Bats and roads: Evaluating methods for risk assessment

In this thesis I present my investigation into the impact of roads on bats in the UK. The road network is expanding rapidly around the world. Road infrastructure is expected to increase globally by an additional 25 million kilometres by 2050, an increase of 60% above 2010 levels. In the UK, road density is already extremely high. There are 395,000 kilometres of road, 50,000 kilometres of which are major roads. Roads divide the UK into 325,369 patches so that almost half the UK’s landcover is divided by roads into patches of less than 5km2. The UK’s road network is expected to expand by a further 640 kilometres of motorways and major roads by 2020. Roads have a wide range of impacts. Roads are a direct cause of habitat loss and fragmentation. Roadside habitats can also be considerably altered by noise, light and chemical pollution, changes to light and temperature regimes and the hydrological cycle. Roads also pose a direct threat to biodiversity; a wide range of taxa are killed by vehicles on roads. Bats may be vulnerable to the impact of roads. UK bat species use a much larger area for foraging than predicted for a mammal of their body size, typically within a radius of 1-6 km of the roost, depending on the species. The area within which bats forage is referred to as the core sustenance zone (CSZ), and for UK species the CSZ area can range from 3-112 km2. Due to their large range requirements, bats are likely to encounter roads frequently. If bats cross roads they are at risk of collision with vehicles. If bats do not cross roads, they may be limited to foraging within a suboptimal amount of space. I used a three-step procedure, examining the behavioural, ecological and physiological responses of bats to roads to provide an integrated assessment of the threats posed by roads to bats. First, I performed a systematic review of the literature and conducted meta-analyses to assess the threat posed by roads to bats as a result of (1) collisions with vehicles and (2) as a barrier to movement. Second, I tested whether the distribution of bat roosts in the UK relates to the size of patches created by major roads. I also examined the influence of patch quality including the density of minor roads, and the area of woodlands, grassland and built environments. To determine whether road-defined patches were occupied by at least one roost I used the locations of 6199 bat roosts obtained from Natural England and the National Bat Monitoring Programme (NBMP). Finally, I investigated whether corticosteroid levels, as exhibited by individuals within maternity roosts, correlated with a range of environmental variables including proximity to the nearest road and road density within the core sustenance zone. At step one, I found that major roads are more likely to be a barrier to movement than minor roads and that they influence the distribution of bat roosts in the UK. At step two, it was determined that roosts were less likely to be located in smaller patches as defined by major roads and were more likely to be found in patches with a greater area of woodland. Step three reveals a possible correlation between the density of minor roads within a roosts core sustenance zone and corticosteroid and gonadal steroids exhibited by members of that roost. This three step procedure could be applied to other genera where studies have been published on road crossing behaviour (Step 1), where the presence/absence and location of focal animals and their nests have been extensively recorded, and from which it is relatively easy to obtain faecal samples, especially without causing additional stress or distress for the focal animals

Roads and bats: A meta-analysis and review of the evidence on vehicle collisions and barrier effects

Roads are a potential threat to bat conservation. In addition to the direct risk of collision of bats with vehicles, roads could pose a threat to bat populations as a result of habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation, and could act as barriers to movements of bats between habitats. We performed a systematic review of the literature and conducted meta-analyses to assess the threat posed by roads to bats as a result of 1) collisions between bats and vehicles and 2) roads acting as barriers to movements of bats. Based on collated records of 1207 bat road casualties in Europe, we found that low-flying species are more prone to collisions than high-flying species, and that juveniles are more vulnerable to collisions than adults. In addition, meta-analysis identified a significant bias towards male casualties. Casualties included rare species such as Barbastella barbastellus and geographically restricted species such as Rhinolophus species. The bias towards male casualties could be indicative of greater natal philopatry or lower dispersal among females, or of sexual segregation in habitats of varying quality, i.e. females may occupy better quality habitats than males, and road density may be lower in better quality habitats. Whether or not roads act as barriers to the movement of bats depends on a complex interplay of habitat and species-specific behaviour. For example, the presence of favourable habitat for bats - notably woodland - was found in this review to be linked with significantly reduced barrier effects but a heightened risk of collision. Our data suggest that roads do pose a threat to bats. Future research should assess the contribution of traffic noise and street lighting to the barrier effect of roads. Where new road schemes are monitored by ecological practitioners, it is vital that consistent protocols are employed to ensure that bat activity can be compared before and after the road is built. Evidence from such research should be used to minimize the risks for bats of any roads built in the future, and to design safe crossing points for bats.Amy G. Fensome was supported by a NERC PhD studentship (NE/K500902/1)

