Deriving Habitat Models for Northern Long-Eared Bats from Historical Detection Data: A Case Study Using the Fernow Experimental Forest

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dc.contributor.authorFord, W. Marken
dc.contributor.authorSilvis, Alexanderen
dc.contributor.authorRodrigue, Jane L.en
dc.contributor.authorKniowski, Andrew B.en
dc.contributor.authorJohnson, Joshua B.en
dc.contributor.departmentFish and Wildlife Conservationen
dc.date.accessioned2020-04-22T13:51:36Zen
dc.date.available2020-04-22T13:51:36Zen
dc.date.issued2016-06en
dc.description.abstractThe listing of the northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) as federally threatened under the Endangered Species Act following severe population declines from white-nose syndrome presents considerable challenges to natural resource managers. Because the northern long-eared bat is a forest habitat generalist, development of effective conservation measures will depend on appropriate understanding of its habitat relationships at individual locations. However, severely reduced population sizes make gathering data for such models difficult. As a result, historical data may be essential in development of habitat models. To date, there has been little evaluation of how effective historical bat presence data, such as data derived from mist-net captures, acoustic detection, and day-roost locations, may be in developing habitat models, nor is it clear how models created using different data sources may differ. We explored this issue by creating presence probability models for the northern long-eared bat on the Fernow Experimental Forest in the central Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia using a historical, presence-only data set. Each presence data type produced outputs that were dissimilar but that still corresponded with known traits of the northern long-eared bat or are easily explained in the context of the particular data collection protocol. However, our results also highlight potential limitations of individual data types. For example, models from mist-net capture data only showed high probability of presence along the dendritic network of riparian areas, an obvious artifact of sampling methodology. Development of ecological niche and presence models for northern long-eared bat populations could be highly valuable for resource managers going forward with this species. We caution, however, that efforts to create such models should consider the substantial limitations of models derived from historical data, and address model assumptions.en
dc.description.adminPublic domain – authored by a U.S. government employeeen
dc.description.notesU.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station, U.S. Geological Survey, Cooperative Research Unit Program, and Virginia Tech Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation provided financial support for this project. Field assistance was provided by D. Lowther and R. Hovatter. We thank C. Johnson for numerous discussions about northern long-eared bat ecology that ultimately led to this research endeavor. We thank the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.en
dc.description.sponsorshipU.S. Forest Service Northern Research StationUnited States Department of Agriculture (USDA)United States Forest Service; U.S. Geological SurveyUnited States Geological Survey; Cooperative Research Unit Program; Virginia Tech Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservationen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.3996/012015-JFWM-004en
dc.identifier.issn1944-687Xen
dc.identifier.issue1en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/97880en
dc.identifier.volume7en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.rightsCreative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedicationen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/en
dc.subjectacoustical samplingen
dc.subjectday roostsen
dc.subjectdistribution modelen
dc.subjecthabitat modelen
dc.subjectlandscape distributionen
dc.subjectmaximum-likelihood modelingen
dc.subjectmist-net samplingen
dc.subjectMyotis septentrionalisen
dc.subjectnorthern long-eared baten
dc.titleDeriving Habitat Models for Northern Long-Eared Bats from Historical Detection Data: A Case Study Using the Fernow Experimental Foresten
dc.title.serialJournal of Fish and Wildlife Managementen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten
dc.type.dcmitypeStillImageen

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