A SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF BAT ACTIVITY AND DIVERSITY WITHIN A HEAVILY FRAGMENTED LANDSCAPE PDF Download
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Author: Christian Edward Nordal
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bats
Languages : en
Pages : 122
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Book Description
The Oak Openings Region of Northwest Ohio of Northwest Ohio is an incredibly biodiverse area that is home to many rare and endangered plant and animal species. Furthering our knowledge and understanding on the resident bat species within the region is critical as populations of many species have declined from White-nose Syndrome, habitat loss and fragmentation, and wind energy barotrauma. To further bat-specific research in the region, my thesis research focused on: 1) identifying the relationships between bat activity and diversity and fragmentation features; 2) monitoring trends in activity and richness between forested and savanna sites over time; and 3) developing refined spatially explicit habitat models of bat occupancy using data collected from protected and unprotected habitat and comparing them to models created from strictly protected habitat. Ecological knowledge on bats and their response to features commonly associated with habitat fragmentation is lacking, so I acoustically surveyed thirty roads with Anabat SDII monitors within and outside of protected areas. I utilized logistic regression analysis to examine the relationship between presence/absence and activity of each species with each feature (e.g. proportion of road with overstory) to select candidate variables for multivariate models. I then created candidate multivariate models for each species and selected final models based on parsimony, AIC values, and adjusted R square values. Bats had a differential response to features between species, and park managers must consider the management of roads on a species- specific viewpoint if they plan to focus conservation efforts on bats. For the second part of my research, I surveyed bat relative activity within forest and savanna sites and compared the data to previous monitoring efforts. Within the single year I monitored, savanna sites appeared to host a greater activity for many species and a greater species richness. Between years, savanna sites remained predominantly stable in species composition and activity, but forested sites had declines in activity among certain species and declines in species richness. Results demonstrate a need for further investigation of forest habitat and additional comparisons between savannas and other open habitat to determine their role for bats in the region. For the third part, I developed Maxent species distribution models for seven species of bats that occur in the region and compared them to existing models. I tested previously developed occupancy models' predictive power using new data. Once data were demonstrated to be comparable through model performance, I created new models from a combination of previous (prior to White-nose) and new data (post White-nose). I then tested previous and new models with an independent dataset and compared their performances and areas of predicted presence for each species. The addition of new data refined previous models and offered a species-specific view on the importance of prominent landscape characteristics for probability of presence. The results of this thesis research contribute to our knowledge of bats within the Oak Openings Region and provide tools for adaptive management in fragmented landscapes.
Author: Christian Edward Nordal
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bats
Languages : en
Pages : 122
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Book Description
The Oak Openings Region of Northwest Ohio of Northwest Ohio is an incredibly biodiverse area that is home to many rare and endangered plant and animal species. Furthering our knowledge and understanding on the resident bat species within the region is critical as populations of many species have declined from White-nose Syndrome, habitat loss and fragmentation, and wind energy barotrauma. To further bat-specific research in the region, my thesis research focused on: 1) identifying the relationships between bat activity and diversity and fragmentation features; 2) monitoring trends in activity and richness between forested and savanna sites over time; and 3) developing refined spatially explicit habitat models of bat occupancy using data collected from protected and unprotected habitat and comparing them to models created from strictly protected habitat. Ecological knowledge on bats and their response to features commonly associated with habitat fragmentation is lacking, so I acoustically surveyed thirty roads with Anabat SDII monitors within and outside of protected areas. I utilized logistic regression analysis to examine the relationship between presence/absence and activity of each species with each feature (e.g. proportion of road with overstory) to select candidate variables for multivariate models. I then created candidate multivariate models for each species and selected final models based on parsimony, AIC values, and adjusted R square values. Bats had a differential response to features between species, and park managers must consider the management of roads on a species- specific viewpoint if they plan to focus conservation efforts on bats. For the second part of my research, I surveyed bat relative activity within forest and savanna sites and compared the data to previous monitoring efforts. Within the single year I monitored, savanna sites appeared to host a greater activity for many species and a greater species richness. Between years, savanna sites remained predominantly stable in species composition and activity, but forested sites had declines in activity among certain species and declines in species richness. Results demonstrate a need for further investigation of forest habitat and additional comparisons between savannas and other open habitat to determine their role for bats in the region. For the third part, I developed Maxent species distribution models for seven species of bats that occur in the region and compared them to existing models. I tested previously developed occupancy models' predictive power using new data. Once data were demonstrated to be comparable through model performance, I created new models from a combination of previous (prior to White-nose) and new data (post White-nose). I then tested previous and new models with an independent dataset and compared their performances and areas of predicted presence for each species. The addition of new data refined previous models and offered a species-specific view on the importance of prominent landscape characteristics for probability of presence. The results of this thesis research contribute to our knowledge of bats within the Oak Openings Region and provide tools for adaptive management in fragmented landscapes.
