Abstract
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.
Highlights
In landscapes where we lack a thorough understanding of the interactions and relationships between organisms and their environment, it can be difficult to manage anthropogenic environmental change for the benefit of biodiversity
The majority of roosts were in buildings, including all maternity roosts, there was some diurnal use of tree roosts and one individual regularly used a derelict hut in the plantation interior as a day roost
Boughey et al (2011) [6] found that P. pygmaeus roosts were more likely to be found in buildings nearer water and broadleaf woodland; in our study area most areas of broadleaf cover were in close proximity to human infrastructure (53% of broadleaf tree cover in the landscape was within 200m of a building, and 89% of broadleaf tree cover was within 1km of a building), and all the houses we found roosts in were within 100m of a watercourse
Summary
In landscapes where we lack a thorough understanding of the interactions and relationships between organisms and their environment, it can be difficult to manage anthropogenic environmental change for the benefit of biodiversity. Information on the impact that management has on both abiotic and biotic environments, and the organisms which are present, is sparse for many taxa. Sufficient information to determine the impact of management on organisms [1,2] or to assess the influence of changing management practices is often lacking. There is growing evidence that changing forest management practices can facilitate social and ecological benefits without impacting economic performance [2,3,4,5], thereby providing an opportunity to manage plantations in ways that benefit both biodiversity and commercial interests
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