A Triple-Isotope Approach to Predict the Breeding Origins of European Bats
A Triple-Isotope Approach to Predict the Breeding Origins of European Bats
复制标题
预测欧洲蝙蝠繁殖起源的三同位素方法
作者：
A. Popa‐Lisseanu;K. Sörgel;Anja Luckner;L. Wassenaar;C. Ibáñez;S. Kramer‐Schadt;M. Ciechanowski;Tamás Görföl;Ivo Niermann;G. Beuneux;R. Mysłajek;J. Juste;J. Fonderflick;Detlev H. Kelm;C. Voigt
尽管欧盟承诺保护其迁徙蝙蝠种群，但由于对蝙蝠迁徙战略以及繁殖和越冬地之间的联系缺乏了解，保护工作受到阻碍。传统的方法，如标记-重新捕获，对于研究大规模的蝙蝠迁徙模式是无效的。稳定氢同位素(δD)已被证明在建立动物种群的空间迁徙连接性方面是有用的。在应用该工具之前，使用已知来源的蝙蝠样品对该方法进行了校准。在这里，我们通过测量来自欧洲45个地点的五种久坐蝙蝠的毛发中的δD，确立了δD作为欧洲蝙蝠繁殖起源的强大地理示踪剂的潜力。蝙蝠毛的δD与欧洲年平均降水量中已建立的空间同位素模式密切相关，因此与纬度高度相关。我们计算了一个线性混合效应模型，以物种为随机效应，将蝙蝠毛发的δD与毛发生长区域的降水量δD联系起来。该模型可用于预测欧洲迁徙蝙蝠的繁殖起源。我们使用δ13C和δ15N来区分蝙蝠的潜在起源，并发现这些同位素可以作为变量来进一步完善起源预测。因此，三同位素方法可以精确定位具有不同起源的种群或亚种群。我们的结果进一步证实了稳定同位素分析是描述欧洲动物迁徙的有力方法。
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 (δD) 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 δD as a robust geographical tracer of breeding origins of European bats by measuring δD in hair of five sedentary bat species from 45 locations throughout Europe. The δD 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 δD of bat hair to precipitation δD of the areas of hair growth. This model can be used to predict breeding origins of European migrating bats. We used δ13C and δ15N 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.