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

(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) 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.