School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan 49931, USA.
Ecol Appl. 2012 Jul;22(5):1428-34. doi: 10.1890/11-1438.1.
The application of stable hydrogen isotope (deltaD) techniques has swiftly advanced our understanding of animal movements, but this progression is dominated by studies of birds and relatively long-distance, north-south migrants. This dominance reflects the challenge of incorporating multiple sources of error into geographic assignments and the nature of spatially explicit deltaD models, which possess greater latitudinal than longitudinal resolution. However, recent progress in likelihood-based assignments that incorporate multiple sources of isotopic error and Bayesian approaches that include additional sources of information may advance finer-scale understanding of animal movements. We develop a stable-isotope method for determining probable origins of bats within hibernacula and show that this method produces spatially explicit, continuous assignments with regional resolution. We outline how these assignments can be used to infer hibernacula connectivity, an application that could inform spatial modeling of white-nose syndrome. Additionally, estimates of seasonal and annual flight distances for many cave-dwelling bat species can be derived from this approach. We also discuss how this application can be used in general to provide insights into variable migratory and foraging strategies within bat populations.
稳定氢同位素（δD）技术的应用迅速提高了我们对动物运动的理解，但这一进展主要集中在鸟类和相对长距离、南北迁徙的研究上。这种主导地位反映了将多个误差源纳入地理分配的挑战，以及具有更大纬度分辨率而不是经度分辨率的空间显式 δD 模型的性质。然而，最近在包含多个同位素误差源的可能性分配和包含其他信息源的贝叶斯方法方面的进展，可能会推进对动物运动的更精细尺度的理解。我们开发了一种确定冬眠地内蝙蝠可能起源的稳定同位素方法，并表明该方法可产生具有区域分辨率的空间显式、连续分配。我们概述了如何使用这些分配来推断冬眠地的连通性，这一应用可以为白鼻综合征的空间建模提供信息。此外，还可以从这种方法中得出许多洞穴栖息蝙蝠物种的季节性和年度飞行距离估计。我们还讨论了如何在一般情况下，将这种应用用于深入了解蝙蝠种群中可变的迁徙和觅食策略。
