Multi-scale Factors Influencing Detection, Site Occupancy and Resource Use by Foraging Bats in the Ozark Highlands of Missouri PDF Download
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Author: Sybill K. Amelon Publisher: ISBN: Category : Bats Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
Conservation of bat populations requires understanding the associations between bats and their use of resources. We used maximum likelihood to estimate probability of site occupancy using acoustic data for ten species of bats. We evaluated a priori hypotheses for both probability of detection and site occupancy using AIC. Time, temperature, moisture, vegetative clutter, and date influenced detection probability. Response to spatial scale varied by species. Habitat, patch, and landscape characteristics influenced site occupancy and varied among species. We evaluated use of resource utilization functions (RUFs) to assess habitat and landscape factors affecting foraging resource use by red bats, Lasiurus borealis. Highest foraging use was associated with open deciduous forest on ridges and upland drainages in areas close to non-forest edge and relatively high road density. Resource selection was variable among individuals, geographic location and stage of lactation. Management strategies that provide a range of composition and structural diversity will favor foraging use by L. borealis.
Author: Sybill K. Amelon Publisher: ISBN: Category : Bats Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
Conservation of bat populations requires understanding the associations between bats and their use of resources. We used maximum likelihood to estimate probability of site occupancy using acoustic data for ten species of bats. We evaluated a priori hypotheses for both probability of detection and site occupancy using AIC. Time, temperature, moisture, vegetative clutter, and date influenced detection probability. Response to spatial scale varied by species. Habitat, patch, and landscape characteristics influenced site occupancy and varied among species. We evaluated use of resource utilization functions (RUFs) to assess habitat and landscape factors affecting foraging resource use by red bats, Lasiurus borealis. Highest foraging use was associated with open deciduous forest on ridges and upland drainages in areas close to non-forest edge and relatively high road density. Resource selection was variable among individuals, geographic location and stage of lactation. Management strategies that provide a range of composition and structural diversity will favor foraging use by L. borealis.
Author: Kathryn Marie Womack Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 156
Book Description
Restoration of savanna and woodland ecosystems are high priorities for state and federal agencies in the Midwest and prescribed fire and mechanical tree thinning are the main tools used to restore these communities. Information on how bat species and their insect prey respond to restoration is needed to guide management decisions for species of conservation concern. There is a heightened urgency to collect demographic data during the summer maternity season due to white-nose syndrome (WNS) and other threats to bat populations. Our objectives were to: 1) evaluate the performance of the n-mixture model for repeated count data and the general multinomial-Poisson model for removal sampling (n-mixture model and removal model, respectively) for estimating bat abundance from simulated mist-net capture data, 2) determine the relationships between prescribed fire, vegetation structure, and site characteristics on insect abundance, and 3) determine the effect of restoration, vegetation structure, and landscape factors on bat species abundances across a gradient of savannas, woodlands, and non-managed forest in the Ozark Highlands of Missouri. We fit the n-mixture and removal models in the UNMARKED package in R, and simulated datasets that examined how both models would perform based on potential study design constraints, various probabilities of detection, and population sizes. We simulated 4 scenarios each based on 85 iterations on 1000 randomly generated datasets. We calculated relative bias (RB), mean absolute error (MAE), and mean absolute percent error (MA[percent]E) from model predictions to evaluate model performance. Relative bias, MAE, and MA[percent]E decreased as detection probability and bat abundance increased. Model fit was acceptably low when bat abundance was [greater than]70, and detection probability was [greater than] 0.5 for n-mixture models. The removal model outperformed the n-mixture model in all scenarios except when detection probability was 0.05. The removal model correctly estimated bat abundance for 50[percent] of simulated scenarios versus the n-mixture model's 3 out of 43. Utilization of the removal model using data from repeated mist-net surveys may allow resource managers and conservationists to better quantify how resource management and landscape composition affect bat species abundance and overall populations. We provide managers with evidence of the utility of the removal model to estimate bat abundances