Disentangling winter relationships: Bat responses to forest stand structure, environmental conditions, and prey composition

IF 3.7 2区农林科学 Q1 FORESTRY

Forest Ecology and Management Pub Date : 2025-01-06 DOI:10.1016/j.foreco.2024.122484

Santiago Perea , Amanda Vicente-Santos , Angela L. Larsen-Gray , Kamal J.K. Gandhi , Daniel U. Greene , Brittany F. Barnes , Steven B. Castleberry

{"title":"Disentangling winter relationships: Bat responses to forest stand structure, environmental conditions, and prey composition","authors":"Santiago Perea , Amanda Vicente-Santos , Angela L. Larsen-Gray , Kamal J.K. Gandhi , Daniel U. Greene , Brittany F. Barnes , Steven B. Castleberry","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2024.122484","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Private, working forests are a significant component of the landscape in the southeastern United States. Past research has documented diverse bat communities in these areas, but there is limited information on how forest management practices affect bat and insect communities in winter. We applied structural equation modeling to examine relationships among bat activity, temperature, forest structure, and nocturnal insect assemblages across four working pine (<em>Pinus</em> spp.) forest landscapes in the southeastern U.S. Coastal Plain during January to March, 2021–2022. Temperature directly influenced bat activity and insect metrics. Additionally, higher insect ordinal richness positively affected activity of all but one bat taxon. Activity of most bat taxa was also directly influenced by forest structure, generally indicating preference for large areas of semi-open canopied stands and responding negatively to pre-thinned, closed-canopy stands. Forest stand structure affected several insect attributes including catches of Coleoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, and large-sized insects, indicating potential indirect cascading effects on bat taxa associated with specific forest insect assemblages. Our results underscore the importance of maintaining a heterogenous forest landscape with a range of forest stand age and structure from early establishment to thinned, open-canopied stands and offer practical guidance for forest managers seeking to optimize conservation efforts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"578 ","pages":"Article 122484"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Forest Ecology and Management","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112724007965","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"FORESTRY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Private, working forests are a significant component of the landscape in the southeastern United States. Past research has documented diverse bat communities in these areas, but there is limited information on how forest management practices affect bat and insect communities in winter. We applied structural equation modeling to examine relationships among bat activity, temperature, forest structure, and nocturnal insect assemblages across four working pine (Pinus spp.) forest landscapes in the southeastern U.S. Coastal Plain during January to March, 2021–2022. Temperature directly influenced bat activity and insect metrics. Additionally, higher insect ordinal richness positively affected activity of all but one bat taxon. Activity of most bat taxa was also directly influenced by forest structure, generally indicating preference for large areas of semi-open canopied stands and responding negatively to pre-thinned, closed-canopy stands. Forest stand structure affected several insect attributes including catches of Coleoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, and large-sized insects, indicating potential indirect cascading effects on bat taxa associated with specific forest insect assemblages. Our results underscore the importance of maintaining a heterogenous forest landscape with a range of forest stand age and structure from early establishment to thinned, open-canopied stands and offer practical guidance for forest managers seeking to optimize conservation efforts.

查看原文本刊更多论文

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Forest Ecology and Management 农林科学-林学

CiteScore

7.50

自引率

10.80%

发文量

665

审稿时长

39 days

期刊介绍： Forest Ecology and Management publishes scientific articles linking forest ecology with forest management, focusing on the application of biological, ecological and social knowledge to the management and conservation of plantations and natural forests. The scope of the journal includes all forest ecosystems of the world. A peer-review process ensures the quality and international interest of the manuscripts accepted for publication. The journal encourages communication between scientists in disparate fields who share a common interest in ecology and forest management, bridging the gap between research workers and forest managers. We encourage submission of papers that will have the strongest interest and value to the Journal''s international readership. Some key features of papers with strong interest include: 1. Clear connections between the ecology and management of forests; 2. Novel ideas or approaches to important challenges in forest ecology and management; 3. Studies that address a population of interest beyond the scale of single research sites, Three key points in the design of forest experiments, Forest Ecology and Management 255 (2008) 2022-2023); 4. Review Articles on timely, important topics. Authors are welcome to contact one of the editors to discuss the suitability of a potential review manuscript. The Journal encourages proposals for special issues examining important areas of forest ecology and management. Potential guest editors should contact any of the Editors to begin discussions about topics, potential papers, and other details.