Habitat Associations of Bats in an Agricultural Landscape: Linear Features Versus Open Habitats
SIMPLE SUMMARY: Understanding how species interact with agricultural landscapes is essential for future conservation efforts. Using a large-scale citizen science project, we examined the influence linear features have on bat activity compared to the centre of agricultural fields and detailed the eff...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7650766 2023-05-15T17:48:36+02:00 Habitat Associations of Bats in an Agricultural Landscape: Linear Features Versus Open Habitats Finch, Domhnall Schofield, Henry Mathews, Fiona 2020-10-12 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7650766/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33053844 https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10101856 en eng MDPI http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7650766/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33053844 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani10101856 © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). CC-BY Animals (Basel) Article Text 2020 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10101856 2020-11-15T01:45:28Z SIMPLE SUMMARY: Understanding how species interact with agricultural landscapes is essential for future conservation efforts. Using a large-scale citizen science project, we examined the influence linear features have on bat activity compared to the centre of agricultural fields and detailed the effect of different types of linear features (intensively managed hedgerows, sympathetically managed hedgerows and treelines). Our results showed that all 10 bat species groups identified during surveys occurred both in the centre of fields as well as along linear features. Out of the five species groups analysed further, only Nyctalus noctula had no preference for linear features, compared to the centre of agricultural fields; however, 29% of Rhinolophus ferrumequinum calls were recorded in the centre of fields. More species were active near treelines compared to other linear feature types. Our results highlight the importance of linear feature management to bat conservation, but also the need to consider field centres during survey design and Environmental Impact Assessments ABSTRACT: 1. Bats are important components of agricultural ecosystems. However, little is known about the extent to which bats use linear features when foraging and commuting in agricultural settings, when compared to the interior of fields. 2. As part of a large-scale citizen science project, bat detectors were placed in the centre of agricultural fields (arable and pasture) and along linear features (intensively managed hedgerows, sympathetically managed hedgerows and treelines). 3. Our results show that all 10 of the bat species groups identified were found both along linear features and in the middle of agricultural fields. Of the five species groups analysed further, all had significantly more bat activity along linear features compared to the middle of fields, except for Nyctalus noctula. However, our results showed that 29% of calls from Rhinolophus ferrumequinum were recorded in the middle of agricultural fields, compared to only 10% for ... Text Nyctalus noctula PubMed Central (PMC) Animals 10 10 1856 |
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Article Finch, Domhnall Schofield, Henry Mathews, Fiona Habitat Associations of Bats in an Agricultural Landscape: Linear Features Versus Open Habitats |
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SIMPLE SUMMARY: Understanding how species interact with agricultural landscapes is essential for future conservation efforts. Using a large-scale citizen science project, we examined the influence linear features have on bat activity compared to the centre of agricultural fields and detailed the effect of different types of linear features (intensively managed hedgerows, sympathetically managed hedgerows and treelines). Our results showed that all 10 bat species groups identified during surveys occurred both in the centre of fields as well as along linear features. Out of the five species groups analysed further, only Nyctalus noctula had no preference for linear features, compared to the centre of agricultural fields; however, 29% of Rhinolophus ferrumequinum calls were recorded in the centre of fields. More species were active near treelines compared to other linear feature types. Our results highlight the importance of linear feature management to bat conservation, but also the need to consider field centres during survey design and Environmental Impact Assessments ABSTRACT: 1. Bats are important components of agricultural ecosystems. However, little is known about the extent to which bats use linear features when foraging and commuting in agricultural settings, when compared to the interior of fields. 2. As part of a large-scale citizen science project, bat detectors were placed in the centre of agricultural fields (arable and pasture) and along linear features (intensively managed hedgerows, sympathetically managed hedgerows and treelines). 3. Our results show that all 10 of the bat species groups identified were found both along linear features and in the middle of agricultural fields. Of the five species groups analysed further, all had significantly more bat activity along linear features compared to the middle of fields, except for Nyctalus noctula. However, our results showed that 29% of calls from Rhinolophus ferrumequinum were recorded in the middle of agricultural fields, compared to only 10% for ... |
format |
Text |
author |
Finch, Domhnall Schofield, Henry Mathews, Fiona |
author_facet |
Finch, Domhnall Schofield, Henry Mathews, Fiona |
author_sort |
Finch, Domhnall |
title |
Habitat Associations of Bats in an Agricultural Landscape: Linear Features Versus Open Habitats |
title_short |
Habitat Associations of Bats in an Agricultural Landscape: Linear Features Versus Open Habitats |
title_full |
Habitat Associations of Bats in an Agricultural Landscape: Linear Features Versus Open Habitats |
title_fullStr |
Habitat Associations of Bats in an Agricultural Landscape: Linear Features Versus Open Habitats |
title_full_unstemmed |
Habitat Associations of Bats in an Agricultural Landscape: Linear Features Versus Open Habitats |
title_sort |
habitat associations of bats in an agricultural landscape: linear features versus open habitats |
publisher |
MDPI |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7650766/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33053844 https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10101856 |
genre |
Nyctalus noctula |
genre_facet |
Nyctalus noctula |
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Animals (Basel) |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7650766/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33053844 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani10101856 |
op_rights |
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
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CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10101856 |
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