Assessing the Effects of Management Alternatives on Habitat Suitability in a Forested Landscape of Northeastern China

Abstract Forest management often has cumulative, longlasting effects on wildlife habitat suitability and the effects may be impractical to evaluate using landscape-scale field experiments. To understand such effects, we linked a spatially explicit landscape disturbance and succession model (LANDIS) with habitat suitability index (HSI) models to assess the effects of management alternatives on habitat suitability in a forested landscape of northeastern China. LANDIS was applied to simulate future forest landscape changes under four management alternatives (no cutting, clearcutting, selective cutting I and II) over a 200-year horizon. The simulation outputs were linked with HSI models for three wildlife species, the red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris), the red deer (Cervus elaphus) and the hazel grouse (Bonasa bonasia). These species are chosen because they represent numerous species that have distinct habitat requirements in our study area. We assessed their habitat suitability based on the mean HSI values, which is a measure of the average habitat quality. Our simulation results showed that no one management scenario was the best for all species and various forest management scenarios would lead to conflicting wildlife habitat outcomes. How to choose a scenario is dependent on the trade-off of economical, ecological and social goals. Our modeling effort could provide decision makers with relative comparisons among management scenarios from the perspective of biodiversity conservation. The general simulation results were expected based on our knowledge of forest management and habitat relationships of the species, which confirmed that the coupled modeling approach correctly simulated the assumed relationships between the wildlife, forest composition, age structure, and spatial configuration of habitat. However, several emergent results revealed the unexpected outcomes that a management scenario may lead to

Greater Horseshoe Bats Recognize the Sex and Individual Identity of Conspecifics from Their Echolocation Calls

The echolocation calls of bats are mainly used for navigation and foraging; however, they may also contain social information about the emitter and facilitate social interactions. In this study, we recorded the echolocation calls of greater horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) and analyzed the acoustic parameter differences between the sexes and among individuals. Then, we performed habituation-discrimination playback experiments to test whether greater horseshoe bats could recognize the sex and individual identity of conspecifics from their echolocation calls. The results showed that there were significant differences in the echolocation call parameters between sexes and among individuals. When we switched playback files from a habituated stimuli to a dishabituated stimuli, the tested bats exhibited obvious behavioral responses, including nodding, ear or body movement, and echolocation emission. The results showed that R. ferrumequinum can recognize the sex and individual identity of conspecifics from their echolocation calls alone, which indicates that the echolocation calls of R. ferrumequinum may have potential communication functions. The results of this study improve our understanding of the communication function of the echolocation calls of bats

Effects of Colonization, Geography and Environment on Genetic Divergence in the Intermediate Leaf-Nosed Bat, <i>Hipposideros larvatus</i>

Determining the evolutionary history and population drivers, such as past large-scale climatic oscillations, stochastic processes and ecological adaptations, represents one of the aims of evolutionary biology. Hipposideros larvatus is a common bat species in Southern China, including Hainan Island. We examined genetic variation in H. larvatus using mitochondrial DNA and nuclear microsatellites. We found a population structure on both markers with a geographic pattern that corresponds well with the structure on mainland China and Hainan Island. To understand the contributions of geography, the environment and colonization history to the observed population structure, we tested isolation by distance (IBD), isolation by adaptation (IBA) and isolation by colonization (IBC) using serial Mantel tests and RDA analysis. The results showed significant impacts of IBD, IBA and IBC on neutral genetic variation, suggesting that genetic variation in H. larvatus is greatly affected by neutral processes, environmental adaptation and colonization history. This study enriches our understanding of the complex evolutionary forces that shape the distribution of genetic variation in bats

Using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to characterize nest site selection in wild Japanese tits Parus minor

Selecting a suitable nest site is critical to the survival and reproduction of birds. Prospecting allows individuals to gather information on the local quality of potential future breeding sites, which may help them make the best nest site selection decision. However, few studies have focused on the direct links between the prospecting activity of breeders and subsequent nest site selection. In this study, we investigated the prospecting pattern of Japanese tits Parus minor during the pre‐breeding period of the first breeding attempt and whether nest site characteristics influence their nest box visiting behaviour and occupied nest site. We used radio frequency identification (RFID) to track the movements of Japanese tits visiting nest boxes and compared nest site characteristics between visited and unvisited (control) nest boxes, as well as between visited and occupied nest boxes. We found that Japanese tits started visiting nest boxes approximately 20 days before breeding, visited an average of six nest boxes and eventually chose the most visited nest box for breeding activities. Japanese tits were more likely to visit nest boxes that had less canopy cover and lower shrub density but a greater total number of surrounding trees and ultimately chose breeding nest boxes with a smaller entrance inclination, in nesting trees with a larger diameter at breast height (DBH) which were surrounded by trees with a larger DBH. Our results suggest that Japanese tits visit several potential breeding sites before choosing breeding nest boxes and that nest site characteristics can influence their prospecting activity and nest site selection

