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A small-scale response of urban bat activity to tree cover

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Abstract

Bats in urban areas depend on trees, and bat activity increases with tree cover. To effectively manage bat habitat in cities, it is important to know the distance to which tree cover most strongly influences bats (i.e., the ‘scale of effect’). The aim of this study was to estimate the scale of effect of tree cover on bats in Toronto, Canada. To achieve this, we measured bat activity at 52 sampling sites across the city. We then examined the relationships between bat activity and percent tree cover measured within each of 19 scales, 0.025 to 3.5 km in radius, surrounding each sampling site. We found that the scale of effect of percent tree cover on total bat and individual species activity ranged from 0.025 to 0.25 km among species. Our results suggest that adding or removing urban trees influences bats up to 0.25 km away. Urban tree management decisions should consider the impacts to bats beyond the site of management and within the surrounding landscape of a 250 m-radius scale.

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Acknowledgements

We thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions and comments. We also thank E. Pervin, K. Mufarrij, M. El-Saadi, S. Guenette, K. Maki, S. Potter, and J. Evans for their field and lab assistance; the supportive team at GLEL (including past and present members: D. Bert, J. Put, L. Monck-Whipp, and K. Ethier), J. Kerr, and M. Long for their advice and assistance with project logistics; and the homeowners in Toronto for providing access to their properties for this research. We are grateful to M. Anissimoff, R. Zimmerling, K. Patriquin, C. Guy, and M. B. Fenton for their advice regarding bat echolocation call sampling, processing, and identification, and to J. Pasher and D. Boyes for their assistance with analyses in ArcGIS. We also thank L. Hooton and A. Adams for the reference library of bat calls. This research was supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) scholarship and an Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) to L. Moretto, and by grants to L. Fahrig from NSERC and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6, Canada

    Lauren Moretto & Lenore Fahrig

  2. Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment and Climate Change Canada, National Wildlife Research Centre, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0H3, Canada

    Adam C. Smith & Charles M. Francis

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  1. Lauren Moretto
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  2. Lenore Fahrig
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Correspondence to Lauren Moretto.

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Moretto, L., Fahrig, L., Smith, A.C. et al. A small-scale response of urban bat activity to tree cover. Urban Ecosyst 22, 795–805 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-019-00846-w

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