Does the survival of greater horseshoe bats and Geoffroy’s bats in Western Europe depend on traditional cultural landscapes?

Dietz, Markus; Pir, Jacques B.; Hillen, Jessica

doi:10.1007/s10531-013-0567-4

Cited by 37 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…As emphasized by other studies (e.g. Dietz et al 2013), landscapes supporting highly connected and structured semi-open habitats (i.e. a mixture of grassland and broadleaf woodland connected with hedgerows and tree lines) are the most favourable for R. ferrumequinum.…”

Section: Landscape Characteristics Affect Colony Size At Different Spmentioning

confidence: 66%

“…a mixture of grassland and broadleaf woodland connected with hedgerows and tree lines) are the most favourable for R. ferrumequinum. Given that pastures and broadleaved woodland are the major foraging habitats for juveniles and adults Jones 1994, 2003), these results indicate that the availability of foraging areas surrounding the colony roosts may influence the carrying capacity of the colonies within the landscape (Russo et al 2010;Dietz et al 2013). As observed in other bat species, intraspecific competition for food may (i) increase flight distances to reach available foraging areas and (ii) reduce prey capture rates, both of which may reduce individual fitness.…”

Section: Landscape Characteristics Affect Colony Size At Different Spmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…While the small scale (0.5 km) allow us to describe the near environment of the roost location, the core sustenance zone of juveniles and adults R. ferrumequinum are represented with the medium (1.5 km) and large scales (3.0 km) respectively (Duvergé and Jones 1994;Rossiter et al 2002;Flanders and Jones 2009;Dietz et al 2013;Collins 2016). The core sustenance zones for bats is expressed for a given species as its main foraging area surrounding the roost based on its average-maximum foraging radius.…”

Section: Environmental and Meteorological Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, we calculated the percentage of total area under (i) AESs independently of the tier; (ii) ELS; (iii) HLS regardless of the options implemented; and (iv) relevant HLS options targeting the conservation of R. ferrumequinum. Furthermore, since linear features (hedgerows and tree lines) constitute part of the main foraging and commuting habitats of R. ferrumequinum (Duvergé and Jones 1994;Dietz et al 2013), the density of these linear features was evaluated for each landscape. Hedgerows and tree lines were digitized using Google Earth aerial photographs taken between 2010 and 2014.…”

Section: Environmental and Meteorological Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When highly correlated variables were found (|r| C 0.7; Online Resource 4), we retained the variable having the highest perceived ecological importance (based on published literature, e.g. Jones 1994, 2003;Flanders and Jones 2009;Dietz et al 2013). When we found strong correlations between two variables having similar importance (e.g.…”

Section: Extrinsic Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Factors driving population recovery of the greater horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) in the UK: implications for conservation

et al. 2017

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Although populations of many bat species appear to be recovering in some European countries, the extrinsic and intrinsic factors driving these increases have not yet been assessed. Disentangling the benefits of conservation management from other factors such as climate change is a crucial step for improving evidence-based conservation strategies. We used the greater horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) as a case study for understanding the recovery of bat populations, as its north-western populations have increased substantially over the past two decades following severe population declines. Using summer roost count data from the UK National Bat Monitoring Programme spanning an 18 year period from 1997 to 2014, we investigated the effects of (i) landscape characteristics associated with the implementation of the agri-environment schemes on colony trends and size, and (ii) meteorological variables on annual colony growth rate. We also assessed the relationship between colony size and colony growth to investigate intrinsic factors such as an Allee effect. Our results indicated that colony size was positively related to a range of landscape features (e.g. amount of broadleaf woodland and grassland, and density of linear features) surrounding the roost, while the amount of artificial light at night had a significant negative effect. Spring temperatures and precipitation (the latter with a lag of one year) were associated with annual colony growth. We also identified a negative density-dependence effect within colonies. Though the conservation of essential landscape elements may have contributed to population increases in the long-term, we conclude that recent population recovery has also been driven by climate Communicated by Dirk Sven Schmeller.Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10531-017-1320-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. change. Finally we recommend that the conservation of photophobic bat species such as R. ferrumequinum should focus on both the improvement of foraging/commuting habitats and the creation of dark areas.

