Dietary Ecology Determinants of Gut Microbiome Assembly Across Bat Species
This project examines how dietary ecology shapes gut microbiome assembly across diverse bat species. Using 16S rRNA gene amplicons, we profile anal/fecal swab samples to compare microbial community composition across insectivorous, frugivorous, piscivorous, and hematophagous bats. We test the relative influence of diet, host phylogeny, and environment on community structure and identify core taxa associated with feeding strategies. The resulting dataset provides a comparative baseline for bat microbiome ecology with implications for host nutrition, conservation, and disease ecology.