Author: Christian C. Voigt
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319252208
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 601
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Book Description
This book focuses on central themes related to the conservation of bats. It details their response to land-use change and management practices, intensified urbanization and roost disturbance and loss. Increasing interactions between humans and bats as a result of hunting, disease relationships, occupation of human dwellings, and conflict over fruit crops are explored in depth. Finally, contributors highlight the roles that taxonomy, conservation networks and conservation psychology have to play in conserving this imperilled but vital taxon. With over 1300 species, bats are the second largest order of mammals, yet as the Anthropocene dawns, bat populations around the world are in decline. Greater understanding of the anthropogenic drivers of this decline and exploration of possible mitigation measures are urgently needed if we are to retain global bat diversity in the coming decades. This book brings together teams of international experts to provide a global review of current understanding and recommend directions for future research and mitigation.
Author: Kelly Russo-Petrick
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bats
Languages : en
Pages : 129
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Book Description
Bats are critically important for their control of insects but are experiencing population declines. The biggest reason for these declines is anthropogenic land use. Despite negative impacts, anthropogenic land use has variable impact on bats, with tolerance for more developed areas being species dependent and varying depending on the spatial or temporal scale. Previous studies on land use and bats lack spatial variability and are often single year. My goal was to determine how habitat factors related to human land use impact bat activity and species richness at multiple spatial scales over a period of several years. This research was conducted in the Oak Openings Region, which is a highly developed mixed-use region with high biodiversity that serves as important bat habitat. Specific objectives included determining (1) changes in bat activity and species richness over time, (2) differences in bat activity and species richness between protected and non-protected areas, (3) how factors related to human land use impact bat activity and species richness, and (4) to map current bat habitat suitability and see how it may change in the future. Calls increased each subsequent year during the 2019-2021 period, showing a trend of consistently increasing bat activity. However, during 2011-2019 bat activity significantly decreased. Protected areas had higher species richness and activity than unprotected areas. Higher activity and species richness were found in areas with greater percent upland prairie, sand barrens, and savanna and less floodplain and conifer forest and wet prairie. Activity was higher with less structural clutter at 3-6.5 m, lower understory height, taller canopy height, more canopy cover, and more structural clutter 0-3 m. Number of habitats was positively associated with bat species richness and activity along transects, but negatively associated with activity at stationary points. An opposite trend was observed for cropland. Activity and species richness along transects was higher when at least one side of the road had natural habitat. Variables having high impact on suitability included percent savanna and upland forest, distance to agriculture, May NDVI, total annual precipitation, mean diurnal range, and mean annual air temperature. Total percent suitable habitat did not change much between current models and 2050 predicted climate change models, although suitable habitat patches changed in location and level of suitability. These results demonstrate that measuring bat activity and species richness using a variety of spatial and temporal scales allows detection of changes in populations over time and identification of the habitat and environmental variables that are most important to bat populations.
Author: Tyler Norman Turner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bats
Languages : en
Pages : 117
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Book Description
Bats play critical roles in the numerous ecosystems they inhabit as nutrient cyclers, pollinators, and major sources of pest control. In agricultural landscapes, such as those in the Oak Openings, these services can be extremely valuable. Unfortunately, bats face population declines due to threats such as wind farms along migration routes, the lethal fungal disease white-nose syndrome, and habitat degradation and loss due to anthropogenic pressures. The objective of this study was to examine how native bats are using both natural and human dominated landscapes within this region while identifying features within these landscapes that promote bat activity and diversity. To do so I developed a three-part study to observe spatial and temporal trends. First, driving transects were conducted from May through September to analyze activity and diversity in three different landscape types (natural, mosaic, and agricultural landscapes). Second, paired stationary sites were set up overnight to compare core sites within Oak Openings Preserve to edge sites to assess how bats responded to areas of natural landscapes directly facing human pressure. Finally, with the help of citizen science volunteers, walking surveys were conducted through three different parks, as part of an ongoing project of the Root Lab at BGSU, to look at temporal trends in bat populations. Over the course of five months and more than 50 nights, I recorded and identified over 2,200 bat calls. The majority of these calls (95%) were dominated by just three bat species (big brown, silver-haired, and eastern red). I found a significant decrease in activity in agricultural landscapes (p=0.04, Pearson's Test), compared to mosaic and natural landscapes. I also found certain landscape features, such as canopy cover and distance to riparian systems, were correlated with bat activity. Within the Oak Openings Park, I found that core natural sites had significantly more activity than edge or savanna sites. There was no difference between interior edges and exterior edges, suggesting human impact has little to do with how bats are using these edges. However, vegetation density and canopy cover were predictors of increased relative foraging activity, increasing our understanding of how the bats are using their environment. This finding suggests that both natural and human dominated landscapes can be managed to promote bat activity and diversity. This is important as there was evidence of long term population declines and declines in total number of observed species in the third study. By properly managing both natural and human dominated landscapes, we can help mitigate both current and future threats that bats may face.
