Habitat preferences of bats in anthropogenically a

Authors: Mateusz Ciechanowski

Publish Date: 2015/03/03

Volume: 61, Issue: 3, Pages: 415-428

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Abstract

Few studies refer to the largescale habitat preferences of bat assemblages in temperate mainland Europe The study aimed at habitat associations of bats in the postglacial lakelands of northern Poland Sixtynine walking transects were divided into sections belonging to 36 habitat classes Broadband ultrasound detectors were applied to record bat echolocation calls identified to the species level by spectral analysis Selection or avoidance of habitat categories was tested using Z statistic with a Bonferroni adjustment and niche breadth was estimated by calculating Levin’s formula and niche overlap—Pianka index All bats except Eptesicus serotinus selected water bodies They avoided arable land coniferous and mixed forests their edges and suburbs Nyctalus noctula was the most eurytopic species using most habitats in proportion to their availability E serotinus selected villages and roads in coniferous forests Narrower habitat niches were occupied by morphologically similar pipistrelles Pipistrellus pipistrellus preferred tree lines Pipistrellus nathusii avoided tree lines and villages and Pipistrellus pygmaeus preferred roads in deciduous forests but avoided tree lines The most stenotopic Myotis sp avoided roads in mixed and coniferous forests tree lines and builtup areas Most species strongly overlapped in habitat niches and thus their resource partitioning was probably based on using different hunting tactics P pygmaeus although considered a sibling species of P pipistrellus overlapped in habitat niche much more with P nathusii In the latter case resource partitioning may result from larger differences in body size and frequency of echolocation calls The importance of water bodies for bats was higher than in Western Europe and importance of woodland was lower presumably due to much higher limnicity The results provide a base for regionspecific landscape planning guidelines applicable to bat conservationInsectivorous bats of the temperate zone use excessively large home ranges when compared to other small mammals of similar body size Robinson and Stebbings 1997 DavidsonWatts et al 2006 Mackie and Racey 2007 Flaquer et al 2009 This peculiarity results from their ability for active flight that allows them to move across large distances between patches of optimal habitats Bats are ‘multihabitat’ animals using a number of different habitats that provide the functions of daily roosts breeding sites winter roosts commuting routes drinking and foraging sites Despite significant plasticity in the choice of roost and foraging sites as well as a broad spectrum of diet Vaughan 1997 these mammals prefer some particular habitats during nighttime activity Vaughan et al 1997a These include some prominent structures that appear only after heavy transformation of the landscape by humans most notably tree lines Verboom and Huitema 1997 Bats choose patches of landscape differing in land use human modification vegetation geomorphology and underlying geology that all determine the productivity of an ecosystem and prey abundance Threfall et al 2012a bDetailed knowledge of the habitat preferences and space use of particular species in different parts of its distribution range provides a necessary base for rational conservation planning on a wider geographic scale Sanderson et al 2002 Thus abundant studies eg Walsh and Harris 1996 Vaughan et al 1997a Russ and Montgomery 2002 on bat habitat preferences conducted in Western Europe which has the heaviest anthropogenic transformation of the landscape and is strongly influenced by the oceanic climate are not sufficient for establishing the conservation needs for central and eastern parts of the continent Differences in the diet of noctule Nyctalus noctula between Great Britain significant share of terrestrial insects—Jones 1995 and Latvia almost exclusively aquatic insects—Rydell and Petersons 1998 appear to confirm this hypothesis and similar differences can be expected in habitat preferences Moreover regional differences in species’ habitat use might be modified by the presence or absence of potential competitors and the resulting differences in patterns of resource partitioning Several studies focused on the habitat use of two sibling bat species Pipistrellus pipistrellus and P pygmaeus in Western Europe Vaughan et al 1997a Russ and Montgomery 2002 DavidsonWatts et al 2006 Nichols and Racey 2006 Sattler et al 2007 However they rarely included the third member of the Pipistrellus genus Pipistrellus nathusii ie the common and locally dominant bat species in the Polish lowlands Sachanowicz et al 2006 the notable exceptions were an automatic acoustic survey of German forests Jung et al 2012 and a robust landscapescale distribution modelling Kusch and Schmitz 2013The aim of this study was to investigate the habitat preferences of bats in the different landscapes of postglacial lakelands and coastal areas of the Gdańsk Pomerania region which has undergone multifactorial anthropogenic transformation including agriculture forestry settlements and infrastructure I expected that 1 habitats considered to be the most productive water bodies broadleaved forests will be selected along with habitats of higher structural complexity forests in general tree lines than their surroundings 2 the open areas arable land meadows will be avoided and 3 morphologically similar Pipistrellus species will reveal pattern of resource partitioning by selecting different habitats and low niche overlap

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