Context
Conservation for the Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), a federally endangered species in the United States of America, is typically focused on local maternity sites; however, the species is a regional migrant, interacting with the environment at multiple spatial scales. Hierarchical levels of management may be necessary, but we have limited knowledge of landscape-level ecology, distribution, and connectivity of suitable areas in complex landscapes.
Objectives
We sought to (1) identify factors influencing M. sodalis maternity colony distribution in a mosaic landscape, (2) map suitable maternity habitat, and (3) quantify connectivity importance of patches to direct conservation action.
Methods
Using 3 decades of occurrence data, we tested a priori, hypothesis-driven habitat suitability models. We mapped suitable areas and quantified connectivity importance of habitat patches with probabilistic habitat availability metrics.
Results
Factors improving landscape-scale suitability included limited agriculture, more forest cover, forest edge, proximity to medium-sized water bodies, lower elevations, and limited urban development. Areas closer to hibernacula and rivers were suitable. Binary maps showed that 30% of the study area was suitable for M. sodalis and 29% was important for connectivity. Most suitable patches were important for intra-patch connectivity and far fewer contributed to inter-patch connectivity.
Conclusions
While simple models may be effective for small, homogenous landscapes, complex models are needed to explain habitat suitability in large, mixed landscapes. Suitability modeling identified factors that made sites attractive as maternity areas. Connectivity analysis improved our understanding of important areas for bats and prioritized areas to target for restoration.
Indiana bats (Myotis sodalis), federally listed as endangered, are of management concern in eastern North America. While researchers quantified the habitat affinities of the species throughout the range, few studies have occurred in regions where populations are at high risk for wind energy development and changing climes. Central Illinois, USA, is a dynamic landscape where forest area has been increasing in recent decades (on public and private land) because of changing farming practices and increased habitat protections. The increasing availability of large diameter trees, increasing forest biomass, and changing forest compositions have the potential to influence Indiana bat roost habitat preferences. We assessed Indiana bat maternity roost selection at the tree and forest plot scale to characterize patterns of use in this region from 2017-2018. We predicted that large trees on the landscape would support large colonies of Indiana bats. We located bats in multiple species of trees including elm (Ulmus spp.), cottonwood (Populus deltoides), and shagbark hickory (Carya ovata). We documented larger maternity colonies sharing roosts than in previous studies from the 1980s in the same region. We suggest managers and regulatory agencies monitor Indiana bats in dynamic landscapes such as those with changing forest composition and biomass.
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