Summary1. Agricultural intensification has caused a decline in structural elements in European farmland, where natural habitats are increasingly fragmented. The loss of habitat structures has a detrimental effect on biodiversity and affects bat species that depend on vegetation structures for foraging and commuting. 2. We investigated the impact of connectivity and configuration of structural landscape elements on flight activity, species richness and diversity of insectivorous bats and distinguished three bat guilds according to species-specific bioacoustic characteristics. We tested whether bats with shorter-range echolocation were more sensitive to habitat fragmentation than bats with longer-range echolocation. We expected to find different connectivity thresholds for the three guilds and hypothesized that bats prefer linear over patchy landscape elements. 3. Bat activity was quantified using repeated acoustic monitoring in 225 locations at 15 study plots distributed across the Swiss Central Plateau, where connectivity and the shape of landscape elements were determined by spatial analysis (GIS). Spectrograms of bat calls were assigned to species with the software BATIT by means of image recognition and statistical classification algorithms. 4. Bat activity was significantly higher around landscape elements compared to open control areas. Short-and long-range echolocating bats were more active in well-connected landscapes, but optimal connectivity levels differed between the guilds. Species richness increased significantly with connectivity, while species diversity did not (Shannon's diversity index). Total bat activity was unaffected by the shape of landscape elements. 5. Synthesis and applications. This study highlights the importance of connectivity in farmland landscapes for bats, with shorter-range echolocating bats being particularly sensitive to habitat fragmentation. More structurally diverse landscape elements are likely to reduce population declines of bats and could improve conditions for other declining species, including birds. Activity was highest around optimal values of connectivity, which must be evaluated for the different guilds and spatially targeted for a region's habitat configuration. In a multispecies approach, we recommend the reintroduction of structural elements to increase habitat heterogeneity should become part of agri-environment schemes.

High bat diversity in forest nature reserves in the Canton Zug Switzerland harbours 30 bat species. Of these, more than 80% have at least part of their habitat in forests. All 22 Swiss priority bat species are considered as forest species. These include twelve forest target species, for which a specific management is required. However, because of the secretive life of bats, missing information on the presence of bat species precluded the implementation of targeted conservation measures. In the last years, new broadband ultrasound recorders were developed as a powerful tool to detect and identify bat species in forests. The aim of our study was to use these new methods to record the presence of bat species in five forest nature reserves in the Canton Zug, to analyse their activity and to evaluate the site-specific differences. During 258 nights of data collection, we recorded 30,522 bat passes of at least twelve different bat species. 23.5% of the recorded bat passes were species from the Swiss Red List. At least three national priority forest target species were detected and three species were discovered for the first time in the Canton Zug. The variation of bat activity between the different forest reserves was high. In particular, areas with diverse and light forest communities, which are rich in dead and decayed wood, proved to be attractive habitats to bats. Alluvial forests, open waters and the presence of old oaks enhanced the diversity of species and bat activity in general. These results were used to define one target species for each forest nature reserve in the study sites and to promote species conservation measures.