BATS-SIGNALS

Bats signalling environmental contaminants: integration of non-invasive biomonitoring and -omics approaches

                         

 

Funding Source: European Union - Next Generation EU. Bandi PRIN 2022 MUR

Duration: 2 Years (2023-2025)

Summary: Bioindicators are pivotal tools to highlight the environmental consequences of human impacts. Among bioindicators, bats are of notable interest, as they are sensitive to habitat degradation and are particularly sensitive to pesticides and other pollutants. Indeed, bats are exposed to harmful chemicals through their diet and accumulate them in different tissues. Several trace elements have been found in bats foraging in polluted areas. Despite long-time bans, also organic contaminants such as DDTs and PCBs bioaccumulate in fatty tissues of bats.

The main goal of BAT-SIGNALS is to develop an expeditious, non-invasive biomonitoring protocol relying on cutting-edge technologies to evaluate the exposure of bat colonies to chemicals of anthropogenic origin. To this aim, two research units will cooperate and complement their expertise: University of Insubria (Principal Investigator) and Water Research Institute at National Research Council of Italy (CNR-IRSA).

We will focus our attention to Piedmont and Aosta Valley, in northwestern Italy, where 25 known maternity colonies of different species are present: Myotis blythii, M. capaccinii, M. myotis, M. emarginatus, and Rhinolophus ferrumequinum. The roosting sites are at particular risk since lactating females consume great quantities of prey to cope with increased energy requirements and are thus more prone to bioaccumulation of contaminants. On the other hand, maternity colonies of bats are of particular interest for studying the effects of chemicals and have the potential to represent “sentinels” of environmental contaminations.

We will collect guano as the primary target since its collection is possible without disturbing the colonies. The first step will be to understand the trophic transfer of pollutants, by characterizing bat diet through metagenomics of guano and the study of stable isotopes. We will also perform a deep investigation of guano, searching for a wide range of pollutants: 1) legacy organic contaminants (DDT and PCBs); 2) in use-pesticides (glyphosate); and 3) trace elements (As, Ni, Pb, Cd, Hg, Se, and Hg).

As a secondary target, we will collect hair from a limited number of individuals and colonies, to validate the use of guano for contaminant analyses. In addition, we will evaluate the role of melanin as trace elements chelator. The last step will be the search for the presence of possible oxidative stress biomarkers in bat hair, by means of proteomics.

All these data will be integrated to search for a relationship among multiple factors (degree of anthropization, crop type, pesticide use, data from environmental stations, bat diet) and responses (contaminants in bats guano and hair, stress markers).

The final goal of BAT-SIGNALS is to propose bats as bioindicators of environmental contaminants for biomonitoring purposes, and to foster their conservation by highlighting emerging threats posed by trace elements and pesticides.

 

Project participants

PI: Prof. Roberta Bettinetti (Università dell'Insubria)

Prof. Damiano Monticelli (Università dell'Insubria)

Dr. Emanuele Ferrari (MEG CNR-IRSA)

Dr. Laura Garzoli (MEG CNR-IRSA)

Dr. Angela Boggero (CNR-IRSA)