Effects of Organic Farming and Agricultural Landscape Composition on Relative Bat Diversity and Abundance

Abstract

Some ways that agricultural areas have intensified, include increased agro-chemical inputs, use of annual row crops and agricultural extent. These changes would be expected to reduce insect prey for bats, causing smaller bat populations to be supported. Chapter 1 examines the influence that the proportion of the landscape in agriculture and the proportion of agricultural lands in annual crops (vs. perennial forage crops) has on relative bat abundance and diversity. We found that bat abundance was highest in landscapes that had a low proportion of agriculture and where the proportion of agriculture in annual crops was about equal to the proportion in perennial forage. Chapter 2 examines the influence of organic versus conventional farming practices using match-organic conventional soybean field pairs on bat diversity, bat abundance and bat prey abundance. We found organic fields had higher bat diversity, bat abundance and bat prey abundance than conventional fields.