Recurring fires in Mediterranean habitats and their impact on bats

López‐Baucells, Adrià; Flaquer, Carles; Mas, M. T.; Pons, Pere; Puig-Montserrat, Xavier

doi:10.1007/s10531-020-02095-2

Cited by 14 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…Many studies of this kind have been carried out on bats in other parts of the world (Arlettaz 1999, Ashrafi et al 2013, Dekeukeleire et al 2016, Conenna et al 2019). However, few tracking studies have focused on species in Mediterranean ecosystems (Popa-Lisseanu et al 2009, Napal et al 2010, Goiti et al 2011, López-Baucells et al 2021, Tena & Tellería 2021. Such studies would provide basic information that can support better decision-making in terms of habitat management and biodiversity conservation.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Untitled

2013

Barb

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Forest-dwelling bats are a poorly studied group in Iberia. Little information is available about their abundance, conservation status, and, for some regions, even their distribution. This is the case in the western sector of the Sistema Central mountain range, an interesting area from a biogeographical point of view that potentially could host rich bat communities. However, there is almost no published information about forest bats in the region. From 2017 to 2019 we carried out acoustic and mistnetting surveys in the province of Salamanca (Western Spain), intending to fill this gap in the faunistic knowledge of the area. Our work has revealed a very diverse bat community, reaching 19 species out of the 31 known in Iberia. We obtained new data for forest-specialist species, including many records of the rare Myotis bechsteinii, Barbastella barbastellus and Nyctalus lasiopterus. Most interestingly, we also found a high abundance of Myotis mystacinus which is rarely captured. This study provides novel information about the distribution, status, and ecology of bats in the forests of one western sector of Sistema Central and highlights the importance of the area for conserving these species in the Iberian context. The large number of new records emphasizes the lack of sampling in the region and the need to get better knowledge to develop informed management and conservation decisions.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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2013

Barb

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“…This offers a robust, taxonomy-independent approach to bioindication in forest ecosystems. There is also mounting evidence that bats exhibit responses to wildfires [ 32 , 33 , 34 ], so bats may offer considerable potential for bioindication of after-fire recovery patterns.…”

Section: Testing Bats As Bioindicators: Where Are We Now?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Do We Need to Use Bats as Bioindicators?

Russo

Salinas‐Ramos

Cistrone

et al. 2021

Biology

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Bats show responses to anthropogenic stressors linked to changes in other ecosystem components such as insects, and as K-selected mammals, exhibit fast population declines. This speciose, widespread mammal group shows an impressive trophic diversity and provides key ecosystem services. For these and other reasons, bats might act as suitable bioindicators in many environmental contexts. However, few studies have explicitly tested this potential, and in some cases, stating that bats are useful bioindicators more closely resembles a slogan to support conservation than a well-grounded piece of scientific evidence. Here, we review the available information and highlight the limitations that arise in using bats as bioindicators. Based on the limited number of studies available, the use of bats as bioindicators is highly promising and warrants further investigation in specific contexts such as river quality, urbanisation, farming practices, forestry, bioaccumulation, and climate change. Whether bats may also serve as surrogate taxa remains a controversial yet highly interesting matter. Some limitations to using bats as bioindicators include taxonomical issues, sampling problems, difficulties in associating responses with specific stressors, and geographically biased or delayed responses. Overall, we urge the scientific community to test bat responses to specific stressors in selected ecosystem types and develop research networks to explore the geographic consistency of such responses. The high cost of sampling equipment (ultrasound detectors) is being greatly reduced by technological advances, and the legal obligation to monitor bat populations already existing in many countries such as those in the EU offers an important opportunity to accomplish two objectives (conservation and bioindication) with one action.

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“…Milne et al (2005) found that a community of bats made up primarily of edge-space foragers in northern Australia was positively associated with wildfire frequency, whereas other bat communities were neither positively or negatively associated with fire frequency. In contrast, P. austriacus, a clutter-tolerant bat, avoids areas that have burned more than three times in the past 30 years, though these areas make up most of the landscape in northeast Iberia (López-Baucells et al 2021).…”

Section: Bat Responses To Burned Versus Unburned Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Model-based assessments in the region indicate that such fires can significantly reduce and fragment the habitat of entire bat communities (Bosso et al 2018). The two recent empirical studies in the region have indicated that high-frequency fires can restrict movements of a clutter-tolerant bat species (López-Baucells et al 2021) and high-severity wildfire can lead to reduced reproduction and lower body condition in the short term (Ancillotto et al 2020).…”

Section: Regional Variability In the Relationships Between Bats And Firementioning

confidence: 99%

Bats and fire: a global review

Loeb

Blakey

2021

fire ecol

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Background Bats are important components of forested ecosystems and are found in forests worldwide. Consequently, they often interact with fire. Previous reviews of the effects of fire on bats have focused on prescribed fire effects, in part due to the limited number of studies on bat responses to wildfire. However, over the past several years, studies on bat responses to wildfire and prescribed fire have increased considerably. We reviewed this rapidly expanding body of literature to determine whether bats respond differently to prescribed fire and wildfire, and the important factors driving those differences. We also examined regional similarities and differences in bat response to prescribed fire and wildfire and identified areas in need of further research. Results Our review included 52 studies (29 prescribed fire, 23 wildfire) from North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Africa, although studies from Europe, South America, and Africa were limited. In general, we found that bats show positive or neutral responses to prescribed fire, whereas a greater proportion of negative responses were reported for wildfire. However, some of the negative responses to wildfire are short-lived or local, suggesting that bats may be resilient to the effects of fire. Factors such as fire severity, fire frequency, time since last burn, burn extent, season of burn, and pyrodiversity were all found to be important drivers of bats’ responses to both prescribed fire and wildfire. Conclusions The importance of the spatial and temporal aspects of fire suggests that these factors need to be considered when designing future studies and interpreting results. Pyrodiversity may be a particularly important concept to further our understanding of bats’ responses to fire. We found several gaps in our knowledge including lack of information on direct effects of fire (e.g., mortality), regional and taxonomic biases, effects of wildfire on roosting habitat, and the effects of climate change. Although current studies suggest that fire may be an important management tool for improving bat habitat, the threat of more frequent, extensive, and severe wildfires may put additional stress on some bat populations, particularly those being impacted by disease, habitat loss and fragmentation, and climate change.

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Recurring fires in Mediterranean habitats and their impact on bats

Cited by 14 publications

References 87 publications

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Do We Need to Use Bats as Bioindicators?

Bats and fire: a global review

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