Abstract
Arthropod populations are constantly changing due to changes in climate and the globalisation of trade and travel. Effective and diverse monitoring techniques are required to understand these changes. DNA metabarcoding has facilitated the development of a broad monitoring method to sample arthropod diversity from environmental and faecal samples. In this study, we applied DNA metabarcoding to DNA extracted from bat faecal pellets collected in Ireland from the lesser horseshoe bat, Rhinolophus hipposideros, a protected bat species of conservation concern in Europe. From as few as 24 bat faecal pellets, we detected 161 arthropod species from 11 orders, including 38 pest species of which five were determined to be priority pests, highlighting potential ecosystem services provided by R. hipposideros which are important for the functioning of healthy ecosystems. We also report the potential identification of 14 species not previously recorded in Ireland, but upon further investigation found that many of these could have been misidentified due to inadequacies in the genetic reference database. Despite the small sample size, we found that male and female diets did not differ significantly. However, sampling location did explain variation within the diet, highlighting how landscape features influence arthropod composition and diversity. We discuss the current limitations of the methodology in Ireland, how these can be overcome in future studies, and how this data can be used for biodiversity monitoring and informing conservation management of protected bat species.
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Data availability
Raw sequence data is available on DRYAD digital repository (https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/10.5061/dryad.7d7wm37ts). The dataset generated and analysed in this study is available in the Supplementary Information.
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Funding
TGC was supported by a Waterford Institute of Technology and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cofund PhD Scholarship, funded under the EPA Research Programme 2014–2020. The EPA Research Programme is a Government of Ireland initiative funded by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. It is administered by the EPA, which has the statutory function of co-ordinating and promoting environmental research. SSB was supported by a Pathway to Excellence PhD Scholarship from the University of Salford. Laboratory work was supported by grants from Bat Conservation Ireland (BCI) and a University of Salford Internal Research Award awarded to DBO’M and ADM, and a University of Salford Pump Priming award to ADM. Thanks to the local National Park and Wildlife Service (NPWS) conservation rangers for facilitating APH to sample and collect bat droppings. APH’s PhD was supported by grants from the NPWS, BCI and the Vincent Wildlife Trust.
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ADM, TGC, SSB, and DBO’M conceived and designed the study. Bat faecal sampling was part of APH, D’ON, DBO’M and CORs project on non-invasive genetic monitoring of lesser horseshoe bats. TGC and SSB performed the laboratory work. TGC performed bioinformatics associated with the DNA metabarcoding. TGC and DBO’M analysed the data, AO’H helped with entomological identifications. TGC and DBO’M wrote the paper, with all authors contributing to editing, discussions, and approval of the final manuscript.
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Rhinolophus hipposideros faecal pellets were non-invasively collected by APH at six roosts within the distribution of the species in the west of Ireland under license from NPWS (Licence Number DER/BAT 2016–29).
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Curran, T.G., Browett, S.S., O’Neill, D. et al. One bat’s waste is another man’s treasure: a DNA metabarcoding approach for the assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services in Ireland using bat faeces. Biodivers Conserv 31, 2699–2722 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-022-02451-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-022-02451-4