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All content in this area was uploaded by Neelam Kumari Gautam on Feb 04, 2019
Content may be subject to copyright.
Corresponding author email: elango70@yahoo.com; Phone no. +919235565647
1Department of Zoology, University of Lucknow, Lucknow-226007, India
Annals of Plant and Soil Research 21(1): 82 – 86 (2019)
Bat guano: a rich source of macro and microelements essential for plant growth
PAWAN KUMAR MISRA, NEELAM KUMARI GAUTAM1 AND VADAMALAI ELANGOVAN*
Department of Zoology, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (A Central University),
Lucknow - 226025, India
Received: December, 2018; Revised accepted: February, 2019
ABSTRACT
Bats are unique among mammals, widely distributed and often live gregariously. The bat guano is
being used traditionally as natural fertilizer. The present study was carried out to examine the nutritional value
of different species of insectivorous bat guano and validate over vermicomposting. Elemental compositions of
bat guano belong to six insectivorous bats such as R. hardwickii, R. microphyllum, S. heathii, S. kuhlii, T.
nudiventris and M. lyra were analyzed using SEM-EDS and compared with the elements of vermicompost. The
guano of insectivorous bats such as S. heathii, S. kuhlii, R. hardwickii, M. lyra and R. microphyllum showed
high contents of elements such as N, K, Ca, P, Na, Cl, S, Al, Fe, Mg and Si. The elemental composition of the
vermicompost did not show the traces of Cl, S and Ti. The highest content of nitrogen was observed in the
guano of insectivorous bat R. microphyllum (11.17 %) while highest contents of Ca (5.74%) and P (6.17%) were
found in a carnivorous bat, M. lyra. The abundant source of nutritive elements in the bat guano suggests its
suitability as organic manure. Further, the elemental composition in the bat guano is the nutritive source for the
growth of microbiota in the cave ecosystem.
Keywords: Bat guano, Micro and macronutrients, Insectivorous bats, Vermicompost, SEM-EDS
INTRODUCTION
Bats are ubiquitous and play vital role
in ecological balance, nutrients cycling and
redistribution of forests. Nutritional studies of
bats have dealt with energy or water demands
(Bassett and Studier, 1988), only few studies of
insectivorous bats guano were carried out on
nitrogen and mineral budgets (Studier et al.,
1994a,b). The bat guano is being widely used as
a natural fertilizer due to its high nitrogen content
and also the guano shows some nematocidal
effects (Keleher and Sara, 1996). The bat guano
is also very important for the growth of microflora
as it contains all essential nutritive elements for
their growth. Unfortunately, the bat guano was
ignored and chemicals fertilizers became the
nutritional source of plants. The use of chemical
fertilizers and pesticides in modern farming
enhanced the food productivity but deteriorated
soil and environment conditions which in turn
affect the human health and environment. The
use of vermicompost for sustainable agriculture
is very important because it contains beneficial
microorganisms, macro and micro-nutrients,
enzymes and hormones. Vermicompost has a
desirable aesthetics like reduced levels of
contaminants (Ndegwa and Thompson, 2001).
Although, the bat guano is being used at
different regions as organic manure since long,
the nutritive values, and existence of macro and
microelements of bat guano still lacking.
Therefore, this study was aimed to investigate
the nutritional values of guano belong to different
species of insectivorous bats such as
Rhinopoma hardwickii, R. microphyllum,
Scotophilus heathii, S. kuhlii, Taphozous
nudiventris, Megaderma lyra and Hipposideros
fulvus, and compared with the vermicomposting.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The present study was carried out
between June 2012 and May 2015. The guano
samples of R. hardwickii, R. microphyllum, S.
heathii, S. kuhlii, T. nudiventris, M. lyra and H.
fulvus were collected by spreading 2 x 2 m
polythene sheet beneath their roosting sites.
Guano sample of bats were collected from
Balister Singh, Purwa, Unnao (26°26'47"N,
80°44'19"E), Rafi Ahmad Kidwai Inter College,
Hardoi (27°18'31"N, 82°32'33"E), Allipur,
Kashipur villages and Railway station of Hardoi
(27°24'83"N, 80°06'42"E), Babasaheb Bhimrao
Ambedkar University campus, Lucknow
(26°46'01"N, 80°55'12"E), Atala mosque,
Jaunpur (25°44'57"N, 82°41'04"E), Diyara,
Sultanpur (26°13'01"N, 82°14'46"E), Jhansi
Fort, Jhansi (25°27'20"N, 78°34'54"E), and King
Rudra Pratap Singh Shahi palace, Kal Kothary,
83 Bat guano: a rich source of macro and microelements
Chunar Mirzapur (25°06'10"N, 82°52'22"E),
Thar Ganga Ghat, Varanasi (25°18'45"N,
83°00'57"E), Jhushi fort and Khusurubagh fort,
Allahabad (25°26'47"N, 81°48'58"E), Bhuragrah
fort, Banda (25°28'34"N, 80°18'11"E), Gupt
Godavari, Chitrakoot (25°05'54"N, 80°46'06"E).
