In extreme environments, temperature and precipitation are often the main forces responsible for structuring ecological communities and species distributions. The role of biotic interactions is typically thought to be minimal. By clustering around rare and isolated features, like surface water, however, effects of herbivory by desert-dwelling wildlife can be amplified. Understanding how species interact in these environments is critical to safeguarding vulnerable or data-deficient species. We examined whether African elephants (Loxodonta africana), black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis), and southern giraffe (Giraffa giraffa) modulate insectivorous bat communities around permanent waterholes in the Namib Desert. We estimated megaherbivore use of sites based on dung transects, summarized vegetation productivity from satellite measurements of the normalized difference vegetation index, and surveyed local bat communities acoustically. We used structural equation models to identify relationships among megaherbivores and bat species richness and dry- (November 2016–January 2017) and wet- (February–May 2017) season bat activity. Site-level megaherbivore use in the dry season was positively associated with bat activity—particularly that of open-air foragers—and species richness through indirect pathways. When resources were more abundant (wet season), however, these relationships were weakened. Our results indicate that biotic interactions contribute to species distributions in desert areas and suggest the conservation of megaherbivores in this ecosystem may indirectly benefit insectivorous bat abundance and diversity. Given that how misunderstood and understudied most bats are relative to other mammals, such findings suggest that managers pursue short-term solutions (e.g., community game guard programs, water-point protection near human settlements, and ecotourism) to indirectly promote bat conservation and that research includes megaherbivores’ effects on biodiversity at other trophic levels.

中文翻译：

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非洲大型食草动物保护对世界上最古老沙漠蝙蝠多样性的间接影响

在极端环境中，温度和降水通常是构建生态群落和物种分布的主要力量。生物相互作用的作用通常被认为是微乎其微的。然而，通过聚集在稀有和孤立的特征（如地表水）周围，沙漠栖息的野生动物对食草的影响可以被放大。了解物种如何在这些环境中相互作用对于保护脆弱或数据不足的物种至关重要。我们检查了非洲象 ( Loxodonta Africana )、黑犀牛 ( Diceros bicornis ) 和南部长颈鹿 ( Giraffa giraffa)) 调节纳米布沙漠永久水坑周围的食虫蝙蝠群落。我们根据粪便样带估计了大型食草动物对场地的使用，从标准化差异植被指数的卫星测量中总结了植被生产力，并对当地蝙蝠群落进行了声学调查。我们使用结构方程模型来确定巨型食草动物与蝙蝠物种丰富度以及干季（2016 年 11 月至 2017 年 1 月）和湿季（2017 年 2 月至 5 月）蝙蝠活动之间的关系。在旱季，大型草食动物的场地使用与蝙蝠活动（尤其是露天觅食者的活动）和间接途径的物种丰富度呈正相关。然而，当资源更丰富（雨季）时，这些关系被削弱了。我们的研究结果表明，生物相互作用有助于沙漠地区的物种分布，并表明在该生态系统中保护巨型食草动物可能间接有利于食虫蝙蝠的丰度和多样性。鉴于大多数蝙蝠相对于其他哺乳动物的误解和研究不足，这些发现表明管理者寻求短期解决方案（例如，社区游戏守卫计划、人类住区附近的水点保护和生态旅游）以间接促进蝙蝠保护，并且研究包括大型食草动物对其他营养级生物多样性的影响。