Temporal dynamics of the bat wing transcriptome: Insight into gene-expression changes that enable protection against pathogen

ABSTRACT Skin acts as a mechanical barrier between the body and its surrounding environment and plays an important role in resistance to pathogens. However, we still know little regarding skin responses to physiological changes, particularly with regard to responses against potential pathogens. We herein executed RNA-seq on the wing of the Rhinolophus ferrumequinum to assess gene-expression variations at four physiological stages: pre-hibernation, hibernation (early-hibernation and late-hibernation), and post-hibernation, as well as the gene-expression patterns of infected and uninfected bats with the Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd). Our results showed that a greater number of differentially expressed genes between the more disparate physiological stages. Functional enrichment analysis showed that the down-regulated response pathways in hibernating bats included phosphorus metabolism and immune response, indicating metabolic suppression and decreased whole immune function. We also found up-regulated genes in post-hibernating bats that included C-type lectin receptor signalling, Toll-like receptor signalling pathway, and cell adhesion, suggesting that the immune response and skin integrity of the wing were improved after bats emerged from their hibernation and that this facilitated clearing Pd from the integument. Additionally, we found that the genes involved in cytokine or chemokine activity were up-regulated in late-hibernation compared to early-hibernation and that FOSB regulation of immune cell activation was differentially expressed in bats infected with Pd during late-hibernation, implying that the host’s innate immune function was enhanced during late-hibernation so as to resist pathogenic infection. Our findings highlight the concept that maintenance of intrinsic immunity provides protection against pathogenic infections in highly resistant bats

Geographic Variation in Note Types of Alarm Calls in Japanese Tits (<i>Parus minor</i>)

Geographic variability in acoustic signals has been documented in many bird species. However, geographic variations in alarm calls have been so far neglected despite their crucial role on reducing risk to group members and relatives. We analyzed the note types and acoustic parameters of Japanese tit (Parus minor) alarm calls to three types of intruders (a nest predator, an adult predator, and a harmless species) from three populations in China. Our results revealed that tits in the same population produce similar note types to different intruders, but the three populations only shared six note types and each population had unique note types. The frequency and duration parameters of three shared common note types were significantly different among populations. The three populations belong to the same species, thus they have shared note types. We suspect that the unique note types occurring in each population may be related to three potential reasons: founder effect, predation pressure, and vocal learning. The differences in acoustic parameters of common notes among populations may be a consequence of adaptations to their environments. We suggest that population differences in the note levels of bird alarm calls do exist

Geographic variation in the acoustic traits of greater horseshoe bats: testing the importance of drift and ecological selection in evolutionary processes.

Patterns of intraspecific geographic variation of signaling systems provide insight into the microevolutionary processes driving phenotypic divergence. The acoustic calls of bats are sensitive to diverse evolutionary forces, but processes that shape call variation are largely unexplored. In China, Rhinolophus ferrumequinum displays a diverse call frequency and inhabits a heterogeneous landscape, presenting an excellent opportunity for this kind of research. We quantified geographic variation in resting frequency (RF) of echolocation calls, estimated genetic structure and phylogeny of R. ferrumequinum populations, and combined this with climatic factors to test three hypotheses to explain acoustic variation: genetic drift, cultural drift, and local adaptation. Our results demonstrated significant regional divergence in frequency and phylogeny among the bat populations in China's northeast (NE), central-east (CE) and southwest (SW) regions. The CE region had higher frequencies than the NE and SW regions. Drivers of RF divergence were estimated in the entire range and just the CE/NE region (since these two regions form a clade). In both cases, RF divergence was not correlated with mtDNA or nDNA genetic distance, but was significantly correlated with geographic distance and mean annual temperature, indicating cultural drift and ecological selection pressures are likely important in shaping RF divergence among different regions in China

Effect of Sex and Group on the resting frequency of <i>Rhinolophus ferrumequinum</i>.

<p>Tests used type III sum of squares. Sex and Group were considered as fixed effects. The model is significant and explains a large proportion of data variance (<i>F</i>₅  = 375.454, <i>P</i><0.0001, <i>r</i>²  = 0.948).</p

Association between geographic distance in km, genetic divergence (<i>F_ST</i>/1-<i>F_ST</i>), climatic Euclidean distance and resting frequency.

<p>Euclidean distance of echolocation calls in kHz between populations of <i>Rhinolophus ferrumequinum</i> in China. Geographic, longitudinal and MAT variables were chosen <i>a priori</i> as important factors and so were used to conduct the pairwise partial Mantel test. Results are shown as correlation coefficients of Mantel and partial Mantel tests. Controlled variables in partial Mantel tests are in parentheses. After Bonferroni correction <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0070368#pone.0070368-Rom1" target="_blank">[62]</a>, the <i>P</i> values that are significant in Mantel and partial Mantel tests, respectively, are shown in bold.</p><p>RF- resting frequency, MAPW- mean annual precipitable water, MARH- mean annual relative humidity, MAT- mean annual temperature.</p