Conservation planning with spatially explicit models: a case for horseshoe bats in complex mountain landscapes

• Published in: Landscape ecology Vol. 32; no. 5; pp. 1005 - 1021
• Main Authors: Le Roux, Marie, Redon, Mathilde, Archaux, Frédéric, Long, Jed, Vincent, Stéphane, Luque, Sandra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-05-2017; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Verlag; Springer
• Subjects: Animal populations; Bats; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Conservation; Dispersal; Ecology; Environmental changes; Environmental Management; Environmental quality; Environmental Sciences; Forest management; Habitats; Indicator species; Landscape; Landscape Ecology; Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning; Life Sciences; Mixed forests; Nature Conservation; Research Article; Rhinolophus ferrumequinum; Rhinolophus hipposideros; Spatial analysis; Sustainable Development; Wildlife conservation; Species distribution modelling; Ensemble modelling; Landscape structure; Expert based knowledge; Lesser horseshoe bat; Greater horseshoe bat; Complex mountain landscapes; Landscape connectivity; LANDSCAPE STRUCTURE; ENSEMBLE MODELLING; GREATER HORSESHOE BAT; SPECIES DISTRIBUTION MODELLING; RHINOLOPHUS FERRUMEQUINUM; RHINOLOPHUS HIPPOSIDEROS; LESSER HORSESHOE BAT; COMPLEX MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPES; EXPERT BASED KNOWLEDGE; LANDSCAPE CONNECTIVITY; RHINOLOPHUS
• ISSN: 0921-2973; 1572-9761
• DOI: 10.1007/s10980-017-0505-z

Context
Context Bats are considered as an ecological indicator of habitat quality due to their sensitivity to human-induced ecosystem changes. Hence, we will focus the study on two indicator species of bats as a proxy to evaluate structure and composition of the landscape to analyze anthropic pressures driving changes in patterns.
Objectives
This study develops a spatially-explicit model to highlight key habitat nodes and corridors which are integral for maintaining functional landscape connectivity for bat movement. We focus on a complex mountain landscape and two bat species: greater (
Rhinolophus ferrumequinum
) and lesser (
Rhinolophus hipposideros
) horseshoe bats which are known to be sensitive to landscape composition and configuration.
Methods
Species distribution models are used to delineate high-quality foraging habitat for each species using opportunistic ultrasonic bat data. We then performed connectivity analysis combining (modelled) suitable foraging habitat and (known) roost sites. We use graph-theory and the deviation in the probability of connectivity to quantify resilience of the landscape connectivity to perturbations.
Results
Both species were confined to lowlands (<1000 m elevation) and avoided areas with high road densities. Greater horseshoe bats were more generalist than lesser horseshoe bats which tended to be associated with broadleaved and mixed forests.
Conclusions
The spatially-explicit models obtained were proven crucial for prioritizing foraging habitats, roost sites and key corridors for conservation. Hence, our results are being used by key stakeholders to help integrate conservation measures into forest management and conservation planning at the regional level. The approach used can be integrated into conservation initiatives elsewhere.