Introduction to the “Circum-Arctic Palynological Event Stratigraphy” (CAPE) series of papers

Palynomorphs are one of the few groups of fossils that provide biostratigraphic control in marine to nonmarine rocks and can be applied as proxies for paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic interpretations. Their utility is enhanced by their microscopic size, which is usually less than 200 micrometres; they are thus easily recovered from small rock samples. They occur throughout the Phanerozoic and are therefore invaluable in refining biostratigraphic control of Arctic successions in Alaska, Arctic Canada, Greenland, northern Europe, and northern Russia. The objective of the Circum-Arctic Palynological Event (CAPE) Stratigraphy series of papers is to integrate data published on Arctic palynomorphs to delineate palynological events (palynoevents) across the Arctic for the Silurian to Cenozoic. Once the series of papers is complete, the data will also be used to compile a TimeScale Creator datapack that can be updated and calibrated on an ongoing basis. Palynoevents include taxon originations (first occurrences or FOs) and extinctions (last occurrences, or LOs) and some abundance events. The palynoevents are correlated with established chronostratigraphic horizons such as bases of ammonoid zones or stages, and hence their chronostratigraphy is independent of the absolute time scale in millions of years. In addition to the palynostratigraphic papers, the series includes a paper detailing the paleogeography of the circum-Arctic regions, including informative maps, as well as a paper providing a palynological perspective of the Cenozoic shift from greenhouse to icehouse conditions

ARF1(2–17) does not specifically interact with ARF1-dependent pathways Inhibition by peptide of phospholipases Cβ, D and exocytosis in HL60 cells

AbstractThe small GTP-binding protein ARF has been shown recently to regulate phospholipase D (PLD). In order to investigate the role of ARF proteins in regulated exocytosis, we have used the N-terminal peptide ARF1(2–17) of the ARF1 protein. ARF1 reconstituted PLD activity in cytosol-depleted HL60 cells was inhibited by ARF1(2–17). In the presence of endogenous cytosol, ARF1(2–17) also inhibited GTP-γ-S-stimulated PLD activity and exocytosis. Mastoparan Politses jadwagae and mastoparan Vespula lewisii which exhibit similar structural properties to ARF1(2–17) also inhibited GTP-γ-S-stimulated PLD and exocytosis. GTP-γ-S-stimulated phospholipase C-β (PLC-β) was also inhibited by ARF(2–17) and mastoparan. In cytosol-depleted HL60 cells, the ARF(2–17) inhibited the reconstitution of GTP-γ-S-stimulated PLC-β activity with exogenously-added PLC-β1 and phosphatidylinositol transfer protein. We conclude that the widely-used ARF1(2–17) peptide inhibits both ARF-independent (i.e. PLC-β) and ARF-dependent pathways (i.e. PLD) and therefore cannot be regarded as a specific inhibitor of ARF function

Sympatric woodland Myotis bats form tight-knit social groups with exclusive roost home ranges (dataset)

The article relating to this dataset is available in ORE: http://hdl.handle.net/10871/15799Dataset associated with the PLOS journal article with the same title. The two sets of data in the Excel file were used to create the networks in the Tiff file.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC

The effect of warning signs on the presence of snare traps in a Ugandan rainforest

