Geology topics

Lauren V. Austin

Publications and source records attributed to Lauren V. Austin.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2019

Effects of historic wildfire and prescribed fire on site occupancy of bats in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, USA

Given high likelihood of regional extirpation of several once-common bat species in eastern North America from White-nose Syndrome, it is critical that impacts of forest management activities such as prescribed fire are known to minimize potentially additive negative effects on bat populations. Historic wildfires may offer a suitable surrogate to assess long-term burn impacts on bats for planning, implementing and assessing burning programs going forward. To examine effects of historic fire on bats, we sampled bat activity at 24 transect locations in burned and unburned forest stands in the central Appalachian Mountains of Shenandoah National Park (SNP), Virginia, USA, 2015. We found limited evidence positive fire effects over time on hoary bats (Lasiurus cinereus) and big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) occupancy. Overall, we found few or mostly equivocal relationships of bat occupancy relative to burn condition or time since fire at SNP across species using a false-positive occupancy approach. Our results suggest that fire does not strongly affect bat site occupancy at short or long-term time scales in the central Appalachians.

Virginia↗

USGS2018

Bat activity following repeated prescribed fire in the central Appalachians, USA

Background To restore and manage fire-adapted forest communities in the central Appalachians, USA, land managers are now increasingly prioritizing use of prescribed fire. However, it is unclear how the reintroduction of fire following decades of suppression will affect bat communities, particularly where white-nose syndrome-related population declines of many cave-hibernating bat species have occurred. To address this concern, we monitored and compared bat activity in burned and unburned habitat across a temporal gradient in western Virginia. Results We found evidence for slightly positive fire effects on activity levels of the northern long-eared bat ( Myotis septentrionalis [Trouessart, 1897]), Indiana bat ( Myotis sodalis [Miller and Allen, 1928]), little brown bat ( Myotis lucifugus [Le Conte, 1831]), big brown bat ( Eptesicus fuscus [Palisot de Beauvois, 1796])/silver-haired bat ( Lasionycteris noctivagans [Le Conte, 1831]) group, all high-frequency bats, and all bat species combined. We observed temporal effects only for the big brown bat, with a negative relationship between activity and time since fire. Conclusion Because response of bat activity was neutral to weakly positive relative to burned forest condition, our results suggest that bats are not a resource that would impede the use of this management tool in the central Appalachians.

Virginia↗

USGS2018

Bat activity following restoration prescribed burning in the central Appalachian Upland and riparian habitats

After decades of fire suppression in eastern North America, land managers now are prioritizing prescribed fire as a management tool to restore or maintain fire-adapted vegetation communities. However, in long—fire-suppressed landscapes, such as the central and southern Appalachians, it is unknown how bats will respond to prescribed fire in both riparian and upland forest habitats. To address these concerns, we conducted zero-crossing acoustic surveys of bat activity in burned, unburned, riparian, and non-riparian areas in the central Appalachians, Virginia, USA. Burn and riparian variables had model support (ΔAICc < 4) to explain activity of all bat species. Nonetheless, parameter estimates for these conditions were small and confidence intervals overlapped zero for all species, indicating effect sizes were marginal. Our results suggest that bats respond to fire differently between upland and riparian forest habitats, but overall, large landscape-level prescribed fire has a slightly positive to neutral impact on all bats species identified at our study site post—fire application.

Virginia↗