Guano samples were stored in 5 ml sample vials
and kept in the refrigerator (4°C) until the
analysis. Vermicompost was procured from the
Biotech Park, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The
aseptically collected guano samples and
vermicompost were kept in desiccators overnight
for removal of moisture. The samples were
coated with palladium sputter coater and
analyzed under Scanning Electron Microscope
(JEOL JSM 6490 LV, Japan) at different
accelerating voltage. Scanning Electron
Microscope equipped with energy dispersive X-
ray spectroscopy (Oxford INCA) was used for
elemental analysis. Each sample was subjected
to three-points analyses. In addition, the nitrogen
contents of samples were analyzed by following
Kjeldahl method.
Statistical analysis
All statistical analyses were performed in
SPSS (version 20). We set the null hypothesis,
Ho: differences of elements in different bats
guano were equal. i.e. p1= p1. We also set
alternate hypothesis, H1: differences of elements
in different bats guano were not the same. i.e. p1
≠ p1. Differences between the elements of bats
guano samples were evaluated with ANOVA
followed by a posteriori Tukey test (Zar, 1999).
The unpaired t-test was used to determine
possible differences between the bat guano and
vermicompost. The level of statistical
significance was p ≤ 0.05. Graphs were
prepared using Graph-Pad Prism (Version 5).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The results of the present study revealed
that the guano of bats contained a wide range of
mineral constituents including macronutrients
and micronutrients. A total of 12 elements such
as aluminium, calcium, chlorine, iron, potassium,
magnesium, sodium, phosphorous, sulfur, silicon
and titanium were found in different species of
bat guano (Fig. 1). Beside these elements,
boron, manganese, copper, zirconium and zinc
were also found but in trace amounts. On an
average, oxygen was the most abundant
element found in the guano (54.94%) while Ti
(0.38%) was the least abundant element (Fig. 1).
Figure 1: Percent elemental share in the guano of different species of insectivorous bats and vermicompost
PAWAN KUMAR MISRA, NEELAM KUMARI GAUTAM and VADAMALAI ELANGOVAN 84
Though, the elemental composition of
the guano varied among different bat species,
the highest percentage of elements such as Al
(4.76), Fe (3.76), Mg (4.05) and Si (15.91) were
observed in the guano of S. heathii, while higher
compositions of K (9.18) and Na (2.29) found in
S. kuhlii (Fig. 2, Table 1). The guano of R.
hardwickii showed highest percentage of Cl
(3.57%) and S (7.86%), while the guano of
carnivorous bat M. lyra showed more Ca
(5.74%) and P (6.17%). The elemental
composition of the vermicompost did not show
the traces of Cl, S and Ti. However, the most
abundant element apart from oxygen in the
vermicompost was Si (15.05%). Statistically,
there was no significant difference in the
elemental compositions among the guano of
bats and vermicompost (Table 1). Further, an
unpaired t-test also revealed non-significant
difference between the elemental composition of
bat guano and vermicompost, except
phosphorus (t = 3.89, p ˂ 0.05). Results showed
that the guano of all six insectivorous bats
showed high differences in their nitrogen
contents. The nitrogen content was high in the
guano of R. microphyllum (11.17 %) while it was
very low (0.73%) in R. hardwickii. In the guano of
S. kuhlii, T. nudiventris, M. lyra and S. heathii the
nitrogen contents were 9.95 %, 6.38 %, 5.45 %
and 2.57 %, respectively.
Table 1: Elemental composition of different species of bat guano. The values are given as Mean ± SD
Species
RH
RM
SH
SK
TN
ML
VC
ANOVA
Elements %
F
p
AL
1.93 ±
2.43
4.16 ±
5.92
4.76 ±
4.86
2.80 ±
2.63
4.37 ±
3.56
2.83 ±
2.83
4.33 ±
2.32
(6,68) =
0.872
0.520
Ca
2.95 ±
4.55
2.17 ±
2.43
4.08 ±
6.35
3.86 ±
5.44
4.81 ±
6.64
5.74 ±
5.39
1.95 ±
0.72
(6,67) =
0.722
0.633
Cl
3.57 ±
4.30
2.95 ±
3.38
1.74 ±
2.50
2.31 ±
1.51
2.71 ±
3.57
3.54 ±
4.36
-
(5,67) =
0.507
0.770
Fe
3.20 ±
4.14
3.11 ±
3.11
3.76 ±
3.21
3.49 ±
4.72
2.41 ±
3.62
3.69 ±
5.37
1.97 ±
1.48
(6,69) =
0.164
0.985
K
7.00 ±
4.96
6.34 ±
4.99
6.25 ±
4.20
9.18 ±
8.05
8.29 ±
5.45
7.07 ±
4.83
1.79 ±
0.45
(6,69) =
0.924
0.483
Mg
1.49 ±
1.57
1.84 ±
1.78
4.05 ±
3.95
3.20 ±
1.97
1.62 ±
1.41
3.11 ±
2.96
2.28 ±
0.43
(6,68) =
1.765
0.120
Na
1.68 ±
1.56
0.83 ±
0.86
1.62 ±
1.84
2.29 ±
2.14
0.70 ±
0.84
1.82 ±
1.53
1.11 ±
1.69
(6,69) =
1.501
0.191
O
56.84 ±
