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Base metal fluxes from fig trees to soil on Barro Colorado Island, Panama: potential contribution of the common frugivorous bat Artibeus jamaicensis

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Abstract

The contribution of animals to element fluxes in ecosystems is little known. We therefore estimated the contribution of a common frugivorous bat species (Phyllostomidae: Artibeus jamaicensis) to the base metal fluxes (Ca, Mg, and K) from fig trees to soil in a tropical lowland forest on Barro Colorado Island (BCI) because figs provide large parts of the Ca required by these mammals. We chose three individual old-growth fig trees on each of four geological units of BCI varying in soil exchangeable base metal concentrations. To assess element fluxes, we determined internal base metal cycling via canopy exchange and litterfall, external input through bulk and dry deposition, and contributions of bats through pellets and bat faeces as well as element absorption in bats. Assuming a consumption of 20 % of the total fig production by A. jamaicensis, total mean fluxes from fig trees to soil were 24 ± 7 g m−2 year−1 for Ca, 4.6 ± 1.6 for Mg, and 21 ± 4 for K, respectively. The largest part of Ca and Mg was cycled as bulk litterfall (79 ± 9 and 62 ± 15 %, respectively) and of K as canopy leaching (56 ± 12 %). A. jamaicensis contributed 1.7 ± 0.5, 2.3 ± 0.6, and 6.1 ± 1.8 % to the total fluxes of Ca, Mg and K under fig trees, respectively. The contribution of A. jamaicensis to the base metal fluxes below the fig canopy was similar to that of bulk deposition. Our results demonstrate that the contribution of a single frugivorous mammal species to internal base metal cycling in a tropical ecosystem may be similarly important as bulk deposition and can have measurable effects on local soil fertility.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG, Wi1601/14-1). We thank Oris Acevedo and Belkys Jimenez for their organizational and logistical support on BCI, Graciela Valdespino and Karel Flores for field assistance and Inga Geipel for their helpful advices in the field on BCI. We are indebted to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) for granting access to its research station and the Panamanian authorities (ANAM) for the export permits.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Hallerstrasse 12, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Tobias Messmer

  2. Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zurich, Eschikon 33, 8315, Lindau, Switzerland

    Matthias Wiggenhauser

  3. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, P.O. Box 0843-03092, Balboa, Panama

    Hilario Espinosa Ortega & Marco Tschapka

  4. Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89069, Ulm, Germany

    Larissa Albrecht & Marco Tschapka

  5. Institute of Geography and Geoecology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Reinhard-Baumeister-Platz 1, 76131, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Wolfgang Wilcke

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  1. Tobias Messmer
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Correspondence to Wolfgang Wilcke.

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Responsible Editor: Jan Mulder

We dedicate this manuscript to the late Elisabeth K.V. Kalko who inspired our work.

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Messmer, T., Wiggenhauser, M., Ortega, H.E. et al. Base metal fluxes from fig trees to soil on Barro Colorado Island, Panama: potential contribution of the common frugivorous bat Artibeus jamaicensis . Biogeochemistry 130, 13–30 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-016-0236-2

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