USGS Science⌕ Search
Home/Archive/USGS

USGS · 70227471

Analytical assessments in support of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 3-bat species status assessment

View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Beginning in February of 2020, researchers and staff of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Bat Conservation International (BCI), Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and Montana State University associated with the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) collaborated with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to provide technical assistance in support of the USFWS Three Bat Species Status Assessments (SSA) including the little brown bat (MYLU, Myotis lucifugus), northern long-eared bat (MYSE, Myotis septentrionalis), and tricolored bat (PESU, Perimyotis subflavus). Analytical support for the SSA was not intended to provide interpretive results, which should therefore be considered beyond the scope of this report. Technical assistance for the SSA included facilitating the USFWS data call by educating and working directly with data contributors to manage, submit, and archive a variety of bat monitoring data in the online NABat database1 using standardized data submission templates accessible through the upload features on the NABat website. Most data collected through the USFWS data call for the SSA were submitted and stored in the NABat database. These represent the efforts of hundreds of partnering organizations across more than 200 individual NABat Partner Portal Projects. A few organizations contributed data for use in these analyses that were not submitted to the NABat database. Records submitted in response to the USFWS data call included bat capture, stationary and mobile acoustic, and internal roost count data (winter and summer). Data collated in the NABat database and used for the analyses described herein are documented (NABat 2020a, NABat 2020b, NABat 2021) and available through the NABat third party request feature.

Explore related subjects

Report

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

2022. Analytical assessments in support of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 3-bat species status assessment. https://doi.org/10.7944/p9b4rweu

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related USGS reports

USGS2026

Factors affecting benthic macroinvertebrate health in the City of Roanoke, Virginia, 2020–2023

Major waterways in the City of Roanoke (City) have failed to meet Virginia’s aquatic life designated use since 1996. Segments of the upper Roanoke River lack healthy benthic macroinvertebrate communities which prompted a total maximum daily load (TMDL) study by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VDEQ) to identify the most probable stressor(s) causing the impairment. Excess fine sediment was identified as the most probable stressor impairing benthic macroinvertebrates on portions of the Roanoke River in 2006, and a watershed implementation plan published in 2016 required communities within the impaired watershed to implement projects that would reduce the load of fine sediment entering the Roanoke River. Additional benthic macroinvertebrate sampling and stream habitat assessments along the Roanoke River and Tinker Creek (a tributary to the Roanoke River that flows through the City) revealed continued impaired conditions, and subsequent stressor identification analysis was completed in 2023. Samples collected downstream of the City on the Roanoke River and Tinker Creek generally showed more impaired conditions relative to samples collected at locations upstream of the City. Based on this evaluation, sediment and sediment-bound polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were identified as probable stressors while specific conductance, total nitrogen, and sediment metals were possible stressors in Tinker Creek; however, only a sediment TMDL target was identified to address impaired benthic macroinvertebrate communities. In the Roanoke River upstream of the Niagara Dam, sediment and total phosphorus were identified as probable stressors, sediment polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and sediment PCB were considered possible stressors; however, the TMDL target was only for total phosphorus. The City partnered with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in 2016 to continuously monitor water quality and streamflow conditions on a major tributary of Tinker Creek, Lick Run, and by 2020, four similar monitoring stations were installed on the Roanoke River and Tinker Creek near the locations of benthic macroinvertebrate sampling. Monitored parameters included streamflow and/or gage height (water level), water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, specific conductance, and turbidity. Turbidity is a measure of the relative clarity of the water and was previously used to model suspended-sediment concentrations at the monitoring stations. The City also contracted Kirk Environmental, LLP (KE) to collect benthic macroinvertebrate samples and stream habitat assessments near the locations of the water-quality monitoring stations. Identified benthic macroinvertebrates were used to calculate the Virginia Stream Condition Index (SCI), a multi-metric index composed of eight biological attributes that represent elements of the structure and function of the benthic macroinvertebrate community that measure diversity, composition, and tolerance to pollution. Study objective: In this report, benthic macroinvertebrate samples and stream habitat assessment scores collected at four locations on the Roanoke River and Tinker Creek by KE and the VDEQ between 2020 and 2023 were compared to measured water-quality and streamflow conditions prior to sampling to evaluate patterns between benthic macroinvertebrate health, water quality, and hydrology.

Virginia↗