Species Composition of Bats in Brazilian Restingas: Testing Environmental Versus Geographical Hypotheses for Community Composition

Abstract

Restingas are ecosystems located in the coastal regions of the Atlantic forest, characterized by heterogeneous vegetation of sandy soil. This region has historically come under severe human pressure, and a large portion of these areas have been lost or degraded. The mammalian fauna of restingas is poorly known particularly for bats. This lack of information prevents a better understanding of the biological processes affecting bats and restingas and may severely impair conservation actions. Here we analyze bat species composition, richness, and similarity in 17 restingas sites in Brazil to check whether bat community composition is correlated with geographic distance among sites. We conducted an extensive survey of a published scientific literature to gather data and have a picture of the current knowledge on restinga bats. Until now, 40 bat species are documented in the restingas ecosystems. The richest restinga was in Jurubatiba National Park, and those with the lowest species richness were in Ilha de Cabo Frio, Saquarema, and Barra de Maricá. We found no relationship between geographic distance and dissimilarity on species composition among restingas sites. Although much attention has been paid to sampling this area, it has not been sampled uniformly. In fact, restingas have been undersampled causing a lack of recognition of how important these areas are biologically.