You can also join the seminar on Zoom
Bat guano is far more than a nutrient-rich by-product—it is a biological archive packed with ecological information. Once prized as fertilizer and even used in gunpowder, guano now stands at the crossroads of molecular ecology, ecosystem services, and environmental monitoring. Using different tools researchers can reconstruct bat diets in remarkable detail, revealing how species share and partition resources across space and time. These studies uncover patterns of trophic specialization, seasonal and sexual dietary shifts, and the effects of habitat and landscape on prey composition. Beyond diet, guano helps illuminate the ecosystem services bats provide, from pest suppression in agricultural systems to maintaining ecological balance. Guano also acts as a natural recorder of biodiversity and environmental change, preserving traces of plants, insects, and viruses that allow us to detect invasive species, monitor pathogens, and even reconstruct past ecosystems. Together, these insights position guano as a low-cost, non-invasive, and integrative tool for studying ecological processes across scales. This seminar explores the many research avenues unlocked by guano—from understanding predator-prey dynamics to informing conservation biocontrol and reconstructing paleoenvironments.