pre‐adaptations in African bats
title_short Urban tolerance is phylogenetically constrained and mediated by pre‐adaptations in African bats
title_sort urban tolerance is phylogenetically constrained and mediated by pre‐adaptations in african bats
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9994473/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36911303
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9840
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