Describing roosts used by forest bats: the importance of microclimate.

摘要

Adequate descriptions of roosting habitat are vital to the management and conservation of bats. However, most studies on bat roosting preference report only structural characteristics of roosts and surrounding habitat, and ignore potentially important factors in roost selection. I argue that the current methods for describing the roosting habitat of tree-roosting bats can be improved, and that more emphasis should be placed on designing studies to determine why bats choose particular roosts. Herein, I focus on measuring microclimate in roosts because it universally influences habitat selection. Specifically, roost temperature is easily measured and is likely an important microclimate variable used by bats in roost selection. Variation in structural characteristics of roosts is often assumed to correlate with variation in microclimate of the roost; however, empirical data are too scarce to verify this assumption. I suggest improvements to the current methods of describing roost characteristics and suggest the inclusion of new methods to describe microclimate. In summation, I argue that there are methods of measuring roost characteristics that may be beneficial to use in conjunction with the methods currently being used, and that microclimate should be considered when designing future studies.