Biological and Ecological Sciences, University of Stirling, Scotland.
EVECO, Universiteit Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium.
PLoS One. 2018 Oct 4;13(10):e0204511. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204511. eCollection 2018.
There is growing recognition that with sympathetic management, plantation forests may contain more biodiversity than previously thought. However, the extent to which they may support bat populations is contentious. Many studies have demonstrated active avoidance of coniferous plantations and attributed this to the lack of available roost sites and low invertebrate density. In contrast, other work, carried out in plantation dominated landscapes have shown that certain bat species are able to exploit these areas. However, the extent to which bats use plantations for roosting and foraging, or simply move through the plantation matrix to access more favourable sites is unclear. We radio tracked female Pipistrellus pygmaeus over two summers to establish the extent to which individual bats use Sitka Spruce plantations in southern Scotland for foraging and roosting and assess the implications for felling operations on bats. Maternity roosts identified (n = 17) were in all in buildings and most were large (> 500 individuals). We found no evidence of bats roosting in mature Sitka Spruce crop trees, although several bats used roosts in old or dead beech and oak trees as an alternative to their main maternity roost. Home ranges were much larger (mean 9.6 ± 3.12 km2) than those reported from other studies (0.6-1.6 km2), and it is likely that roost availability rather than food abundance constrains P. pygmaeus use of Sitka Spruce plantations. At the landscape scale, most individuals selected coniferous habitats over other habitat types, covering large distances to access plantation areas, whilst at a local scale bats used forest tracks to access water, felled stands or patches of broadleaf cover within the plantation. Sitka Spruce plantations support a high abundance of Culicoides impuctatus, the Highland midge which may act as a reliable and plentiful food source for females during lactation, an energetically expensive period. The use of felled stands for foraging by bats has implications for forest management as wind turbines, following small-scale felling operations, are increasingly being installed in plantations; wind turbines have been associated with high bat mortality in some countries. Decisions about siting wind turbines in upland plantations should consider the likelihood of increased bat activity post felling.
人们越来越认识到，通过 sympathetic management，人工林可能比以前认为的包含更多的生物多样性。然而，它们在多大程度上支持蝙蝠种群是有争议的。许多研究表明，蝙蝠主动避开针叶林种植园，并将其归因于缺乏可用的栖息地和低昆虫密度。相比之下，其他在以种植园为主的景观中进行的研究表明，某些蝙蝠物种能够利用这些区域。然而，蝙蝠在多大程度上利用种植园作为栖息地和觅食地，或者只是通过种植园基质移动到更有利的地点尚不清楚。我们在两个夏季对雌性 Pipistrellus pygmaeus 进行了无线电跟踪，以确定个体蝙蝠在苏格兰南部的斯堪的纳维亚云杉种植园中觅食和栖息地的程度，并评估对蝙蝠进行砍伐作业的影响。确定的繁殖地（n = 17）均在建筑物中，其中大多数较大（> 500 个个体）。我们没有发现蝙蝠在成熟的斯堪的纳维亚云杉作物树上栖息的证据，尽管有几只蝙蝠在旧的或死的山毛榉和橡树树上使用栖息地作为其主要繁殖地的替代品。家域范围大得多（平均 9.6 ± 3.12 km2）比其他研究报告的范围（0.6-1.6 km2）大，斯堪的纳维亚云杉种植园的栖息地可用性而不是食物丰度可能限制了 P. pygmaeus 的使用。在景观尺度上，大多数个体选择针叶林栖息地而不是其他栖息地类型，覆盖很大的距离来进入种植园区域，而在局部尺度上，蝙蝠使用森林小径来获取水、砍伐的林分或种植园内部的阔叶覆盖斑块。斯堪的纳维亚云杉种植园支持大量 Culicoides impunctatus 的存在，即高地蠓，它可能在哺乳期为雌性提供可靠且丰富的食物来源，这是一个能量消耗很高的时期。蝙蝠利用砍伐的林分觅食对森林管理有影响，因为在一些国家，越来越多的风力涡轮机在种植园里安装，而这些风力涡轮机与一些国家的高蝙蝠死亡率有关。在高地种植园中安装风力涡轮机的决策应考虑到砍伐后蝙蝠活动增加的可能性。
