Data from: Responses of aerial insectivorous bats to local and landscape-level features of coffee agroforestry systems in Western Ghats, India

Shade coffee has shown great promise in providing crucial habitats for biodiversity outside formal protected areas. Insectivorous bats have been understudied in coffee, although they may provide pest control services. We investigated the influence of local and landscape-level features of coffee farms on aerial insectivorous bats in Chikmagalur district in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot, India. Bats were monitored in 20 farm sites using ultrasound detectors, and the response of bat species richness and activity to changes in tree density, proportion of built-up area in the neighborhood, and distance of farm from forest areas quantified. We examined if models built to explain the species richness and activity could also predict them in nine additional sites. We detected nine phonic types/species in the study area. The quantified predictors had no effect on assemblage-level species richness and activity of bats. Responses of edge-space and cluttered-space forager guilds mirrored those of the overall assemblage, but some species vulnerable to forest conversion like *Rhinolophus beddomei* were detected rarely. Best models explained up to 20% and 15% variation in assemblage-level species richness and activity respectively, and were poor predictors of both response variables. We conclude that coffee farms in our study area offer an important commuting space for insectivorous bats across a gradient of shade management. Further research should include species-specific responses to management decisions for at-risk species and quantification of ecosystem services like natural pest control to inform biodiversity conservation initiatives in the Western Ghats coffee landscapes.

遮阴咖啡种植园在法定保护区之外为生物多样性提供关键栖息地方面展现出巨大前景。尽管食虫蝙蝠能够提供虫害防控服务，但目前针对咖啡种植园中食虫蝙蝠的研究仍较为匮乏。我们以印度西高止山脉生物多样性热点区域的奇卡马加卢尔县为研究区域，探究了咖啡农场的本地及景观尺度特征对空中食虫蝙蝠的影响。我们使用超声波探测器对20个咖啡农场样地的蝙蝠进行监测，并量化了蝙蝠物种丰富度和活动强度对树木密度、周边建成区占比以及农场与森林距离变化的响应。我们还验证了用于解释物种丰富度与活动强度的模型，是否可在另外9个样地中对二者进行预测。本研究区域共检测到9种声学类型/蝙蝠物种。所量化的预测因子对蝙蝠集合群落水平的物种丰富度和活动强度并无显著影响。边缘空间与杂乱空间觅食功能群的响应与整体集合群落一致，但部分易受森林转换影响的物种（如*Rhinolophus beddomei*）仅被极少次检测到。最优模型分别可解释集合群落水平物种丰富度和活动强度20%与15%的变异，且对这两个响应变量的预测能力均较差。我们得出结论：本研究区域内的咖啡农场在不同遮阴管理梯度下，均为食虫蝙蝠提供了重要的穿梭活动空间。未来研究应针对受威胁物种开展其对管理决策的物种特异性响应研究，并量化自然虫害防控等生态系统服务功能，以期为西高止山脉咖啡种植区的生物多样性保护行动提供科学依据。