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Section: Landscape Characteristics Affect Colony Size At Different Spmentioning

confidence: 66%

Section: Landscape Characteristics Affect Colony Size At Different Spmentioning

confidence: 74%

Section: Environmental and Meteorological Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Environmental and Meteorological Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Extrinsic Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Factors driving population recovery of the greater horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) in the UK: implications for conservation

et al. 2017

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Assessing the impact of festival music on bat activity

Hooker,

Daley,

Stone

et al. 2023

Ecol Sol and Evidence

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Sound is a critical component of an animal's habitat, where it is used to glean important environmental information from their surroundings. The modification of natural soundscapes due to the global rise in anthropogenic noise pollution over recent decades can have serious negative impacts on species fitness and survival. Nocturnal species such as bats are reliant on sound for many aspects of their life history and are, therefore, highly sensitive to anthropogenic noise. Music festivals are a source of unregulated and potentially harmful, acute noise pollution; however, they have become ubiquitous across our landscapes throughout the summer months and are increasingly being held in settings important for wildlife. Using an experimental approach, we provide the first evidence of the negative impacts of music festivals on bat activity in a habitat that represents a typical festival setting, that is, woodland edge. We found that loud music playback alone can reduce the activity of bats even in the absence of other anthropogenic factors commonly associated with music festivals such as lighting and habitat disturbance. Activity of Nyctalus/Eptesicus spp. was reduced along woodland edge habitats exposed to loud music, whereas no effect was recorded for Myotis spp., Pipistrellus pygmaeus and Pipistrellus pipistrellus compared with quiet nights. We also provide the first evidence of the spatial scale of negative effects from festival music on activity for P. pygmaeus as well as highlighting differential responses between cryptic species. In light of the paucity of research or guidance into acute noise impacts on nocturnal biodiversity, we outline the potential negative impacts of music festivals for bats. We show that music alone can reduce the activity of bats even in the absence of other anthropogenic factors commonly associated with music festivals, which could potentially fragment important habitats for certain species, leading to a degradation of functional connectivity across the landscape.

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eDNA metabarcoding reveals a core and secondary diets of the greater horseshoe bat with strong spatio‐temporal plasticity

et al. 2020

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Dietary plasticity can be a determining factor allowing species to cope with environmental changes. Consequently, it is an important issue to consider in conservation biology. Despite this, it remains rarely addressed in the literature, potentially due to methodologies which were until recently rather limited. The advent of molecular approaches now makes it possible to get a precise picture of diet and its plasticity, even for endangered and elusive species. Here, we focused on the greater horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) in Western France, where this insectivorous species has been classified as “Vulnerable” on the Regional Red List in 2016. We applied an eDNA metabarcoding approach to 1986 fecal samples collected in six maternity colonies on three sampling dates. We described the diet and investigated whether the landscape surrounding colonies and the different phases of the maternity cycle influenced the diversity and the composition of this diet. We showed that R. ferrumequinum feed on a much more diverse prey spectrum than expected from previous studies, highlighting how eDNA metabarcoding can improve our knowledge on the dietary habits of elusive species. Our approach also revealed that the diet of R. ferrumequinum seems to be composed of two distinct features: the core diet consisting of a few preferred taxa shared by all the colonies (25% of the occurrences) and the secondary diet consisting of numerous rare prey taxa that were highly different between colonies and sampling dates (75% of the occurrences). Constraints associated with the greater horseshoe bat life cycle, as well as insect phenology and landscape features, strongly influenced the diversity and composition of both the core diet and the diet as a whole. Further research should now explore the relationships between R. ferrumequinum dietary plasticity and fitness, to better assess the impact of core prey decline on R. ferrumequinum population viability.

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Does the survival of greater horseshoe bats and Geoffroy’s bats in Western Europe depend on traditional cultural landscapes?

Cited by 37 publications

References 47 publications

Factors driving population recovery of the greater horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) in the UK: implications for conservation

Factors driving population recovery of the greater horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) in the UK: implications for conservation

Assessing the impact of festival music on bat activity

eDNA metabarcoding reveals a core and secondary diets of the greater horseshoe bat with strong spatio‐temporal plasticity

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