12.37
59.30 ±
14.21
51.28 ±
10.16
52.84
±12.54
59.44 ±
13.39
49.97 ±
8.58
67.60 ±
9.00
(6,69) =
1.759
0.121
P
3.43 ±
3.08
2.74 ±
3.73
3.97 ±
7.29
4.20 ±
3.79
2.63 ±
2.46
6.17 ±
5.65
0.75 ±
1.30
(6,68) =
1.131
0.354
S
7.86 ±
6.78
4.35 ±
3.85
3.54 ±
5.11
5.64 ±
3.27
2.52 ±
2.40
3.89 ±
2.96
-
(6,67) =
2.259
0.058
Si
8.09 ±
9.19
9.04 ±
9.75
15.91 ±
16.02
7.22 ±
6.57
13.62 ±
16.01
15.05 ±
8.87
15.05 ±
8.87
(6,69 =
0.898
0.501
Ti
0.17 ±
0.52
0.28 ±
0.52
0.23 ±
0.27
1.47 ±
4.91
0.11 ±
0.32
0.06 ±
0.13
-
(6,68) =
0.679
0.667
Others
1.75 ±
3.06
2.85 ±
3.13
0.24 ±
0.51
1.76 ±
4.08
0.22 ±
0.66
0.08 ±
0.30
1.27 ±
2.19
(6,69) =
1.801
0.112
Note: RH = R. hardwickii, RM=R.microphyllum, SK=S. kuhlii, SH=S.heathii, TN=T.nudiventris, ML=M.lyra and VC=vermicompost
The macro-nutrients such as nitrogen,
phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium
and sulfur were abundant in the bat guano. It
has been already reported that guano of
Hipposideros speoris amended in soil at a ratio
of 1:20 serves as a good fertilizer (Sridhar et al.,
2006). Bat guano also serves as soil builders,
nematicidal (Keleher and Sara, 1996), compost
activator and improved the quality of poor
roughage (Paul and Sagamiko, 2008). Studies
on Eptesicus fuscus indicate that insects are
inadequate sources of calcium, excellent
sources of nitrogen and magnesium, marginal
sources of potassium, iron, and sodium (Studier
85 Bat guano: a rich source of macro and microelements
Figure 2: Macronutrients (%) – P, K, Ca, Mg, S, and Si, and micronutrients (%) Al, Cl, Fe, Na, and Ti of different
species of bat guano. RH = R. hardwickii, RM = R. microphyllum, SK = S. kuhlii, SH = S. heathii, TN = T.
nudiventris, ML = M. lyra and VC = vermicompost
et al., 1994a,b), the current study reflects similar
outcome. The percentage of nitrogen varied
among six insectivorous bat guanos. Guano of
R. microphyllum showed highest percenrage of
nitogen while a least quantity was observed in
the guano of R. hardwickii. Nitrogen percentage
in the guano of S. kuhlii, S. heathii and T.
nudiventris were almost constant, not much
PAWAN KUMAR MISRA, NEELAM KUMARI GAUTAM and VADAMALAI ELANGOVAN 86
variation found as in R. microphyllum and R.
hardwickii. Sodium and potassium were highest
in the guano of S. kuhlii and presence of high-
level potassium suggests that they consume a
large amount of lepidopteron insects (Studier et
al., 1994a,b). In the present study, the
percentage of calcium was ranged from 1.95 to
5.74 compared to an earlier observtion stated
that calcium was inadequate source in the guano
of insectivorous bats (Studier et al., 1994a,b).
Presence of sufficient quantity of calcium in the
guano of insectivorous bats indicates their
diverse feeding habits.. Among the guano of six
bat species the highest percentage of P was
observed in the guano of M. lyra and the
phosphorus contents in the bat guano were
much higher than the vermicompost. Chlorine
was found in the guano of almost all the bat
species. Magnesium (Mg) was found in all the
guano samples of all six insectivorous bats
except R. microphyllum and their percentage
was also sufficient. Sulphur present in all six
insectivorous bats guano, but the highest
percentage of S was observed in the guano of R.
hardwickii, while absernt in vermicompost.
Therefore, the abundant source of macro-
nutrients in the bat guano and the presence of
higher amount of nitrogen and phosphorous
suggest its suitability as organic manure. The
results of the study showed the presence of wide
range of elements in the guano of different
species of bats. Along with its higher fertilizing
value, use of guano as a fertilizer can become
popular like other non-conventional organic
manures in agriculture. It is known fact that
varying amount of nitrogen and phosphorus in
the guano of bats can be used for differential
growth of plant parts. It prompted a novel
suggestion to use of guano from selected groups
of bats as fertilizer in selective crops to enhance
the production and quality.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank the University Science
Instrumentation Centre for extending scanning
electron microscope facility and the
Archaeological Survey of India for permitting us
in the monuments to collect guano samples. The
financial assistance provided by University Grant
Commission through a UGC-RGN fellowship
(F/2012-13/RGNF-2012-13D-GEN-UTT-56331).
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