BCFS receives core funding from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. The Budongo Snare Removal Project is funded by Oakland Zoo. PF was funded by the European Research Council project grant to CC (grant agreement number: 679787). DPD was funded by the National Science Centre (grant number: 2020/04/X/NZ8/00865).Since chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) conservation often involves local human populations, conservation strategies must consider psychological factors that impact their behavior. In Budongo Forest, Uganda, for example, local communities commonly engage in snare trap (hereafter: snare) setting for wild meat. This illegal activity posits a substantial threat to wild chimpanzees, causing permanent wounds or death for those who are snared. Despite various schemes previously implemented to address snare setting?an activity that is fueled by poverty, the problem and its detrimental impact on chimpanzees persists. Here, we experimentally tested a novel intervention, a systematic display of specially designed warning signs aimed at local poachers. We monitored the presence of snares before and after introducing these signs over a total period of two years and compared it with that of a similar sized control area with no intervention. Results show that snares were less likely to be present during the ?sign? period than during the ?non-sign? period in the experimental but not in the control area. We discuss the potential of this cost-effective intervention for limiting illegal activities that pose a severe threat to chimpanzees and other species inhabiting tropical forests.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Ecological impact assessments fail to reduce risk of bat casualties at wind farms

Demand for renewable energy is rising exponentially. While this has benefits in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, there may be costs to biodiversity [1]. Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) are the main tool used across the world to predict the overall positive and negative effects of renewable energy developments before planning consent is given, and the Ecological Impact Assessments (EcIAs) within them assess their species-specific effects. Given that EIAs are undertaken globally, are extremely expensive, and are enshrined in legislation, their place in evidence-based decision making deserves evaluation. Here we assess how well EIAs of wind-farm developments protect bats. We found they do not predict the risks to bats accurately, and even in those cases where high risk was correctly identified, the mitigation deployed did not avert the risk. Given that the primary purpose of an EIA is to make planning decisions evidence-based, our results indicate that EIA mitigation strategies used to date have been ineffective in protecting bats. In the future, greater emphasis should be placed on assessing the actual impacts post-construction and on developing effective mitigation strategies

Citing the taxonomic literature: what a difference a year makes

We all know that the world of scientific publishing has changed profoundly since the onset of the digital revolution. One relatively new development is the rapid publication of scientific papers online, frequently before they are copyedited and typeset, and sometimes even before being peer reviewed (Sheldon 2018). Climate of the Past is one such journal that posts manuscripts online before they have been refereed. The purpose of doing this is to allow online discussion of a manuscript while it is under review in the conventional sense. Manuscripts may thus benefit from any useful feedback from readers as well as from the formal reviews. The above developments mean that scientific articles may appear online long before being assigned to a particular volume/issue and with final page numbers. Such assignments commonly occur in the following year when the complete volumes or issues of a journal appear in print and/ or digitally. Before the digital revolution, authors had to wait perhaps 12 months or more between acceptance and final publication. Today, just a week or two may elapse before the typescript of an accepted manuscript is available online. In most respects this revolution is good, especially now that many authors aim for metricised output targets. However, such early publication of a paper may cause complications regarding its referencing, but in most cases this does not really matter so long as the reference in a bibliography leads to the retrieval of the correct publication. For example, the paper cited below as Pound and Riding (2015) was initially issued online in 2015, prior to assignment to a volume of the Journal of the Geological Society published in 2016. Before 2016 it would have also been cited as Pound and Riding (2015) but that situation would not have lasted for long and would have affected very few, if any, citations. Electronic publication of a paper prior to assignment of the volume number and final pagination can be confusing, but in most cases problems are limited to referencing. However, it has critical implications for papers with biological systematics, especially those with new nomenclatural proposals (new taxa, combinations, substitute names, etc. – so-called nomenclatural novelties). Until recently, codes of nomenclature in botany and zoology required nomenclatural novelties to be published in paper format in publicly distributed articles. However, the most recent codes permit the publication of nomenclatural novelties in a hybrid (online and paper) journal or even in a purely electronic periodical (but not in an online database or catalogue)