from repeated mist-net survey data while incorporating meaningful habitat, management, and landscape covariates. Furthermore, documenting changes in populations sizes during the summer maternity season will enable improved conservation practices for species management. We sampled insects at 8 plots in 2014, and 4 plots in 2015 and 2016 within 250 m of each mist-net sites. We fit generalized linear mixed effects models to evaluate a priori hypotheses on the effects of savanna woodland restoration on insect abundances. Prescribed fire did affect insect abundances at plots surrounding each mist-net site. Insect plots burned 2 or 3 times within the last ten years had higher insect abundances for some insect response groups compared to non-managed plot. Year since a plot burned also affected insect abundances, with sites burned more recently within 3 years had lower insect abundances for some insect response groups and in others – we found no relationship. We only evaluated insect Orders and did not examine specific families or species richness to understand how management affects diversity of insects. Temperature was the best predictor of insect abundances at plots for most response variables, and we found support for site aspect, and tree density by size classes. Managers should be mindful that different insect groups had different responses to prescribed fire, therefore a diversity of practices in the landscape will provide for more diverse insect prey Overall, restoration practices did not have a lasting negative effect on insect abundances, and some positive effects. We conducted mist-net surveys at 89 sites across the Ozark region of Missouri from 2014-2016, and collected demographic data on 4 bat species captured: northern longeared bat (Myotis septentrionalis), tri-colored bat (Perimyotis subflavus), evening bat (Nycticeius humeralis), and eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis). We fit the removal model to evaluate multi-scale a priori hypotheses on the effects of restoration, landscape factors, and prey availability at sites that potentially affect either the detection or abundance of bats at sites. Top models for all four bat species highlighted the importance of evaluating multiple spatial scales in ecological studies. Overall, we found no evidence that restoration negatively affected any of the bat species investigated; although, northern long-eared bats abundance presented stronger positive relationship to percent forest and increased tree densities than to percent savanna-woodlands within 1km. Our study was the first to predict abundances from repeated count data from mist-net surveys during the summer maternity season and accounting for varying detection probabilities. We did not find support for relationships between potential insect prey and bat abundances. Eastern red bats, tricolored, and evening bat abundances were positively related to prescribed fire and negatively to tree densities or percent canopy and therefore should respond positively to savanna and woodland restoration. Northern long-eared bat had higher abundances at sites with higher tree densities of pole and saw timber and eastern red bat and northern long-eared bat abundances was positively related to sites with higher percentage of forest and savanna-woodland habitat within 1 km of mist-net sites. Evening bat abundances was the greatest at sites that had higher fire frequencies within 1 km of a mist-net site. We suggest managers consider the tradeoffs among species in these abundance relationships when planning management and that restoration of savanna and woodlands, when part of a larger management goal to create heterogeneity of forest types, will likely promote higher abundances of all four bat species.
Author: Mark D. Yates Publisher: ISBN: Category : Bats Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
Populations of forest dwelling bats have been in decline in recent years, and have therefore become increasing foci in forestry research efforts. Difficulty in bat species detection complicates bat - habitat studies. Findings from this study reveal that acoustic methods provided greater detectability of species presence at a site than mist netting. Species presence was detected using two acoustic detections, and while individuals were equally detectable, detector placement influenced detectability. Incorporating differences in detectability, a priori habitat models from three spatial scales were compared to determine occupancy of five bat species. No habitat models adequately described the occupancy of gray bats. Red bat occupancy was inversely related to basal area (BA), directly related to canopy closure and varied among ecological subsections within the study area. Eastern pipistrelle bat occupancy was inversely related to BA and directly related to canopy closure. Northern long-eared bat occupancy was directly related to amount of hard edge in the landscape and was greater in shortleaf pine forests and woodlands. Indiana bat occupancy was directly related to BA of large diameter snags, directly related to the amount of hard edge and proportion of non-forested land cover in the landscape.
