Batting for rice: The effect of bat exclusion on rice in North-East India
Batting for rice: The effect of bat exclusion on rice in North-East India
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击打水稻：印度东北部排除蝙蝠对水稻的影响
DOI：
10.1016/j.agee.2022.108196
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发表时间：
2023
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Bhalla I
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Bhalla I
食虫蝙蝠因其作为害虫抑制生物制剂的潜力而受到越来越多的关注。世界各地的研究表明，它们在时间和空间上都有跟踪和追捕农业害虫的趋势，从而对减少植物危害和保护农作物产量产生积极影响。我们记录了食虫蝙蝠对印度阿萨姆邦一种水稻作物的健康和产量的影响。使用六组配对的试验田和对照地(其中五组被分析)，其中有选择地将蝙蝠排除在试验田之外，我们收集了两个植物损害指标和一个总产量指标，以评估蝙蝠对作物的影响。与此同时，六个地点的蝙蝠活动在水稻生长季节使用被动式声学记录器进行了记录。我们的结果表明，排除食虫蝙蝠会增加水稻植株的落叶程度。我们还报告了试验区和控制区在水稻黄化程度和总产量方面没有显著差异。蝙蝠的活动水平在整个生长季节显示出单峰或双峰的活动，这大致跟踪了水稻的成熟度，这一模式在许多害虫中也可以看到。我们的结果有力地表明，蝙蝠对稻田害虫的作用具有抑制作用。活动水平的总体趋势以及植物损害的显著差异表明，蝙蝠是捕食害虫，最终产量的不显著差异可能是方法限制的结果。这些发现表明，蝙蝠为印度水稻生态系统增加了重要的生态和经济价值，并具有巨大的潜力，可用于旨在抑制害虫的综合害虫管理(IPM)战略。
Insectivorous bats are gaining increasing attention for their potential as biological agents of pest suppression. Studies around the world have demonstrated their tendency to track and hunt agricultural pests over time and space, and thus to have a positive impact on reducing plant damage and protecting yield of agricultural crops. We documented the effect of insectivorous bats on the health and yield of a rice crop in Assam, India. Using six sets of paired experimental and control plots (of which five were analysed), where bats were selectively excluded from the experimental plots, we collected two measures of plant damage and one measure of total yield to assess the impact of bats on the crop. In parallel, bat activity at the six sites was recorded over the rice growing season using passive acoustic recorders. Our results show that the exclusion of insectivorous bats causes an increase in the degree of defoliation suffered by rice plants. We also report non-significant differences in the degree of yellowing of rice and of the total yield between the experimental and control plots. Bat activity levels showed a mono- or bi-modal peak in activity over the growing season, which broadly tracked the maturity of rice, a pattern also seen in many insect pests. Our results strongly suggest that bats have suppressive impact on pest action in rice fields. The general trend in activity levels, as well as the significant difference in plant damage, would indicate that bats are hunting insect pests and that the non-significant difference in final yield was likely the result of methodological limitations. These findings suggest that bats add significant ecological and economic value to Indian rice ecosystems and hold great potential to be used in integrated pest management (IPM) strategies aimed at suppressing pests.