Author: Jennifer Windom Hollen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bats
Languages : en
Pages : 121
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Book Description
Bat species face multiple threats. One such threat, white-nose syndrome (WNS) has drastically reduced many bat populations. Also, habitat loss and fragmentation often forces bats to concentrate in remnant natural areas, or utilize habitats that are not as suitable. Both of these threats, while threaten bats in a general sense, also affect species differentially. The Oak Openings Region of Northwest Ohio is a biodiversity hotspot with a landscape composed of remnant natural areas within a matrix of agriculture and urban areas. This area, which provides crucial summer foraging habitat, has experienced declines in bat activity, shifts in bat assemblages, and some in diversity, in recent years, especially since WNS introduction. To study bats in this diverse landscape, we sampled bats acoustically from May - August 2016. We sampled mobile transects along roads along with stationary sites within the Oak Openings Preserve within the region. We identified calls to species and ran analyses investigating total bat activity, species-specific activity and presence, and bat diversity compared to. We compared bats to environmental, vegetation, road, and landcover parameters. Our results show that certain parameters influence bats as a whole, while others only affect one or a few species. We found that savanna stationary sites had more species-specific activity and bat diversity than forested sites (Rank Sums, p
Author: John Marzluff
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387734120
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 802
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Book Description
Urban Ecology is a rapidly growing field of academic and practical significance. Urban ecologists have published several conference proceedings and regularly contribute to the ecological, architectural, planning, and geography literature. However, important papers in the field that set the foundation for the discipline and illustrate modern approaches from a variety of perspectives and regions of the world have not been collected in a single, accessible book. Foundations of Urban Ecology does this by reprinting important European and American publications, filling gaps in the published literature with a few, targeted original works, and translating key works originally published in German. This edited volume will provide students and professionals with a rich background in all facets of urban ecology. The editors emphasize the drivers, patterns, processes and effects of human settlement. The papers they synthesize provide readers with a broad understanding of the local and global aspects of settlement through traditional natural and social science lenses. This interdisciplinary vision gives the reader a comprehensive view of the urban ecosystem by introducing drivers, patterns, processes and effects of human settlements and the relationships between humans and other animals, plants, ecosystem processes, and abiotic conditions. The reader learns how human institutions, health, and preferences influence, and are influenced by, the others members of their shared urban ecosystem.
Author: Richard B. Primack
Publisher: Sinauer Associates, Incorporated
ISBN: 9780878936922
Category : Conservation biology
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Provides up-to-date coverage of Conservation Biology, including sustainable development, global warming, and strategies to save species on the verge of extinction.
Author: Michael J. Lacki
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 0801884993
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 350
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Book Description
Although bats are often thought of as cave dwellers, many species depend on forests for all or part of the year. Of the 45 species of bats in North America, more than half depend on forests, using the bark of trees, tree cavities, or canopy foliage as roosting sites. Over the past two decades it has become increasingly clear that bat conservation and management are strongly linked to the health of forests within their range. Initially driven by concern for endangered species—the Indiana bat, for example—forest ecologists, timber managers, government agencies, and conservation organizations have been altering management plans and silvicultural practices to better accommodate bat species. Bats in Forests presents the work of a variety of experts who address many aspects of the ecology and conservation of bats. The chapter authors describe bat behavior, including the selection of roosts, foraging patterns, and seasonal migration as they relate to forests. They also discuss forest management and its influence on bat habitat. Both public lands and privately owned forests are considered, as well as techniques for monitoring bat populations and activity. The important role bats play in the ecology of forests—from control of insects to nutrient recycling—is revealed by a number of authors. Bat ecologists, bat conservationists, forest ecologists, and forest managers will find in this book an indispensable synthesis of the topics that concern them.
Author: KUNZ THOMAS H
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press
ISBN:
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 392
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Book Description
Presenting the most recent research and synthetic reviews of more than thirty-five of the world's leading authorities on bats, Bat Biology and Conservation discusses bat phylogeny and evolution, functional morphology, echolocation, and conservation biology. It is an essential reference not only for bat scientists but also for conservation biologists and those working with other mammalian groups.
Author: David B. Lindenmayer
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 159726606X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 349
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Book Description
Habitat loss and degradation that comes as a result of human activity is the single biggest threat to biodiversity in the world today. Habitat Fragmentation and Landscape Change is a groundbreaking work that brings together a wealth of information from a wide range of sources to define the ecological problems caused by landscape change and to highlight the relationships among landscape change, habitat fragmentation, and biodiversity conservation. The book: synthesizes a large body of information from the scientific literature considers key theoretical principles for examining and predicting effects examines the range of effects that can arise explores ways of mitigating impacts reviews approaches to studying the problem discusses knowledge gaps and future areas for research and management Habitat Fragmentation and Landscape Change offers a unique mix of theoretical and practical information, outlining general principles and approaches and illustrating those principles with case studies from around the world. It represents a definitive overview and synthesis on the full range of topics that fall under the widely used but often vaguely defined term "habitat fragmentation."
