An example of ecological traps for bats in the urban environment

Vlaschenko, Anton; Kovalov, Viktor; Hukov, Vitalii; Kravchenko, Kseniia; Rodenko, Olena

doi:10.1007/s10344-019-1252-z

Cited by 25 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The attractive features of the city can cause some species to preferentially settle in an urban instead of a non-urban habitat, with detrimental effects on fitness, a so-called 'ecological trap' (e.g. Demeyrier et al, 2016;Vlaschenko et al, 2019). However, the nature and magnitude of the urban challenge can vary widely, and this variation is not only a result of city size, but also of other abiotic and biotic factors that may vary within and between cities; these are discussed in more detail below.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban ecophysiology: beyond costs, stress and biomarkers

Isaksson

2020

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Natural habitats are rapidly declining due to urbanisation, with a concomitant decline in biodiversity in highly urbanised areas. Yet thousands of different species have colonised urban environments. These organisms are exposed to novel urban conditions, which are sometimes beneficial, but most often challenging, such as increased ambient temperature, chemicals, noise and light pollution, dietary alterations and disturbance by humans. Given the fundamental role of physiological responses in coping with such conditions, certain physiological systems such as the redox system, metabolism and hormones are thought to specifically influence organisms’ ability to persist and cope with urbanisation. However, these physiological systems often show mixed responses to urbanisation. Does this mean that some individuals, populations or species are resilient to the urban environmental challenges? Or is something missing from our analyses, leading us to erroneous conclusions regarding the impact of urbanisation? To understand the impact of urbanisation, I argue that a more integrated mechanistic and ecological approach is needed, along with experiments, in order to fully understand the physiological responses; without knowledge of their ecological and evolutionary context, physiological measures alone can be misinterpreted. Furthermore, we need to further investigate the causes of and capacity for individual plasticity in order to understand not only the impact of urbanisation, but also species resilience. I argue that abiotic and biotic urban factors can interact (e.g. pollution with micro- and macronutrients) to either constrain or relax individual physiological responses – and, thereby, plasticity – on a temporal and/or spatial scale, which can lead to erroneous conclusions regarding the impact of urbanisation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban ecophysiology: beyond costs, stress and biomarkers

Isaksson

2020

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…Th e recapture data from cities (Kharkiv,recapture case: 25,26,30,36,37 in the Appendix) (Lysychansk, case 50 in the Appendix) indicates species winter ground fi delity in urban environments and long-term (Vlaschenko et al, 2017) usage of the cities during autumn invasion and hibernation seasons. Likewise in spite of the many existing threats for bats in the urban environment (e. g. Russo and Ancillotto, 2015;Vlaschenko et al, 2019) the home fi delity for hibernation sites in the cities suggest that maybe hibernation could be successful year by year. Moreover, N. noctula uses all the heterogeneous landscape of urban area and surrounding during one period of a bat life cycle, in diff erent periods and in diff erent years.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, N. noctula uses all the heterogeneous landscape of urban area and surrounding during one period of a bat life cycle, in diff erent periods and in diff erent years. From this point of view such "new" kind of migratory status and spatial occurrence (compare to simple migration between summer and winter habitats) more vulnerable to human activity, and could be a part of ecological trap for this species (Vlaschenko et al, 2019). Vice versa, the heterogeneity of urban landscape (diff erent kinds of roost sites, unfrozen waterbodies in wintertime, street-lights attracting insects, short-distance to city periphery with natural vegetation for air-hawking bat species) could promote species survival by providing diverse possibilities for roosting and feeding on shorter distances.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Vice versa, the heterogeneity of urban landscape (diff erent kinds of roost sites, unfrozen waterbodies in wintertime, street-lights attracting insects, short-distance to city periphery with natural vegetation for air-hawking bat species) could promote species survival by providing diverse possibilities for roosting and feeding on shorter distances. In any case, the "new" type of spatial-temperate population structure of N. noctula raises a new level of responsibilities from people towards urban bats Vlaschenko et al, 2019). Both, non-governmental organizations and governmental authorities should provide more bat education, conservation and rescue actions in cities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Regional recaptures of bats (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae) ringed in Eastern Ukraine

