RCN SEABCRU: The Southeast Asian Bat Conservation Research Unit

东南亚是世界上生物多样性最丰富的地区之一，支持着世界上约30%的蝙蝠动物群。蝙蝠作为种子传播者、传粉者和害虫防治媒介，发挥着关键的生态系统服务功能，但快速的土地利用变化和不受管制的狩猎危及该地区的许多物种。只有18%的物种被认为拥有稳定的种群，20%的物种可能在本世纪末之前在全球范围内灭绝。此外，蝙蝠是多种病毒的天然宿主，但越来越多的人达成共识，认为是人类造成的环境干扰导致了传染病的出现。因此，迫切需要准确记录东南亚蝙蝠物种的分布、多样性和丰度，以及蝙蝠对人类活动的反应。东南亚蝙蝠保护研究股的目标是建立一个国际研究人员网络，以整理和生成这些数据，方法是开展研究活动，以2007年一次论坛上达成共识确定的四个优先领域为中心：飞狐的分布和种群生态学；分类学和分类学；洞穴蝙蝠的多样性和保护；以及依靠森林为生的蝙蝠对景观变化的反应。该网络将为每个优先事项制定标准化研究协议，并通过一系列讲习班培训东南亚蝙蝠研究人员了解这些协议。将建立一个在线实践社区，以促进和促进研究人员之间的交流，以整理、合成和共享结果数据，并促进有效的国际交流和促进合作。SEABCRU RCN将把来自东南亚、美国和英国的研究人员与大学、博物馆和非政府组织联系在一起。研究重点将得到学生团队的支持，这些学生团队包括来自两年制大学、四年制大学和研究生院的学生，并结合了美国和东南亚的学生。该项目将产生关于东南亚蝙蝠的多样性、分布、丰度和系统学的独特数据集，这对保护干预至关重要，并可以极大地促进我们对生物地理过程、群落生态学以及促使蝙蝠出现传染病的生态应激源的理解。

Southeast Asia is one of the most biologically diverse regions in the world, and supports about 30% of the world's bat fauna. Bats perform critical ecosystem services as seed dispersers, pollinators and agents of pest control, but rapid land-use change and unregulated hunting imperil many of the region's species. Only 18% are considered to have stable populations and 20% of species are likely to be globally extinct by the end of this century. Moreover, bats are the natural reservoirs of numerous viruses, but there is growing consensus that it is human-induced environmental disturbances that precipitate the emergence of infectious diseases. Accurate documentation of the distribution, diversity and abundance of bat species in Southeast Asia and the responses of bats to anthropogenic activities is thus urgently needed. The goal of the South East Asian Bat Conservation Research Unit (SEABCRU) RCN is to create a network of international researchers to collate and generate these data through the implementation of research activities centered on four priority areas identified by consensus at a forum in 2007: flying fox distributions and population ecology; taxonomy and systematics; cave bat diversity and conservation; and response of forest-dependent bats to landscape change. The network will develop standardized research protocols for each priority and train Southeast Asian bat researchers in the protocols through a series of workshops. An online community of practice will be established to facilitate and promote communication among researchers to collate, synthesize, and share resulting data, and to promote effective international communication and stimulate collaboration.The SEABCRU RCN will bring together researchers from across SE Asia, the US and UK with university, museum and NGO affiliations. The research priorities will be supported by student teams that include those from 2-year colleges, four-year colleges, and graduate institutions, and combine US and SE Asian students. The project will generate unique datasets on the diversity, distribution, abundance and systematics of Southeast Asian bats critical for conservation intervention and that can greatly advance our understanding of biogeographic process, community ecology, and the ecological stressors that promote the emergence of infectious diseases in bats.