Batting for rice: The effect of bat exclusion on rice in North-East India
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Standard
Batting for rice : The effect of bat exclusion on rice in North-East India. / Bhalla, Iqbal Singh; Aguirre‐Gutiérrez, Jesús; Whittaker, Robert J.
In: Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, Vol. 341, 108196, 2023.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Harvard
APA
Vancouver
Author
Bibtex
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
T1 - Batting for rice
T2 - The effect of bat exclusion on rice in North-East India
AU - Bhalla, Iqbal Singh
AU - Aguirre‐Gutiérrez, Jesús
AU - Whittaker, Robert J.
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Acoustics
KW - Bat activity patterns
KW - Exclusion experiment
KW - Pest suppression
KW - Rice agriculture
U2 - 10.1016/j.agee.2022.108196
DO - 10.1016/j.agee.2022.108196
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85140272351
VL - 341
JO - Applied Soil Ecology
JF - Applied Soil Ecology
SN - 0929-1393
M1 - 108196
ER -
ID: 331447018