Green forests for bats: Response to stand-scale management interventions – Results of an experiment

作者：Kirsten Jung, Peter Schall, Christian Ammer, Nils Nölke · 发表于：Forest Ecology and Management · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122971 · 被引用次数：4 · 研究领域：Bat Biology and Ecology Studies、Fire effects on ecosystems、Species Distribution and Climate Change

Managed forest ecosystems are a fundamental pillar to the conservation of biodiversity. However, whether and how stand-scale management interventions can support biodiversity and associated ecosystem functions is yet unclear. Here we focused on the group of European insectivore bats, which are important top-down predators of herbivorous insects and guard forests against insect pests. Using a full factorial experimental design, which included canopy gap creation and deadwood enrichment, we assessed whether and how species richness, relative abundance and behavior of bats and their functional groups differ due to experimental treatment and quantitative environmental metrics of the stand, assessed by ground surveys and airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data. Gap creation increased bat species richness and relative abundance of bats, while increased deadwood volume and understory vegetation, correlated with higher bat activity and foraging activity. Gap creation however mainly increased the abundance of rather generalist fast flying open and edge foraging bats while more specialized narrow space foragers, remained under canopy cover resulting in distinct local assemblages between experimental treatments. Species relative abundances hereby correlated with quantitative environmental metrics, reflecting ecological constraints of functional groups, but also species- specific resource requirements. Our results emphasize the importance of managed forests for bats and highlig...