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。全世界有超过1100种蝙蝠，是一群非常成功的哺乳动物。我和我的学生们测试了关于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部使用实地和实验室观察和实验。在北方，蝙蝠必须调整它们的进食、栖息和繁殖行为，以应对寒冷的生长季节和短促的夜晚。夜行动物如何应对没有黑夜的环境，并在短时间内进行繁殖？在大草原上，蝙蝠在河谷的裂缝中冬眠，但会周期性地转换栖息地。栖息地是否因天气变化而改变？草原蝙蝠的冬眠行为将如何影响白鼻综合征的传播？这种疾病导致北美东部数百万只冬眠的蝙蝠死亡，并迅速向西移动。迁徙蝙蝠的基本生物学特征是什么？它们的迁徙距离有多远，它们使用什么路线，它们的迁徙行为是由母亲传给后代的吗？风力涡轮机对这些物种造成的死亡后果是什么？蝙蝠种群会适应当地的栖息地吗？如果是这样，飞行是如何影响多样性的？为了解决这些基本的和实用的问题，我们使用小型无线电发射器来追踪蝙蝠在自然栖息地的运动、进食和栖息决定。麦克风记录飞行蝙蝠的回声定位呼叫，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。我们测量了不同环境条件下蝙蝠的代谢率，以确定使用冬眠和选择栖息小气候的成本和收益。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，以及它们对诸如白鼻综合征、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.