Long-term changes in winter abundance of the barbastelle Barbastella barbastellus in Poland and the climate change – Are current monitoring schemes still reliable for cryophilic bat species?
Warmer winters may lead to changes in the hibernation behaviour of bats, such as the barbastelle Barbastella barbastellus, which prefers to hibernate at low temperatures. The species is also known for its large annual fluctuations in the number of wintering individuals, so inference about population...
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Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7028302/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32069315 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227912 |
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7028302 2023-05-15T15:37:49+02:00 Long-term changes in winter abundance of the barbastelle Barbastella barbastellus in Poland and the climate change – Are current monitoring schemes still reliable for cryophilic bat species? Gottfried, Iwona Gottfried, Tomasz Lesiński, Grzegorz Hebda, Grzegorz Ignaczak, Maurycy Wojtaszyn, Grzegorz Jurczyszyn, Mirosław Fuszara, Maciej Fuszara, Elżbieta Grzywiński, Witold Błachowski, Grzegorz Hejduk, Janusz Jaros, Radosław Kowalski, Marek 2020-02-18 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7028302/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32069315 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227912 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7028302/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32069315 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227912 © 2020 Gottfried et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2020 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227912 2020-03-01T01:29:21Z Warmer winters may lead to changes in the hibernation behaviour of bats, such as the barbastelle Barbastella barbastellus, which prefers to hibernate at low temperatures. The species is also known for its large annual fluctuations in the number of wintering individuals, so inference about population trends should be based on long-term data. Prior to 2005, analyses indicated stable or even increasing barbastelle population in Poland. We analysed the results of 13 winter bat counts (2005–2017) of the species from 15 of the largest hibernacula, and additional site of 47 small bunkers, in Poland. The total number of wintering individuals remained stable during the study period, because the barbastelle is not a long-distance migrant, this likely reflects the national population trend. On the basis of mean winter air temperatures we divided the country into four thermal regions. Analyses of barbastelle abundance in hibernacula in the four regions revealed a 4.8% annual mean increase in numbers in the coldest region, where mean winter temperatures were below -2°C, annual mean declines of 3.3% and 3.1% in two warmer regions of western Poland, but no trend in the region of intermediate mean winter temperatures of between -1°C and -2°C. Overall, there was a significant, but weak, negative correlation between the abundance of hibernating individuals and the mean winter temperature. On the other hand, the number of individuals hibernating in small bunkers increased, even though the site was located in one of the warm regions. The results indicate a warming climate will likely reduce the use of large, well-insulated winter roosts by species that prefer colder conditions–and that this is already happening. For forest-dwelling bats, such as the barbastelle, for which monitoring schemes are primarily based on winter surveys of large hibernacula, estimations of population trends may consequently become less reliable. Text Barbastella barbastellus PubMed Central (PMC) PLOS ONE 15 2 e0227912 |
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English |
topic |
Research Article |
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Research Article Gottfried, Iwona Gottfried, Tomasz Lesiński, Grzegorz Hebda, Grzegorz Ignaczak, Maurycy Wojtaszyn, Grzegorz Jurczyszyn, Mirosław Fuszara, Maciej Fuszara, Elżbieta Grzywiński, Witold Błachowski, Grzegorz Hejduk, Janusz Jaros, Radosław Kowalski, Marek Long-term changes in winter abundance of the barbastelle Barbastella barbastellus in Poland and the climate change – Are current monitoring schemes still reliable for cryophilic bat species? |
topic_facet |
Research Article |
description |
Warmer winters may lead to changes in the hibernation behaviour of bats, such as the barbastelle Barbastella barbastellus, which prefers to hibernate at low temperatures. The species is also known for its large annual fluctuations in the number of wintering individuals, so inference about population trends should be based on long-term data. Prior to 2005, analyses indicated stable or even increasing barbastelle population in Poland. We analysed the results of 13 winter bat counts (2005–2017) of the species from 15 of the largest hibernacula, and additional site of 47 small bunkers, in Poland. The total number of wintering individuals remained stable during the study period, because the barbastelle is not a long-distance migrant, this likely reflects the national population trend. On the basis of mean winter air temperatures we divided the country into four thermal regions. Analyses of barbastelle abundance in hibernacula in the four regions revealed a 4.8% annual mean increase in numbers in the coldest region, where mean winter temperatures were below -2°C, annual mean declines of 3.3% and 3.1% in two warmer regions of western Poland, but no trend in the region of intermediate mean winter temperatures of between -1°C and -2°C. Overall, there was a significant, but weak, negative correlation between the abundance of hibernating individuals and the mean winter temperature. On the other hand, the number of individuals hibernating in small bunkers increased, even though the site was located in one of the warm regions. The results indicate a warming climate will likely reduce the use of large, well-insulated winter roosts by species that prefer colder conditions–and that this is already happening. For forest-dwelling bats, such as the barbastelle, for which monitoring schemes are primarily based on winter surveys of large hibernacula, estimations of population trends may consequently become less reliable. |
format |
Text |
author |
Gottfried, Iwona Gottfried, Tomasz Lesiński, Grzegorz Hebda, Grzegorz Ignaczak, Maurycy Wojtaszyn, Grzegorz Jurczyszyn, Mirosław Fuszara, Maciej Fuszara, Elżbieta Grzywiński, Witold Błachowski, Grzegorz Hejduk, Janusz Jaros, Radosław Kowalski, Marek |
author_facet |
Gottfried, Iwona Gottfried, Tomasz Lesiński, Grzegorz Hebda, Grzegorz Ignaczak, Maurycy Wojtaszyn, Grzegorz Jurczyszyn, Mirosław Fuszara, Maciej Fuszara, Elżbieta Grzywiński, Witold Błachowski, Grzegorz Hejduk, Janusz Jaros, Radosław Kowalski, Marek |
author_sort |
Gottfried, Iwona |
title |
Long-term changes in winter abundance of the barbastelle Barbastella barbastellus in Poland and the climate change – Are current monitoring schemes still reliable for cryophilic bat species? |
title_short |
Long-term changes in winter abundance of the barbastelle Barbastella barbastellus in Poland and the climate change – Are current monitoring schemes still reliable for cryophilic bat species? |
title_full |
Long-term changes in winter abundance of the barbastelle Barbastella barbastellus in Poland and the climate change – Are current monitoring schemes still reliable for cryophilic bat species? |
title_fullStr |
Long-term changes in winter abundance of the barbastelle Barbastella barbastellus in Poland and the climate change – Are current monitoring schemes still reliable for cryophilic bat species? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Long-term changes in winter abundance of the barbastelle Barbastella barbastellus in Poland and the climate change – Are current monitoring schemes still reliable for cryophilic bat species? |
title_sort |
long-term changes in winter abundance of the barbastelle barbastella barbastellus in poland and the climate change – are current monitoring schemes still reliable for cryophilic bat species? |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7028302/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32069315 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227912 |
genre |
Barbastella barbastellus |
genre_facet |
Barbastella barbastellus |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7028302/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32069315 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227912 |
op_rights |
© 2020 Gottfried et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227912 |
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PLOS ONE |
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15 |
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2 |
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e0227912 |
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