Behavioural flexibility and adaptability of bats on the edge

在接下来的五年里，我的研究项目将对蝙蝠的行为灵活性以及它们对气候变化、土地利用和人为威胁的反应产生新的见解。北美蝙蝠受到栖息地丧失和破碎化、白鼻综合征（WNS：一种由真菌病原体引起的疾病）、风能开发和气候变化的威胁。除了蝙蝠面临的威胁之外，围绕蝙蝠迁徙的基本生物学，特别是蝙蝠对迁徙线索的使用，还有许多悬而未决的问题。例如：路线和时间是天生的还是对环境条件的反应？如果是后者，气候和土地利用的变化会延长涡轮机的暴露时间吗？如果涡轮机沿着历史上的迁徙路线扩散，蝙蝠能找到并使用新的路线吗？蝙蝠的迁徙行为和鸟类一样是可遗传的吗？某些表型是否更容易被杀死（例如，大胆的个体与害羞的个体），如果是这样，这将如何影响蝙蝠的迁徙和探索行为？随着胆子更大的人被杀，对涡轮机的吸引力会随着时间的推移而减弱吗？换句话说，涡轮机或其他主要的人为威胁是否可以作为选择性因素，潜在地选择更害羞、更少探索和更少迁移的表型？我们将通过四个相互关联的短期目标来探索这些问题：了解1)迁移过程中使用的导航线索，2)季节行为的灵活性，3)物种在其季节范围边缘的适应性，以及4)人格特征的变异和遗传性。总的来说，实现这些短期目标将有助于我的研究计划的长期愿景，即了解蝙蝠对不断变化的环境和人为威胁的行为灵活性和适应性，并确定种群将如何适应蝙蝠面临的无数威胁。我们的研究将扩展现有的关于蝙蝠迁徙的进化和生态以及物种在其范围边缘的持久性的知识，并为加拿大知之甚少，数据不足和处于危险中的野生动物提供有价值的数据。研究人员、政府生物学家和保护组织可以利用这些信息为野生动物管理计划和保护工作提供信息，特别是更好地了解这些种群面临的潜在风险和威胁。

Over the next five years, my research program will generate novel insights into the behavioural flexibility of bats and their responses to changes in climate, land- use, and anthropogenic threats. Bats in North America are threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, white -nose syndrome (WNS: a disease caused by a fungal pathogen), wind energy development, and climate change. In addition to the threats bats face, there are many unanswered questions surrounding the basic biology of bat migration, particularly bats' use of migratory cues. For example: Are routes and timing innate or a response to environmental conditions? If the latter, will changing climates and land -use prolong turbine exposure? If turbines proliferate along historic migratory routes, can bats find and use new routes? Are migratory behaviours in bats heritable, as they are in birds? Are certain phenotypes more likely to be killed (e.g. bold vs. shy individuals) and if so, how will this influence migratoriness and exploratory behaviour of bats? Will attraction to turbines abate over time as bolder individuals are killed? In other words, could turbines, or other major anthropogenic threats, act as selective agents, potentially selecting for phenotypes that are shyer, less exploratory, and less migratory? We will explore these questions via four interrelated short--term objectives: to understand 1) navigational cues used during migration, 2) flexibility in seasonal behaviours, 3) adaptability of species at the edge of their seasonal range, and 4) variation in and heritability of personality traits. Collectively, achieving these short--term objectives will contribute to the long--term vision of my research program, which is to understand behavioural flexibility and adaptability of bats to changing environments and anthropogenic threats and to determine how populations will adapt to the myriad threats bats face. Our research will expand on existing knowledge of the evolution and ecology of migration in bats and persistence of species at the edge of their range, and contribute valuable data on poorly understood, data deficient, and at -risk wildlife in Canada. This information can be used by researchers, government biologists, and conservation organizations to inform wildlife management plans and conservation efforts, and in particular, to better understand potential risks and threats to these populations.