📋 Tender Overview
Bats can still inhabit a landscape while their contributions to pest suppression, pollination and seed dispersal are already declining. A new article, published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity by researchers from the Museum fur Naturkunde, the University of Naples Federico II, and Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, examines this often-overlooked loss of ecological functions. The authors offer a novel perspective to bat conservation, highlighting the importance of preserving functions besides species. They argue that effective conservation must safeguard the conditions that allow bats to fulfil their roles in ecosystems, including large populations and connected habitats. Oct 29, 2026, 9:58:14 AM Dr. Gesine Steiner , Museum fur Naturkunde - Leibniz-Institut fur Evolutions- und Biodiversitatsforschung Bats promote the health of ecosystems in many ways. Insect-eating species help regulate insect populations, including agricultural and forest pests. In tropical and subtropical regions, nectar-feeding and fruit-eating bats pollinate plants and disperse seeds, supporting plant reproduction and forest regeneration.Recording a bat species tells us that it is present, but not whether it still fulfils its ecological role, says Danilo Russo of the University of Naples Federico II and the Museum fur Naturkunde in Berlin. Its population may have become too small, or its relationships with plants and prey may have changed. These losses can remain hidden while the species is still on the checklist.Declining numbers are only one part of the problem. Artificial lighting and habitat fragmentation can restrict access to feeding areas or interrupt journeys between flowering plants and forest patches. Changes in the availability or seasonal timing of insects, flowers and fruit can weaken ecological relationships. Heat, drought, disease and other pressures can also affect behaviour and reproduction, with consequences that may accumulate before population losses become obvious.The authors draw particular attention to common species. In farmland, cities and other extensively modified landscapes, a few abundant bat species may account for a large share of the remaining ecological functions. Their decline can therefore have consequences across wide areas, even while they are still considered widespread.Keeping common species common is an important conservation goal, states Mirjam Knornschild of the Museum fur Naturkunde Berlin and Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin. Many of the ecological effects of bats depend on large numbers of animals. We need to preserve the population sizes that make these processes possible.The review proposes conservation measures that protect bats capacity to adapt, move and interact with other organisms and ecosystem processes. These include maintaining large, genetically diverse populations, safeguarding networks of roosts and dark flight corridors, reducing pesticide exposure, and retaining habitats that provide food throughout the seasons. Monitoring should likewise assess whether conservation measures maintain ecological functions. Records of species presence and acoustic activity can be combined with targeted measurements of survival, reproduction, pest suppression, successful pollination or seedling establishment. This would help reveal losses that species lists alone cannot detect.Preventing extinction and maintaining the ecological contribution of bat species are complementary goals. By addressing both, bat conservation can help sustain the processes that keep ecosystems functioning.This work was supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation through a Humboldt Research Award to Danilo Russo and by a grant from the Leibniz Association to Mirjam Knornschild. Original Publication: Russo, D. & Knornschild, M (2026) Preserving bat-mediated ecosystem functions. Nature Review Biodiversity. https://www.nature.com/articles/s44358-026-00217-2DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44358-026-00217-2 Source: https://idw-online.de/de/news879870
