Abstract
The northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis Trovessart) is a cavity-roosting species that forages in cluttered upland and riparian forests throughout the oak-dominated Appalachian and Central Hardwoods regions. Common prior to white-nose syndrome, the population of this bat species has declined to functional extirpation in some regions in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, including portions of the central Appalachians. Our long-term research in the central Appalachians has shown that maternity colonies of this species form non-random assorting networks in patches of suitable trees that result from long- and short-term forest disturbance processes, and that roost loss can occur with these disturbances. Following two consecutive prescribed burns on the Fernow Experimental Forest in the central Appalachians, West Virginia, USA, in 2007 to 2008, post-fire counts of suitable black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.; the most selected species for roosting) slightly decreased by 2012. Conversely, post-fire numbers of suitable maple (Acer spp. L.), primarily red maple (Acer rubrum L.), increased by a factor of three, thereby ameliorating black locust reduction. Maternity colony network metrics such as roost degree (use) and network density for two networks in the burned compartment were similar to the single network observed in unburned forest. However, roost clustering and degree of roost centralization was greater for the networks in the burned forest area. Accordingly, the short-term effects of prescribed fire are slightly or moderately positive in impact to day-roost habitat for the northern long-eared bat in the central Appalachians from a social dynamic perspective. Listing of northern long-eared bats as federally threatened will bring increased scrutiny of immediate fire impacts from direct take as well as indirect impacts from long-term changes to roosting and foraging habitat in stands being returned to historic fire-return conditions. Unfortunately, definitive impacts will remain speculative owing to the species’ current rarity and the paucity of forest stand data that considers tree condition or that adequately tracks snags spatially and temporally.
Highlights
Efforts to quantify the effects of prescribed fire on many aspects of bat ecology have steadily increased as conservation concern for bats has risen and the use of prescribed fire has become more widespread throughout eastern United States
We examined data for northern long-eared bat day-roosts that were originally collected by Johnson et al (2008, 2011) and Karp (2013) from the Fernow Experimental Forest (FEF) in Tucker County, West Virginia, USA
Taken in concert with the previous examinations of how northern long-eared bats on the FEF respond to prescribed burning, our study provides additional, albeit limited, data to suggest that two consecutive fires had no negative impact on the day-roost ecology of the species; positive impacts were probable at least in the short term of our limited study but remain inconclusive
Summary
Efforts to quantify the effects of prescribed fire on many aspects of bat ecology have steadily increased as conservation concern for bats has risen and the use of prescribed fire has become more widespread throughout eastern United States. In Eastern landscapes where prescribed burning reduces forest stand density or “clutter,” foraging quality as measured by relative abundance of recorded echolocation pulses typically increases for many bat species after fire (Ford et al 2006a, Loeb and Waldrop 2008). Seasonality, and frequency, evidence from the East suggests that fire often can recruit more trees or snags into conditions suitable for day-roosts for bark- and cavity-roosting bat species than are lost (Perry 2012). Periodic landscape-level fires produce requisite site conditions needed by the Indiana bat, such as a pulse recruitment of snags with exfoliating bark, reduced canopy cover, and increased solar radiation on residual boles, as well as factors important over longer periods such as maintenance and regeneration of shagbark hickory Dickinson et al (2010) showed that smoke and heating during early growing season fires in the central Appalachians could exceed acceptable physiological thresholds for the northern long-eared bat. Rodrigue et al (2001) observed that Myotine bats day-roosting in trees are disturbed during burning as flames approach roost sites
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