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Let's Get Batty! A Survey of Bat Species Composition in a Globally Rare Pine Barrens Ecosystem
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2024-12-17
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Habitat loss, climate change, and disease have all contributed to the statewide decline in bat populations. Acoustic surveys are the least invasive method to determine bat community composition across the landscape. Acoustic mobile transects and stationary surveys were performed at three sites within the Altona Flat Rock, a globally rare sandstone pavement jack pine barrens in the fall of 2024. These sites were within the 2018 burn area, in an adjacent wildfire recovered (1957) jack pine (Pinus banksiana) stand, and in a mixed forest near the abandoned Million Dollar Dam in comparison to sites in agricultural and urban (SUNY Plattsburgh campus, City Marina) areas. We hypothesized that species richness would be higher in the 2018 burn site due to more open overstory and with close proximity to the wetland where insects should be more prevalent. Our results did not support this hypothesis with species richness being greatest at the Flat Rock forested dam (9). The Flat Rock burned site had a species richness of 6, and SUNY Plattsburgh campus had a species richness of 5. The Flat Rock unburned, or recovered site, City Marina and agricultural sites had the lowest species richness (4). In total, all nine native species were detected during our surveys, with the hoary and silver-haired bat being detected across all sites. Notably, we potentially detected two endangered species: the northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) and the Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), and a proposed endangered species, the tricolored bat (Perimyotis subflavus). We also found community similarity between the Flat Rock burned and Flat Rock forested dam, Flat Rock burned and City Marina, and Flat Rock burned and agricultural sites were the most similar (80%). Our results suggest that bats prefer more complex habitats like the Flat Rock forested dam. New York state is working to increase bat survey efforts by engaging citizen scientists. We plan to share our findings with local agencies and the New York State Natural Heritage Program to aid their efforts to map and conserve bat communities in unique habitats.