A triple-isotope approach to predict the breeding origins of European bats.

ABSTRACT: Despite a commitment by the European Union to protect its migratory bat populations, conservation efforts are hindered by a poor understanding of bat migratory strategies and connectivity between breeding and wintering grounds. Traditional methods like mark-recapture are ineffective to study broad-scale bat migratory patterns. Stable hydrogen isotopes (?D) have been proven useful in establishing spatial migratory connectivity of animal populations. Before applying this tool, the method was calibrated using bat samples of known origin. Here we established the potential of ?D as a robust geographical tracer of breeding origins of European bats by measuring ?D in hair of five sedentary bat species from 45 locations throughout Europe. The ?D of bat hair strongly correlated with well-established spatial isotopic patterns in mean annual precipitation in Europe, and therefore was highly correlated with latitude. We calculated a linear mixed-effects model, with species as random effect, linking ?D of bat hair to precipitation ?D of the areas of hair growth. This model can be used to predict breeding origins of European migrating bats. We used ?(13)C and ?(15)N to discriminate among potential origins of bats, and found that these isotopes can be used as variables to further refine origin predictions. A triple-isotope approach could thereby pinpoint populations or subpopulations that have distinct origins. Our results further corroborated stable isotope analysis as a powerful method to delineate animal migrations in Europe.

SUBMITTER: Popa-Lisseanu AG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3264582 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature