Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Biology

Abstract

Forests are the most important and universally threatened habitats for bats. Habitat loss and fragmentation are leading causes of damage to forest ecosystem integrity. Critically, most bats need forests: over half of the 45 species of bats in North America use forests for roosting or foraging. Much research to date has been done to identify roosting and foraging patches of bats, but few have attempted to investigate how these patches are connected across a landscape. By understanding how to maintain connectivity across even fragmented landscapes, we may be able to mitigate the effects of forest habitat loss. In this thesis, we use a landscape-level approach, bolstered by local and stand variables, to identify foraging and roosting patches for bats, along with the corridors that connect them, across a forested landscape. Our objective is to create a landscape-level understanding of how patches and corridors are connected so that we can preserve connectivity in forest bat habitat. We used acoustic recordings from bats in order to create a base-layer species distribution model for bats. Then, we added data from mist-net captures and known roost locations in order to optimize our predictive map, revealing foraging and roosting patches. Next, we identify key connecting corridors that connect the patches. Our final product is a map of our study area that illustrates the patch/corridor matrix for bats and will ultimately discern the features most imperative to maintaining connectivity across the landscape for bats.

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