Vlaschenko¹,

Prylutska²,

Kravchenko³

et al. 2020

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Bats are volant and highly mobile mammals that could cover up to 2000 km seasonally (one-way migration). But the level of mobility among diff erent roosts sites in a breeding season, and among breeding areas and hibernation sites is poorly studied. With this communication, we aimed to present results of recaptures (51 cases with a distance of 0.5 km and more) of bats ringed in Kharkiv Region, Ukraine, from 2006 to 2018. Th e recaptures were obtained of three main study areas (NNP "Homilsha Forests" -17 cases, Izium District -5, Kharkiv City and surroundings -27) and at two other localities of the Kharkiv Region. One recapture was obtained in Lugansk Region. Th e recaptures were received for fi ve bat species (Nyctalus noctula-35, Myotis daubentonii-11, Eptesicus serotinus -1, Pipistrellus nathusii -1 and Pipistrellus pygmaeus -3). Th e maximum distances were obtained to diff erent species as follow N. noctula -209.7 km, M. daubentonii -24.8, E. serotinus -14.5 km, P. nathusii -1.1 km and P. pygmaeus -1.2 km. For the fi rst time, we confi rmed that N. noctula that were born in forested areas of Kharkiv City surroundings moved to the built-up area of the city for hibernation. It is the fi rst direct evidence of the existence of the resident population of this species in Ukraine.

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“…Zoo fences do not prevent movement in either direction, therefore the isolation of this group could be explained because hedgehogs find favourable habitats and resources within the zoo facilities, and they do not migrate to find better conditions (Doncaster et al 2001). The Zoo could thus act as an ecological trap, a situation that has been described for hedgehogs and other mammal species (Bolfíková and Hulva 2012;Vlaschenko et al 2019). Ecological trapping in isolated favourable habitat patches has been proposed to explain interspecific coexistence of E. europaeus and E. roumanicus in Central Europe (Bolfíková and Hulva 2012).…”

Section: Population Structurementioning

confidence: 95%

Genetic diversity and population structure of the Western European hedgehog, Erinaceus europaeus: conservation status of populations in the Iberian Peninsula

Araguas

Vidal

García³

et al. 2022

Mamm Biol

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Anthropogenic habitat fragmentation and roadkill mortality are considered important threats to European hedgehogs. Habitat fragmentation isolates hedgehog populations and, as a consequence, reduces their genetic diversity and leads the populations to vulnerable situations. The hedgehog populations in the Iberian Peninsula represent the southern limit of the species. We used microsatellite markers to estimate the genetic diversity and population structure of Erinaceus europaeus on the Iberian Peninsula. The obtained results indicated the presence of two differentiated groups, north-western and north-eastern, which coincided with the distribution of the two phylogeographic mitochondrial lineages described in the Peninsula. Moreover, in the north-eastern group, three genetically different clusters (Girona, Central Catalonia and Zoo) were identified. The highest genetic diversity (Hs = 0.696) was detected in the north-western region. Significant genetic differentiation (FST range = 0.072–0.224) was found among the clusters, indicating that these groups are well differentiated and present low gene flow. We concluded that the north-western group is genetically stable, whereas in the north-eastern region, despite some contact among groups, some populations are isolated and vulnerable.

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An example of ecological traps for bats in the urban environment

Cited by 25 publications

References 29 publications

Urban ecophysiology: beyond costs, stress and biomarkers

Urban ecophysiology: beyond costs, stress and biomarkers

Regional recaptures of bats (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae) ringed in Eastern Ukraine

Genetic diversity and population structure of the Western European hedgehog, Erinaceus europaeus: conservation status of populations in the Iberian Peninsula

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