Habitat usage of Daubenton's bat (Myotis daubentonii), common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus), and soprano pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pygmaeus) in a North Wales upland river catchment

Todd, Victoria L. G.; Williamson, Laura D.

doi:10.1002/ece3.5085

Cited by 14 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Their riparian vegetation and water surface are important foraging areas for many bat species and are recognized as determinants to explain bat abundance across the landscape (Grindal et al, 1999;Downs & Racey, 2006;Lloyd et al, 2006;Lookingbill et al, 2010;Sirami et al, 2013;Carrasco-Rueda & Loiselle, 2019). In highly urbanized areas rivers or waterways and their associated riparian vegetation are often the only corridors still relatively dark, and are thus of high importance for bat moving through such illuminated landscapes (Lintott et al, 2015;Laforge et al, 2019;Todd & Williamson, 2019). However, ecological consequences of the illumination of rivers remain largely understudied (Jechow & Hölker, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Artificial light may change flight patterns of bats near bridges along urban waterways

Barré

Spoelstra

Bas

et al. 2020

Animal Conservation

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Artificial light at night (ALAN) is considered as a major threat to biodiversity, especially to nocturnal species, as it reduces availability, quality and functionality of habitats. However, its effects on the way species use landscape elements such as rivers are still largely understudied, especially the effect of crossing infrastructure lighting on bridges. These elements are nevertheless key commuting and foraging habitats in heavily urbanised landscapes for several taxa such as bats that are particularly affected by ALAN. We studied the effects of the illumination of facades and undersides of bridges on the relative abundance of pipistrelle bats, on their 3D distribution and their behavioural response (i.e. flight speed) close to bridges. We setup an innovative approach based on a microphone-array to reconstruct positions and flight trajectories in 3D. We studied the effect of lighting on bats in the close proximity of six similar bridges, mostly differentiated by the presence or absence of lighting (3 lit and 3 unlit). All bridges cross the same waterway, within a uniformly and highly urbanized agglomeration (Toulouse, France). We found that bat activity was 1.7 times lower in lit sites. Bats tended to keep a larger distance, and to fly faster close to illuminated bridges. These results suggest that bridge lighting strongly reduces habitat availability and likely connectivity for bats. In that case, results call for switching off the illumination of such bridges crossing riverine ecosystems to preserve their functionality as habitats and corridors for bats.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Artificial light may change flight patterns of bats near bridges along urban waterways

Barré

Spoelstra

Bas

et al. 2020

Animal Conservation

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“…This challenge was also supported by the acoustics model that included the total QBR score as an explanatory variable, in which the geomorphological type of the river bank seemed to affect the resulting bat activity (Table S3). Surprisingly, none of our final models included river width nor water speed, while other studies have shown that both variables are extremely important in selecting the most appropriate hunting grounds (Almenar et al, 2009;L opez-Baucells et al, 2017;Todd & Williamson, 2019).…”

Section: Acoustic Versus Visual Counts Sampling Protocolsmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…Similarly, while visual counts can certainly be assigned to trawling bats, our study area presented two different trawling bat species, Myotis daubentonii and Myotis capaccinii, (as seen in Blanch et al, 2023), that cannot be distinguished through visual detections. While these two species differ in roost selection, studies on foraging habitat use have previously found that both species usually select forested riparian habitats (Almenar et al, 2006;de Conno et al, 2018;Todd & Williamson, 2019;Warren et al, 2000), rather than non-vegetated river transects, so their potential as riverine forest bioindicator could be similar. However, more thorough research would still be needed to discern specific differences between them.…”

Section: Acoustic Versus Visual Counts Sampling Protocolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What you hear may not be what you see: Potential of citizen science methods to use bats as riverine forest quality indicators

López‐Bosch,

Blanch,

Páramo

et al. 2023

River Research & Apps

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Mediterranean habitats will be one of the Eurasian ecosystems more strongly affected by Climate Change, especially their riverine systems. Monitoring these ecosystems, which are endemism hotspots and extremely sensitive to changes in rain regimes and extreme weather events like droughts, is of crucial importance. Decades of citizen science projects have proven their utility in highlighting ecological shifts and conservation action priority areas. The Bat Monitoring Programme (www.batmonitoring.org), for instance, has already been used to develop ecological indicators to evaluate the evolution and conservation status of Mediterranean ecosystems. However, using bats as ecological indicators for aquatic ecosystems has resulted in contradicting results, making its application a little controversial. In the present study, we compared two citizen science protocols (visual counting vs. passive acoustic monitoring) used in the Bat Monitoring Programme to test the utility of trawling bats as indicators of Mediterranean riverine habitat quality at both local and landscape scales. By doing so, we aimed to build a specific ecological indicator to determine habitat quality through visual and acoustic counts. Although both protocols presented similar positive significant responses to riverine forest quality, visual counts are suggested as the best sampling approach due to their simplicity and potential within citizen science projects. Moreover, for the first time, we defined threshold values of trawling bat activity to assign different levels of habitat quality to the sampled rivers. We applied them in NE Iberia to exemplify the benefits of using them in a Mediterranean region and discussed the potential, pros and cons of these two citizen science methodologies to establish a pan‐European river biomonitoring programme using trawling bats.

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“…5D). Subsequently, with increased clutter on these water surfaces, bats were prevented from accessing them and would have to seek water from alternative sources to persist in the area [21]. As proposed in the study by Nystrom and Bennett [14], when temperatures exceeded a certain threshold bats would utilize residential swimming pools as an alternative resource.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Home range expansion in response to temperature by evening bats (Nycticeius humeralis) in an urban environment

Hall¹,

Bennett²

2020

Preprint

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Background: Despite the negative connotation of urban sprawl for bat populations, fragmented green spaces such as parks, cemeteries, and golf courses have the potential to provide necessary resources for bats. For example, water resources in these areas can include natural or semi-natural lakes, ponds, streams, and drainage ditches. Such water resources, however, are frequently ephemeral when subject to prolonged periods of high temperatures. We, therefore, hypothesize that bats will expand or shift their home ranges from these urban green spaces into the surrounding neighborhoods to access alternative resources, such as residential swimming pools. Methods: To explore whether bats expand their ranges from urban green spaces, we conducted a telemetry study in which we radio-tracked resident evening bats (Nycticeius humeralis) in a local park system during their summer activity period from 2017-2019 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. From radio-tracking surveys, we measured home range size using a k-LoCoH method and the percentage of these home ranges that fell within the park system. We compared these variables using linear and non-linear regressions with temperature. Results: We successfully tracked a total of 30 bats over the 3-year period and found a positive correlation between home range size and temperature. Furthermore, we observed that home ranges increased 6 times in size when temperatures exceeded 30ºC. Conclusions: Our study indicates the importance of urban neighborhoods surrounding green spaces in providing alternative resources, such as water, for bats. If managed appropriately, these urban areas have the potential to act as urban oases for bat populations, which in turn can contribute to their conservation.

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Habitat usage of Daubenton's bat (Myotis daubentonii), common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus), and soprano pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pygmaeus) in a North Wales upland river catchment

Cited by 14 publications

References 51 publications

Artificial light may change flight patterns of bats near bridges along urban waterways

Artificial light may change flight patterns of bats near bridges along urban waterways

What you hear may not be what you see: Potential of citizen science methods to use bats as riverine forest quality indicators

Home range expansion in response to temperature by evening bats (Nycticeius humeralis) in an urban environment

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