The expansion of roads has threatened wildlife populations by driving casualties due to vehicle collisions. However, the ecological drivers of wildlife roadkills are not yet fully explored. We investigated the strength of landscape features and ecomorphological traits in determining spatial patterns of bat roadkills in Taiwan. In total, 661 roadkills that belonged to 20 bat species were acquired by citizen scientists between 2011 and 2019. The number and species richness of victim bats declined with increasing elevations with varying species compositions. Elevation and artificial light had significantly negative effects on the occurrence of roadkill, whereas protected area and its interaction with elevation had positive effects. Ordination analyses showed that roadkills were driven by different ecomorphological traits and landscape features. At low elevations, road casualties were associated with an aerial hawking hunting strategy. At higher elevations, roadkills were associated with higher elevational distribution. Roadkills of non-cave bats were associated with brighter environments, suggesting that bats might be exposed to higher risk when hunting insects near artificial light. Our findings suggest that management agencies shall consider both species traits and landscape features when planning impact assessments and mitigation practices of roadkills for bats and probably other wildlife, particularly when long environmental gradients are covered.
Migratory shorebirds rely on tidal flats as stopover sites for refueling and wintering. Taiwan is in the middle of the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, where the sandy/muddy shores on the western coast support thousands of migratory birds with important stopover habitats. Among these habitats, tidal flats are the most crucial habitats for shorebird survival. However, in the last century, the landscape has been largely altered for agriculture, aquaculture, and industrial development. To assess the current status of shorebird habitats, we evaluated landscape changes between the 1920s and 2020s based on historical topographic map data, Landsat Archive images, and the Normalized Difference Water Index. Our analysis showed that the area of tidal flats increased before the 1950s but has decreased since the 1980s. The area dropped rapidly from 459.72 km2 to 194.05 km2, and almost 60% of the tidal flat coverage has been lost in the last 60 years. These results indicate that the tidal wetlands in western Taiwan have reached an endangered status, as per the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Ecosystems criteria. Although the decrease in speed seems to have slowed in recent decades, energy and industrial development still threaten tidal wetlands.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.