ESTABLISHING A LONG-TERM MONITORING PROGRAM TO CHARACTERIZE SPATIO-TEMPORAL CHANGES IN BAT ASSEMBLAGE OF A TYPICAL CENTRAL VALLEY RIPARIAN HABITAT

Jessica Lin; University of California, Davis; jeslin@ucdavis.edu; Leila S. Harris, Douglas A. Kelt, Melanie L. Truan, Andrew Engilis, Jr.

Despite their widespread distribution throughout the state, our understanding of California bats remains woefully incomplete. We are conducting the first year-long systematic survey of bat communities along a typical riparian corridor in the Central Valley to collect baseline data that could be used to inform future management decisions. Eight acoustic recording stations equipped with Pettersson D500X full-spectrum detectors are established along a 30 mile span of Putah Creek, a riparian corridor flanked by agricultural lands. Detectors were deployed for one week per month at each station, and will collect data for a year to capture both seasonal and spatial variations in the bat assemblage. Recordings will be processed with SonoBat 4, with manual vetting to verify species identification. We will inventory bat species richness on the creek, characterize spatial and temporal (diel and seasonal) patterns of bat activities, and evaluate the efficiency of this monitoring protocol so to improve future monitoring efforts. This information will allow investigations of more sophisticated questions concerning the ecology and habitat preferences of select species, bat assemblage dynamics in a managed and highly impacted ecological corridor, and the impact of anthropogenic activities (e.g., agriculture) and climate change on bat assemblages over time.

Poster Session     Student Paper