Wind energy development can lead to guild-specific habitat loss in boreal forest bats ...

• Main Author: McKay, Reed
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2023
• Subjects: FOS Biological sciences; Bats; Bioacoustics; Insects; Digital cameras; Fennoscandian
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.x0k6djhrp; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.x0k6djhrp

Forest management rarely considers protecting bats in Fennoscandian regions although all species rely on forest habitat at some point in their annual cycle. This issue is especially evident as wind parks have increasingly been developed inside Fennoscandian forests, against the advice of international bat conservation guidelines. In this study, we aimed to describe and explain bat community dynamics at a Norwegian wind park located in a boreal forest, especially to understand potential avoidance or attraction effects. The bat community was sampled acoustically and described using foraging guilds (short, medium, and long-range echolocators; SRE, MRE, LRE) as well as behavior (commuting, feeding and social calls). Sampling was undertaken at two locations per turbine: (i) the turbine pad and (ii) a paired natural habitat at ground level, as well as from a meteorological tower. We used a recently developed method for camera trapping nocturnal flying insects synchronously with bat acoustic activity. Our results ... : A detailed description of the methods can be found in the research article associated with DOI: 10.1002/wlb3.01168. ...