Congratulations to the Prince of Songkla University team for a very relevant publication on the effects of rubber plantations on the diversity bats in peninsular Thailand. Phansamai Phommexay used acoustic monitoring and trapping to compare the diversity and activity of understorey insectivorous bats in two wildlife sanctuaries with that of nearby monoculture rubber plantations.
As expected, both diversity and activity were much lower in the rubber plantations, and it is likely that this is a consequence of the reduced insect biomass they reported in the plantations. With the land area given over to rubber and other monocultures increasing dramatically each year, this type of study is particularly relevant to bat conservation in SE Asia.
Phansamai Phommexay, Chutamas Satasook, Paul Bates, Malcolm Pearch & Sara Bumrungsri (2011). The impact of rubber plantations on the diversity and activity of understorey insectivorous bats in southern Thailand. Biodiversity and Conservation 20: 1441-1456.
Contact Phansamai phommexay@gmail.com or Sara sara_psu@hotmail.com for a copy.
