Highly selective roosting of the giant noctule bat and its astonishing foraging activity by GPS tracking in a mountain environment

Naďo, Ladislav; Lőbbová, Denisa; Hapl, Ervín; Ceľuch, Martin; Uhrin, Marcel; Šara, Michal; Kaňuch, Peter

doi:10.1007/s13364-019-00446-1

Cited by 26 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Probability of occurrence of bat species increased with tree species richness, a variable commonly reported as driving richness patterns and abundances of other taxa, such as birds 70 or herbivorous arthropods 71 , 72 . This relationship may be interpreted as result of increased diversity of trophic resource availability across trophic levels 71 , 72 , and for tree roosting bats it may also represent increased roost availability through the presence of, usually less dominant, softwood tree species 73 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of forest structure and composition in driving the distribution of bats in Mediterranean regions

Novella‐Fernandez

Juste

Ibáñez

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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Forests are key native habitats in temperate environments. While their structure and composition contribute to shaping local-scale community assembly, their role in driving larger-scale species distributions is understudied. We used detailed forest inventory data, an extensive dataset of occurrence records, and species distribution models integrated with a functional approach, to disentangle mechanistically how species-forest dependency processes drive the regional-scale distributions of nine forest specialist bats in a Mediterranean region in the south of Spain. The regional distribution patterns of forest bats were driven primarily by forest composition and structure rather than by climate. Bat roosting ecology was a key trait explaining the strength of the bat-forest dependency relationships. Tree roosting bats were strongly associated with mature and heterogeneous forest with large trees (diameters > 425 mm). Conversely, and contrary to what local-scale studies show, our results did not support that flight-related traits (wing loading and aspect ratio) drive species distributional patterns. Mediterranean forests are expected to be severely impacted by climate change. This study highlights the utility of disentangling species-environment relationships mechanistically and stresses the need to account for species-forest dependency relationships when assessing the vulnerability of forest specialists towards climate change.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of forest structure and composition in driving the distribution of bats in Mediterranean regions

Novella‐Fernandez

Juste

Ibáñez

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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“…Secondly, GBM was shown to perform well when pseudo-absences are located one or two degrees away ( i.e ., roughly 120-to-240 km within the latitudinal range of our study area) from presence points ( Barbet-Massin et al, 2012 ). Lastly, including ecological knowledge about the dispersal capability of the target species usually decreases the risk of pseudo-absences being instead false absences ( Phillips et al, 2009 ): as the maximum daily foraging transit recorded for N. lasiopterus is about 130 km ( Naďo et al, 2019 ), selecting pseudo-absences outside this minimum distance from presence points reduces the risk of labelling as absences localities potentially used by the giant noctule populations comprised in our occurrence dataset.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Notwithstanding, several studies at the local scale have investigated the ecology, spatial behaviour, and conservation status of N. lasiopterus populations ( Estok, Gombkötő & Cserkesz, 2007 ; Popa-Lisseanu et al, 2008 ; Fortuna et al, 2009 ; Estók, 2010 ; Naďo et al, 2019 ) there is still a lack of comprehensive evidence about the possible effects of the accelerating climate change on its broad-scale distribution and inter-populations connectivity. In particular, the presence of ecological corridors allowing individuals to move across vast land swathes would favor gene flow among populations, an aspect which is poorly known so far except for a few populations in southern Spain which have been monitored for long time ( Santos et al, 2016 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing future shifts in habitat suitability and connectivity to old-growth forests to support the conservation of the endangered giant noctule

Iannella¹,

Masciulli²,

Cerasoli³

et al. 2022

PeerJ

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Background Suitable climate and availability of habitats for roosting, foraging, and dispersing are critical for the long-term persistence of bat species. The giant noctule (Nyctalus lasiopterus) represents one of the lesser-known European bats, especially regarding the environmental factors which shape its distribution. Methodology We integrated climate-based ecological niche models with information about topography and rivers’ network to model weighted suitability for N. lasiopterus in the western Palearctic. The weighted suitability map was then used to estimate connectivity among the distinct occurrence localities of N. lasiopterus, as well as from these latter towards European old-growth forests, under current conditions and different combinations of future timeframes (2030, 2050, 2070) and shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs 3.70 and 5.85). Results Current weighted suitability is highest in Andalusia, northern Iberia, southwestern France, peninsular Italy, coastal Balkans and Anatolia, with dispersed suitable patches elsewhere. A north-eastward shift of weighted suitability emerges in the considered future scenarios, especially under SSP 5.85. The major current ecological corridors for N. lasiopterus are predicted within a ‘belt’ connecting northern Spain and southwestern France, as well as in the Italian Alps. However, following changes in weighted suitability, connectivity would increase in central-eastern Europe in the future. The bioclimatic niche of the western N. lasiopterus populations does not overlap with those of the central and eastern ones, and it only overlaps with climatic conditions characterizing old-growth forests in western Europe. Conclusions The outcomes of our analyses would help in designing specific conservation measures for the distinct groups of giant noctule populations, favoring the possibility of range expansion and movement towards forested habitats.

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“…For diving animals, measurements of pressure underwater can provide accurate depth estimates since pressure changes much more rapidly with depth than with altitude and the accuracy of pressure-based depth estimates have been thoroughly assessed for a range of devices [ 13 , 14 ]. In contrast, the accuracy of biologging device-based altitude estimates has received little attention to date despite their increased use in studying vertical habitat use and behavior of aerial species [ 15 – 17 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the accuracy of altitude estimates in avian biologging devices

Lato

Stepanuk²,

Heywood³

et al. 2022

PLoS ONE

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Advances in animal biologging technologies have greatly improved our understanding of animal movement and distribution, particularly for highly mobile species that travel across vast spatial scales. Assessing the accuracy of these devices is critical to drawing appropriate conclusions from resulting data. While understanding the vertical dimension of movements is key to assessing habitat use and behavior in aerial species, previous studies have primarily focused on assessing the accuracy of biologging devices in the horizontal plane with far less emphasis placed on the vertical plane. Here we use an Unaccompanied Aircraft System (UAS) outfitted with a laser altimeter to broadly assess the accuracy of altitude estimates of three commonly used avian biologging devices during three field trials: stationary flights, continuous horizontal movements, and continuous vertical movements. We found that the device measuring barometric pressure consistently provided the most accurate altitude estimates (mean error of 1.57m) and effectively captured finer-scale vertical movements. Conversely, devices that relied upon GPS triangulation to estimate altitude typically overestimated altitude during horizontal movements (mean error of 6.5m or 40.96m) and underestimated amplitude during vertical movements. Additional factors thought to impact device accuracy, including Horizontal- and Position- Dilution of Precision and the time intervals over which altitude estimates were assessed, did not have notable effects on results in our analyses. Reported accuracy values for different devices may be useful in future studies of aerial species’ behavior relative to vertical obstacles such as wind turbines. Our results suggest that studies seeking to quantify altitude of aerial species should prioritize pressure-based measurements, which provide sufficient resolution for examining broad and some fine-scale behaviors. This work highlights the importance of considering and accounting for error in altitude measurements during avian studies relative to the scale of data needed to address particular scientific questions.

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Highly selective roosting of the giant noctule bat and its astonishing foraging activity by GPS tracking in a mountain environment

Cited by 26 publications

References 35 publications

The role of forest structure and composition in driving the distribution of bats in Mediterranean regions

The role of forest structure and composition in driving the distribution of bats in Mediterranean regions

Assessing future shifts in habitat suitability and connectivity to old-growth forests to support the conservation of the endangered giant noctule

Assessing the accuracy of altitude estimates in avian biologging devices

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