Bats and wetlands: synthesising gaps in current knowledge and future opportunities for conservation

Abstract

1. Wetland areas have decreased by up to 33% globally over the past ten years, threatening the biodiversity they support and essential ecosystem services they provide. Despite this, the importance of wetlands for bat conservation and the consequences of losing these habitats are not comprehensively understood. 2. Through a systematic literature review, we quantified the knowledge gaps regarding bats in wetlands by: 1) assessing research trends over time; 2) evaluating research biases in geography, themes, species, seasons, and methodology; 3) creating the 'bat Knowledge Index' (bKI), a standard indicator for measuring how well-studied bats in wetlands are per country; 4) compiling and summarising the ecological responses of bats to wetlands; and 5) assessing how bat researchers perceive the role of wetlands for bat conservation. 3. We found strong similarities between the reviewed studies and the bat researchers' perceptions. However, although 75% of respondents considered wetlands important for bat conservation, they rarely studied these habitats.Most of the studies took place in developed countries, leaving critical gaps in countries where wetlands are rapidly decreasing. The bKI can be used as a tool for land managers to prioritise conservation actions and resources for the protection of bats in wetlands geographically. 4. Research topics were found to be biased towards habitat selection and species inventory, with many topics only superficially explored. There was also an important seasonal bias, resulting in many unanswered questions during energetically demanding periods for bats (e.g. migration). However, constantly evolving technological developments, such as bat lures and tracking devices, might aid new studies in these habitats. 5. Up to 66% of studies reported that wetlands benefit bat activity or species richness, mainly because of high prey densities and the availability of fresh water. However, the low number of studies and all the identified research gaps make 'bats and wetlands' a largely underexplored ecological interaction between a poorly studied animal taxon and an increasingly threatened habitat.

A global review of the conservation threats and status of mustelids

“…This increase in the number of publications is likely to reflect the overall increase in the number of publications in most scientific fields (e.g. Greenville et al 2017, Cartagena‐Matos et al 2021, Maas et al 2021, Mas et al 2021).…”

Field margins as substitute habitat for the conservation of birds in agricultural wetlands

“…Hedgerows have positive effects on forest edge birds but negative effects on grassland birds, as well as on waterbirds (Tourenq et al, 2001). Moreover, they can host a diversity of auxiliary species as well as taxa of high conservation importance in the Camargue and other wetlands such as bats (Mas et al, 2021). Hedgerows have also been shown to limit the presence of greater flamingos ( Phoenicopterus roseus ), considered as a pest in rice fields.…”

Detecting bat environmental DNA from water-filled road-ruts in upland forest

“…Seasonal eDNA monitoring can add a beneficial survey tool for understanding the temporal and migratory patterns of bat populations, and the community-shifts associated with anthropogenic and WNS impacts. Additionally, as wetlands are becoming more recognized as ecologically important bat habitat (Mas et al, 2021), eDNA may be a beneficial monitoring tool to understand the extent of bat occurrence within wetland habitat. While bat eDNA has been collected from sediment (Walker et al, 2019;Serrao et al, 2021), guano (Walker et al, 2016(Walker et al, , 2019, and air (Serrao et al, 2021), targeting eDNA from these isolated water holes provides opportunities for detection without a priori knowledge of bat roosts.…”