Large‐scale long‐term passive‐acoustic monitoring reveals spatio‐temporal activity patterns of boreal bats ...

• Main Authors: Kotila, Miika, Suominen, Kati M., Vasko, Ville V., Blomberg, Anna S., Lehikoinen, Aleksi, Andersson, Tommi, Aspi, Jouni, Cederberg, Tony, Hänninen, Jari, Inkinen, Jasmin, Koskinen, Janne, Lundberg, Göran, Mäkinen, Katja, Rontti, Markku, Snickars, Martin, Solbakken, Jostein, Sundell, Janne, Syvänperä, Ilkka, Vuorenmaa, Silja, Ylönen, Jari, Vesterinen, Eero J., Lilley, Thomas M.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2023
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Mammalia; Chiroptera; Chordata; Animalia; bats; bat; Pipistrellus nathusii
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13452182; https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.13452182

(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) The distribution ranges and spatio‐temporal patterns in the occurrence and activity of boreal bats are yet largely unknown due to their cryptic lifestyle and lack of suitable and efficient study methods. We approached the issue by establishing a permanent passive‐acoustic sampling setup spanning the area of Finland to gain an understanding on how latitude affects bat species composition and activity patterns in northern Europe. The recorded bat calls were semi‐automatically identified for three target taxa; Myotis spp., Eptesicus nilssonii or Pipistrellus nathusii and the seasonal activity patterns were modeled for each taxa across the seven sampling years (2015–2021). We found an increase in activity since 2015 for E. nilssonii and Myotis spp. For E. nilssonii and Myotis spp. we found significant latitude ‐dependent seasonal activity patterns, where seasonal variation in patterns appeared stronger in the north. Over the years, activity of P. nathusii ...