Abstract
Roads have variable impacts on wildlife, including bats. Bat habitat preferences along roads are dependent on spatial/temporal scale and species. This creates the need for habitat studies incorporating multiple scales and years. The objectives of this study were to determine habitat factors impacting bat activity and species richness along road transects at local and landscape scales and to identify areas of highest bat activity. Bat activity and richness was compared to local-scale field data and landscape-scale data measured in ArcGIS and FRAGSTATS. Hotspot analysis was conducted in ArcGIS to determine areas of highest bat activity. At the local scale, bat activity and/or species richness were positively associated with canopy height, clutter (percent obstruction by vegetation or other objects) at 0–3 m, humidity, natural habitat, canopy cover, months water present, and temperature, and were negatively associated with clutter at 3–6.5 m. At the landscape scale, activity and/or richness had positive associations with habitat heterogeneity, roads, open natural habitats, ponds, upland prairie, and overall forest cover, and had negative associations with conifers and cropland. High activity areas were consistent between years and clustered near protected areas. Low activity areas were typically located near agriculture. When managing bat habitat along roads, it would be advantageous to decrease mid-level clutter, vary habitat types, increase savanna cover, avoid excessive conifer or cropland cover, plant tall trees, and provide water sources. This study shows that combining acoustic road surveys with habitat analyses at multiple scales can be used to examine habitat factors influencing bat activity and species richness.
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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
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Acknowledgements
Research materials were provided by Bowling Green State University. Toledo Metroparks gave permits for research. Thank you to current and former Root lab members for support and assistance, including S. Britton, V. Freter, R. Kappler, B. Kron, A. Martin, S. Rair, J. Schoen, K. Stoneberg, and K. Ware. We would also like to thank S. Petrick, J. Hollen, and T. Fuegmann for volunteering to assist with transect surveys and G.K. Hunt for helping with data organization. We appreciate the advice of A. Martin and J. Boyles on this manuscript.
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All authors contributed to study conception and design. KR-P did data collection and analysis and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. KR helped with project design and editing the manuscript. All authors commented on subsequent drafts of the manuscript and read and approved the final manuscript.
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Russo-Petrick, K.M., Root, K.V. Identifying factors across multiple scales that impact bat activity and species richness along roads in a fragmented landscape. Biodivers Conserv 32, 1065–1088 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-022-02538-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-022-02538-y