Influence of wetland networks on bat activity in mixed-use landscapes

Johnson, Joshua; Lookingbill, Todd; Elmore, Andrew; Engelhardt, Katharina; Churchill, John; Gates, Edward

Parks and other protected lands can provide important source habitat and act as valuable dispersal corridorsin urbanizing environments. However, most wetlands within protected areas are managed in isolationwithout consideration of the broader landscape connections. We studied the importance ofwetland habitat connectivity and landscape context to bat activity in five National Parks along a gradientof increasing urbanization within the Mid-Atlantic United States. Ninety-six Anabat stations were set upthroughout the parks, from which we derived the characteristic spatial scales at which bat activity wasassociated with wetlands. This information was used in a graph theoretic framework to construct networkmodels of potential landscape connectivity for those species that had positive associations withwetland land cover. We found that the importance of wetlands as a predictor of bat activity varied ona species-by-species basis and increased when network measures were used that accounted for connectedarea in a broad spatial context. The results demonstrate that both area and connectivity of wetlandforaging habitat may act as orthogonal variables to availability of roosting habitat in explainingthe distribution of highly mobile species. We use the results to illustrate the value of network analysisto guide the coordinated management of two of the parks' most valued natural resources - wetlandsand bats.

Influence of wetland networks on bat activity in mixed-use landscapes

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