Biological and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA, United Kingdom.
Forest Research, Alice Holt Lodge, Farnham, Surrey, GU10 4LH, United Kingdom.
Ecol Appl. 2017 Jul;27(5):1541-1554. doi: 10.1002/eap.1546. Epub 2017 Jun 16.
Conservation strategies to tackle habitat loss and fragmentation require actions at the local (e.g., improving/expanding existing habitat patches) and landscape level (e.g., creating new habitat in the matrix). However, the relative importance of these actions for biodiversity is still poorly understood, leading to debate on how to prioritize conservation activities. Here, we assess the relative importance of local vs. landscape-level attributes in determining the use of woodlands by bats in fragmented landscapes; we also compare the role of habitat amount in the surrounding landscape per se vs. a combination of both habitat amount and configuration and explore whether the relative importance of these attributes varies with species mobility and landscape context. We conducted acoustic surveys in 102 woodland patches in the UK that form part of the WrEN project (www.wren-project.com), a large-scale natural experiment designed to study the effects of 160 yr of woodland creation on biodiversity and inform landscape-scale conservation. We used multivariate analysis and a model-selection approach to assess the relative importance of local (e.g., vegetation structure) and landscape-level (e.g., amount/configuration of surrounding land types) attributes on bat occurrence and activity levels. Species mobility was an important trait determining the relative importance of local vs. landscape-level attributes for different bat species. Lower mobility species were most strongly influenced by local habitat quality; the landscape became increasingly important for higher mobility species. At the landscape-scale, a combination of habitat amount and configuration appeared more important than habitat amount alone for lower mobility species, while the opposite was observed for higher mobility species. Regardless of species mobility, landscape-level attributes appeared more important for bats in a more homogeneous and intensively farmed landscape. Conservation strategies involving habitat creation and restoration should take into account the mobility of target species and prioritize landscape-level actions in more homogeneous and intensively farmed landscapes where habitat loss and fragmentation have been more severe.
保护策略旨在解决栖息地丧失和破碎化问题，需要在地方（例如，改善/扩大现有栖息地斑块）和景观（例如，在基质中创建新栖息地）层面采取行动。然而，这些行动对生物多样性的相对重要性仍知之甚少，导致关于如何优先考虑保护活动的争论。在这里，我们评估了地方与景观层面属性在确定蝙蝠在破碎化景观中对林地的利用方面的相对重要性；我们还比较了周围景观本身的栖息地数量与栖息地数量和配置的组合在确定蝙蝠利用方面的作用，并探讨了这些属性的相对重要性是否随物种移动性和景观背景而变化。我们在英国的 102 个林地斑块中进行了声学调查，这些林地斑块是 WrEN 项目（www.wren-project.com）的一部分，该项目是一个大规模的自然实验，旨在研究 160 年的林地创建对生物多样性的影响，并为景观尺度的保护提供信息。我们使用多元分析和模型选择方法来评估地方（例如，植被结构）和景观层面（例如，周围土地类型的数量/配置）属性对蝙蝠出现和活动水平的相对重要性。物种移动性是决定不同蝙蝠物种对地方与景观层面属性的相对重要性的一个重要特征。移动性较低的物种受当地栖息地质量的影响最大；对于移动性较高的物种，景观变得越来越重要。在景观层面上，对于移动性较低的物种，栖息地数量和配置的组合似乎比单独的栖息地数量更为重要，而对于移动性较高的物种则相反。无论物种移动性如何，对于在更同质和集约化农业景观中的蝙蝠，景观层面属性似乎更为重要。涉及栖息地创造和恢复的保护策略应考虑目标物种的移动性，并在更同质和集约化农业景观中优先考虑景观层面的行动，这些景观中的栖息地丧失和破碎化更为严重。
