Dates: 15 mai 2025 – 31 décembre 2026
CBGP managers: N. Charbonnel & M. Galan
Lily is continuing her work on Area 3 with a six-month fixed-term contract on the ChiroVergers project. This project, which brings together the OFB, the INRAE PSH unit in Avignon, the CBGP, nature conservation associations (GMN and GCP) and several technical institutes (CTIFL and IFPC), aims to study the interactions between bats, arthropods (including pests), agricultural practices and the landscape in apple orchards.
In this context, the CBGP is involved in characterising the role of insectivorous bats in pest control in orchards, with the aim of answering three main questions: (1) Do pest emergence peaks lead to a local increase in bat hunting activity, and is this response dependent on the functional connectivity of agricultural plots? (2) Are orchard pests (Apple codling moth, grey aphid, Hoplocampa, Anthonome, etc.), including early-season pests, food resources exploited by bats during their life cycle? (3) More broadly, what is the diet of bats that frequent orchard plots and landscapes dominated by apple orchards?
Lily will carry out a metabarcoding analysis of the COI gene using approximately 2,500 bat guano samples collected from both captured individuals and non-invasive sampling in colonies located in Normandy and the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. She will perform the bioinformatic analyses required to identify both the bat and arthropod species ingested.
