Dietary DNA metabarcoding on bats – Implications for conservation and ecosystem services assessment of bats

Dr Sin, Yung Wa   (Principal Investigator (PI))

Professor Leung Kenneth Mei Yee   (Co-Investigator)

30

2020-11-01

489600

Dietary DNA metabarcoding on bats – Implications for conservation and ecosystem services assessment of bats

bats, Dietary, DNA, ecosystem services assessment, Implications, metabarcoding

Ecology

Physical Sciences (P)

ECF Project 94/2019

Environment and Conservation Fund

2019

On-going

Bats are well known to have high ecological and economical values. They provide invaluable ecosystem services to the human communities around the globe. There are many literature supporting their ecological importance in regulating the population densities of different insects. Despite our city has a diverse group of bats, their specific ecological roles in the local context are largely neglected and unknown. There is a knowledge gap on what are the food resources that are essential to the survivorship of local bats. Understanding their dietary compositions not only is a key piece of information for the government to designate conservation measures to sustain these ecologically important species, but also to assess their potentials to be the biological control to the current threatening pest insects in Hong Kong. Many drawbacks are known to be associated with insecticides application, including the pollution to our natural environment, and development of resistance in the future generations of insects. This project will determine the magnitude and diversity of insects consumed by different bat species, which may lead us to biodiversity-friendly alternatives such as their predation service on suppressing pest insects to maintain the food security, ecosystem resilience and the well-being of human community in Hong Kong.