Demography and life history traits of a temperate colonial mammal, the little brown bat

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Understanding population biology is crucial for managing, monitoring and conserving biodiversity. Despite this, biologists have tremendous difficulty characterizing many key population parameters (e.g., size, productivity, etc.), even for common species. The objective of my research program is to quantify population parameters that are important for managing populations and to understand factors that cause variation in them. Ultimately, my goal is to measure how populations respond to environmental variation and understand the evolutionary causes and consequences of behaviors. My research program has a focus on bats. To date I have been working on movements of bats in eastern North America via field- and lab-based methods to understand the causes and consequences of population structure. Such information is important for understanding evolutionary dynamics, and management. In recent years, the need for information to inform management of bats is crucial, given the impacts of white-nose syndrome, a disease caused by a fungus that was introduced to North America and has reduced bat populations by >90% in 2 years. In Nova Scotia, it is no longer possible to conduct research at my study sites as their numbers have been reduced to near 0. In Canada three species of bat are now listed as ‘Endangered’ by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada and in many provincial jurisdictions. The science and management community are currently struggling with how to manage the situation and my research program will make a positive contribution to informing this discussion. Because of the decimation of my current study systems I am moving my research program to Newfoundland and Labrador where there is still no record of the fungus. Further, based on its geography (i.e., an island) and molecular work that we have conducted it seems there is a much reduced chance the fungus will be introduced. I intend to undertake an intensive, long-term study of the factors that explain variation in life history parameters (e.g., size, reproduction, behavior) of little brown bats, a species that is typical of many temperate zone bats worldwide. My research is designed to incorporate training of undergraduate and graduate students. We will address questions that ultimately address factors that cause change in population size of little brown bats. Little brown bats are a typical bat of temperate areas and I expect our results will be generalizable to other species in other places. Specifically, we will quantitatively characterize behaviors at roosts, social dynamics, and measure survival and reproduction. and identify factors that explain variation in these parameters to understand their evolutionary causes and consequences. As the scientific community struggles to manage the devastation of bat populations a quantitative understanding of these parameters will be important.