18th International Bat Research Conference

The International Bat Research Conference takes place every three years and joins researchers from all over the world working with bats on a wide variety of research topics that span from bat ecology, physiology, parasites, conservation, genetics, to morphology, diet, acoustics, and evolution. The 18th edition of this meeting took place in Thailand from July 28 to August 1, 2019. It was attended by Vanessa Mata, that has participated to the 2^nd time to this regular gathering. She presented a talk entitled “Trophic groups in a Mediterranean bat community: are echolocation and foraging behavior really important?”. Hugo Rebelo, her supervisor and also an EnvMetaGen team member, as well as other CIBIO-InBIO collaborators have attended as well.

There were three sessions focusing on bat diet and foraging, of which several studies used metabarcoding techniques, mostly to assess the role of bats as regulators of agricultural insect pests, a subject that is being addressed in several EnvMetaGen associated projects. During the conference Vanessa had the opportunity to talk with other students, but also researchers, that aim to use metabarcoding in their study systems. She has made acquaintance with a Thai student and discussed the possibility of she coming to CIBIO-InBIO to learn metabarcoding techniques; and also had meetings with collaborators of the COST Action ClimBats, in which Vanessa is involved.