Data from: Does sex matter? Gender-specific responses to forest fragmentation in Neotropical bats

Understanding the consequences of habitat modification on wildlife communities is central to the development of conservation strategies. However, albeit male and female individuals of numerous species are known to exhibit differences in habitat use, sex-specific responses to habitat modification remain little explored. Here, we used a landscape-scale fragmentation experiment to assess, separately for males and females, the effects of fragmentation on the abundance of Carollia perspicillata and Rhinophylla pumilio, two widespread Neotropical frugivorous bats. We predicted that sex-specific responses would arise from higher energetic requirements from pregnancy and lactation in females. Analyses were conducted independently for each season and we further investigated the joint responses to local and landscape-scale metrics of habitat quality, composition and configuration. Although males and females responded similarly to a fragmentation gradient composed by continuous forest, fragment interiors, edges and matrix habitats, we found marked differences between sexes in habitat use for at least one of the seasons. Whereas the sex ratio varied little in continuous forest and fragment interiors, females were found to be more abundant than males in edge and matrix habitats. This difference was more prominent in the dry season, the reproductive season of both species. For both species, abundance responses to local- and landscape-scale predictors differed between sexes and again, differences were more pronounced in the dry season. The results suggest considerable sex-mediated responses to forest disruption and degradation in tropical bats and complement our understanding of the impacts of fragmentation on tropical forest vertebrate communities.阐明生境改造（habitat modification）对野生动物群落（wildlife communities）的影响，是制定保护策略（conservation strategies）的核心环节。然而，尽管诸多物种的雌雄个体在生境利用（habitat use）上存在差异，但针对生境改造的性别特异性响应（sex-specific responses）仍鲜有研究。本研究借助景观尺度（landscape-scale）的生境片段化（habitat fragmentation）实验，分别针对雌雄个体，评估了生境片段化对两种广布新热带区（Neotropical）食果蝙蝠（frugivorous bats）——Carollia perspicillata和Rhinophylla pumilio——种群丰度（abundance）的影响。我们预测，雌性个体因妊娠（pregnancy）和哺乳（lactation）具有更高的能量需求（energetic requirements），因此会表现出性别特异性响应。研究针对每个季节独立开展分析，并进一步探究了蝙蝠对生境质量（habitat quality）、生境组成（habitat composition）及生境构型（habitat configuration）的局域尺度（local-scale）与景观尺度指标的联合响应。尽管雌雄个体对由连续森林（continuous forest）、片段内部生境（fragment interiors）、边缘生境（edges）及基质生境（matrix habitats）构成的片段化梯度（fragmentation gradient）的响应趋势相似，但我们发现，至少在一个季节中，两性的生境利用存在显著差异。在连续森林与片段内部生境中，性比（sex ratio）变化极小；而在边缘与基质生境中，雌性个体的丰度显著高于雄性。这一差异在旱季，即两种蝙蝠的繁殖季（reproductive season），更为显著。对于两种蝙蝠而言，其种群丰度对局域尺度及景观尺度预测因子（predictors）的响应在两性间存在差异，且这一差异在旱季同样更为突出。本研究结果表明，热带蝙蝠对森林破坏（forest disruption）与森林退化（forest degradation）存在显著的性别介导响应（sex-mediated responses），同时补充了我们对生境片段化影响热带森林脊椎动物群落（vertebrate communities）的认知。