Ecological and evolutionary consequences of mammalian flight

飞行的进化是一个关键的创新，导致了三个不同的群体：昆虫，鸟类和蝙蝠。全世界有1100多个物种，蝙蝠是一个非常成功的哺乳动物群体。我和我的学生测试有关飞行的成本和收益的假设，以及它们对蝙蝠生态，形态，行为，生活史和多样性的影响。我们在加拿大西部和北方的现场进行了实地和实验室的观察和实验。在北方，蝙蝠必须调整它们的进食、栖息和繁殖行为，以科普短暂寒冷的生长季节和短暂的夜晚。夜行动物如何应对没有夜晚的生活，如何将繁殖压缩在一个短暂的季节里？在大草原上，蝙蝠在沿着河谷的缝隙中冬眠，但会定期更换栖息地。栖息地的转换是由于天气条件的变化吗？草原蝙蝠的冬眠行为将如何影响白鼻综合征的传播，这种疾病在北美东部杀死了数百万冬眠的蝙蝠，并迅速向西传播？迁徙蝙蝠的基本生物学特征是什么？它们旅行多远，使用什么路线，迁移行为是从母亲传给后代的吗？风力涡轮机的死亡对这些物种有什么后果？蝙蝠的种群是否适应当地的栖息地，如果是的话，飞行是如何影响多样化的？为了解决这些基本的和应用的问题，我们使用小型无线电发射器来跟踪运动，并在其自然栖息地的个别蝙蝠的喂养和栖息的决定。麦克风记录飞行蝙蝠的回声定位叫声，使我们能够测量它们的丰度和多样性，并确定与栖息地类型的关系。我们测量蝙蝠在不同环境条件下的代谢率，以确定使用休眠和选择栖息地小气候的成本和效益。我们还使用分子（DNA）技术来评估不同栖息地种群的遗传差异，以及不同地区迁徙蝙蝠的亲缘关系。我们的目标是了解飞行如何影响蝙蝠多样性的进化，并影响它们对白鼻综合征，风能设施和栖息地变化等新干扰的敏感性。

The evolution of flight was a key innovation leading to three diverse groups: insects, birds, and bats. With over 1100 species worldwide, bats are an extremely successful group of mammals. My students and I test hypotheses regarding the costs and benefits of flight, and their influence on bat ecology, morphology, behaviour, life history, and diversity. We use field and laboratory observations and experiments at sites in western and northern Canada. In the North, bats must adjust their feeding, roosting and reproductive behaviours to cope with short, cold growing seasons and short nights. How do nocturnal animals deal with no night and squeeze reproduction into a short season? In the prairies, bats hibernate in crevices along river valleys, yet periodically switch roosts. Is roost switching due to changing weather conditions? How will the hibernation behaviours of prairie bats influence the spread of white-nose-syndrome, a disease killing millions of hibernating bats in Eastern North America and rapidly moving west? What is the basic biology of migratory bats? How far do they travel, what routes do they use, and is migration behaviour learned from mother to offspring? What are the consequences of fatalities at wind turbines for these species? Do populations of bats adapt to local habitats and if so, how does flight influence diversification? To address these fundamental and applied questions, we use small radio-transmitters to track the movements, and feeding and roosting decisions of individual bats in their natural habitats. Microphones record the echolocation calls of flying bats, enabling us to measure their abundance and diversity, and determine the relationship to habitat type. We measure the metabolic rates of bats under different environmental conditions to determine the costs and benefits of using torpor and selecting roost microclimates. We also use molecular (DNA) techniques to assess the genetic differences of populations in different habitats, and the relatedness of migratory bats in different areas. Our goal is to understand how flight influenced the evolution of bat diversity, and influences their susceptibility to novel disturbances such as white-nose-syndrome, wind energy facilities, and habitat change.