Heidi KolkertUniversity of New England (Australia) | UNE · Department of Environmental Science and Ecology
Heidi Kolkert
Ba-BSc (Hons) PhD
Currently working on several bat related projects & teaching ECOL100 and ZOOL310 in T3 at the University of New England
About
6
Publications
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Introduction
I am a bat researcher, consulting ecologist and avid bird watcher. My research interests include ecosystem services (natural pest control), agri-ecology and landscape ecology. I am currently working on several bat related projects.
Publications
Publications (6)
Cave biodiversity and ecosystems are underexplored. Danial cave (2158 m) in Northern Iran was surveyed for vertebrate fauna (33 surveys) to guide conservation needs for visitor management. Four mammalian and two amphibian species were identified in the cave, including the Greater horseshoe bat Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, Blasius's horseshoe bat R. b...
Australian insectivorous bats are known to occupy and use resources in agroecosystems, yet little is known about their diets. We analysed a scat sample each from two individual bats, both threatened species (Chalinolobus picatus and Vespadelus baverstocki), in a major dryland cotton production zone. Both bats consumed economically important agricul...
Insectivorous bats exert top-down pressure on pest insect populations in agricultural systems globally. However, few economic estimates exist of their value as pest control agents in many high value crops. We calculated the economic benefit of direct predation of insect pests by bats and the damage averted to cotton yield, a high value commodity cr...
Factors influencing the efficacy of insectivorous vertebrates in providing natural pest control services inside crops at increasing distances from the crop edge are poorly understood. We investigated the identity of vertebrate predators (birds and bats) and removal of sentinel prey (mealworms and beetles) from experimental feeding trays in cotton c...
Landscape and biophysical determinants of insectivorous bat activity and community composition in space and time are central to understanding how growers can maximise bat-mediated pest control services in crops. We measured community composition, abundance, richness and foraging attempts of insectivorous bats in the centre of dryland cotton crops u...
Insectivorous bats are efficient predators of pest arthropods in agroecosystems. This pest control service has been estimated to be worth billions of dollars to agriculture globally. However, few studies have explicitly investigated the composition and abundance of dietary prey items consumed or assessed the ratio of pest and beneficial arthropods,...