Author: Sarah A. Pennington Publisher: ISBN: Category : Electronic Dissertations Languages : en Pages : 66
Book Description
The Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) has been endangered since 1967 and is the focus of a controversial debate among stakeholders on both public and private lands due to a lack due to a lack of understanding the summer habitat needs of the species. In addition, even less is known about interspecific interactions with other bats and if this could be playing a role in the decline of this species. Our objectives were to estimate the probability of site occupancy for the Indiana bat and the little brown bat (M. lucifugus) from which we could model their summer habitat suitability. We then used our occupancy modeling estimates to determine whether the knowledge of the little brown bat's (M. lucifugus) landscape occupancy patterns improved the fit of Indiana bat occupancy models and vice versa. We used an information theoretic approach to examine a priori hypotheses relative to both probability of detection and site occupancy using an objective model selection criterion to rank the candidate models. For the Indiana bat the quantity of bottomland hardwood forest in a 7 km landscape was the single most significant factor in determining Indiana bat occupancy. For the little brown bat, site combined with distance to water and canopy cover created the top model determining little brown bat occupancy. Combined information of both species' occupancy patterns did not improve the probability of either species' occupancy.
Author: Heather Lynne Fleming Publisher: ISBN: Category : Bats Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
Rafinesque's big-eared bats (Corynorhinus rafinesquii; RBEB) and southeastern myotis (Myotis austroriparius; SEM) are listed on IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Limited information on roost sites exists. I conducted roost surveys for RBEB and SEM on public forest lands in central Mississippi during winter and spring 2010. During winter, RBEB and SEM roosted in cavity trees with greater trunk diameters. In spring, roost trees used by SEM were located in forested areas of lower elevation, less slope, and greater distances from roads. Because imperfect detection can affect occupancy estimates, I estimated detection probabilities under different survey methods. Detection probability ranged from 95 - 100% and 92 - 99% when one to 2 observers used repeated surveys and removal method, respectfully. When estimating for abundance, presence of ̳20 bats led to count errors of
Author: Kathryn M. Womack Publisher: ISBN: Category : Electronic Dissertations Languages : en Pages : 83
Book Description
The federally endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) uses fragmented forests in largely agricultural landscapes during the maternity season. Understanding how land use and land management affect bat activity and insect prey availability would provide insight into resource needs of Indiana bats. We had three main objectives, first to determine resource selection by foraging Indiana bats during the maternity season and to compare resource use among pregnant and lactating individuals. Second, we sought to estimate home range size using utilization distributions for individual Indiana bats. Finally, we wanted to determine if we could predict Indiana bat activity by using habitat, weather, and prey availability data within our study area. We used an information theoretic approach to examine a priori models for our first and third objective. To evaluate our second objective, we used telemetry data to calculate the area within 50% and 95% probability contours of utilization distributions estimated by the fixed kernel method. We found variation among individuals in resource selection and home range size. Indiana bat activity was higher in areas managed by prescribed fire and with high percent canopy cover, and at sites with higher dry insect biomass collected in malaise traps. We believe prescribed fire benefitted bats by reducing understory clutter. In contrast, forest management practices that greatly reduce canopy cover may have a negative impact on Indiana bats.
Author: Michael J. Lacki Publisher: JHU Press ISBN: 0801884993 Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 350
Book Description
Although bats are often thought of as cave dwellers, many species depend on forests for all or part of the year. Of the 45 species of bats in North America, more than half depend on forests, using the bark of trees, tree cavities, or canopy foliage as roosting sites. Over the past two decades it has become increasingly clear that bat conservation and management are strongly linked to the health of forests within their range. Initially driven by concern for endangered species—the Indiana bat, for example—forest ecologists, timber managers, government agencies, and conservation organizations have been altering management plans and silvicultural practices to better accommodate bat species. Bats in Forests presents the work of a variety of experts who address many aspects of the ecology and conservation of bats. The chapter authors describe bat behavior, including the selection of roosts, foraging patterns, and seasonal migration as they relate to forests. They also discuss forest management and its influence on bat habitat. Both public lands and privately owned forests are considered, as well as techniques for monitoring bat populations and activity. The important role bats play in the ecology of forests—from control of insects to nutrient recycling—is revealed by a number of authors. Bat ecologists, bat conservationists, forest ecologists, and forest managers will find in this book an indispensable synthesis of the topics that concern them.
Author: Sybill K. Amelon
Author: Sybill K. Amelon
Author: Kathryn Marie Womack
Author: Mark D. Yates
Author: Sarah A. Pennington
Author: Clarissa Starbuck
Author: Richard K. LaVal
Author: Heather Lynne Fleming
Author: Kathryn M. Womack
Author: 
Author: Michael J. Lacki