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Effect of water management on bat activity in rice paddies

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Abstract

Rice fields may represent an important habitat for biodiversity conservation. Unfortunately, rice farming intensification reduced the value of rice crops as a surrogate habitat for many species. Currently, major threats for wildlife in rice fields derive from cultivation techniques in dry soils. In this paper, we aim to describe the effect of water management techniques in rice paddies on the flight and feeding activity of bats. We investigated the habitat use of 14 bat taxa in the rice paddies of northwest Italy and tested for a difference in the number of echolocation calls recorded in flooded vs non-flooded and organic vs conventional rice paddies. We observed no significant differences among flooded and non-flooded fields in conventional farms, whereas in organic farms bat activity was strongly affected by water management techniques with a large decrease in passes and feeding buzzes when rice paddies were dry. A dry seeding-based rice cultivation may nullify the positive effects of environmentally friendly management practices that are often able to restore suitable foraging sites for bats. In addition, the negative effects of dry rice paddies appeared to be more pronounced shortly after bats emerged from hibernation, when energy demand for body mass growth and offspring gestation is higher. The recent spread of dry seeding may therefore threaten the suitability of rice fields as a foraging habitat for bats. As already observed for other taxonomic groups, changes in water management strategies may compromise bat conservation in rice paddies, requiring the adoption of alternative rice cultivation practices.

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Acknowledgements

The research was partially funded by ISPRA (Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale, Italy) in the framework of the project “Testing measures for the sustainable use of pesticides according to guidelines provided in PAN” (National Action Plan for the sustainable use of pesticides-The Ministry of the Environment and Protection of Land and Sea of Italy). We thank D. Giuliano for insightful remarks on previous draft of this paper and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on this manuscript.

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  1. CHIROSPHERA Associazione per lo studio e la tutela dei chirotteri e l’ambiente, Via Tetti Barbiere 11, 10026, Santena, TO, Italy

    Roberto Toffoli & Marco Rughetti

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  1. Roberto Toffoli
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Correspondence to Roberto Toffoli.

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Toffoli, R., Rughetti, M. Effect of water management on bat activity in rice paddies. Paddy Water Environ 18, 687–695 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10333-020-00811-w

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