Data from: Agriculture shapes the trophic niche of a bat preying on multiple pest arthropods across Europe: evidence from DNA metabarcoding

The interaction between agricultural production and wildlife can shape, and even condition, the functioning of both systems. In this study we i) explored the degree to which a widespread European bat, namely the common bent-wing bat Miniopterus schreibersii, consumes crop-damaging insects at a continental scale, and ii) tested whether its dietary niche is shaped by the extension and type of agricultural fields. We employed a dual-primer DNA metabarcoding approach to characterise arthropod 16S and COI DNA sequences within bat faecal pellets collected across 16 Southern European localities, to first characterise the bat species’ dietary niche, secondly measure the incidence of agricultural pests across their ranges, and thirdly assess whether geographical dietary variation responds to climatic, landscape diversity, agriculture type and vegetation productivity factors. We detected 12 arthropod orders, among which lepidopterans were predominant. We identified >200 species, 44 of which are known to cause agricultural damage. Pest species were detected at all but one sampling site and in 94% of the analysed samples. Furthermore, the dietary diversity of M. schreibersii exhibited a negative linear relation with the area of intensive agricultural fields, thus suggesting crops restrict the dietary niche of bats to prey taxa associated with agricultural production within their foraging range. Overall our results imply that M. schreibersii might be a valuable asset for biological pest suppression in a variety of agricultural productions, and highlight the dynamic interplay between wildlife and agricultural systems.农业生产与野生动物之间的相互作用能够塑造甚至调控两者的系统运行机制。本研究旨在完成两项目标：一是探究广布欧洲的普通长翼蝠（Miniopterus schreibersii）在大陆尺度上取食作物害虫的程度；二是检验其饮食生态位是否受农田的规模与类型调控。我们采用双引物DNA元条形码（DNA metabarcoding）技术，对南欧16个采样点采集的蝙蝠粪便颗粒中的节肢动物16S与COI DNA序列进行分析，依次完成三项任务：首先明确该蝙蝠物种的饮食生态位，其次量化其分布范围内农业害虫的检出情况，最后评估饮食的地理差异是否响应气候、景观多样性、农业类型与植被生产力等因素。本次研究共检出12个节肢动物目，其中鳞翅目占绝对优势；共鉴定出200余种节肢动物，其中44种为已知农业害虫。除1个采样点外，其余所有采样点的粪便样本中均检出农业害虫，占所有分析样本的94%。此外，普通长翼蝠的饮食多样性与集约化农田面积呈线性负相关，表明农田会将蝙蝠的饮食生态位限制在其觅食范围内与农业生产相关的猎物类群中。综合来看，本研究结果表明普通长翼蝠可作为多种农业生产场景中生物害虫防治的宝贵资源，同时也凸显了野生动物与农业系统间的动态互作关系。