Genetic approaches to understanding the population-level impact of wind energy development on migratory bats
- Western Michigan Univ., Kalamazoo MI (United States)
- Grand Valley State Univ. Allendale, MI (United States)
Documented fatalities of bats at wind turbines have raised serious concerns about the future impacts of increased wind power development on populations of migratory bat species. Yet there is little data on bat population sizes and trends to provide context for understanding the consequences of mortality due to wind power development. Using a large dataset of both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA variation for eastern red bats, we demonstrated that: 1) this species forms a single, panmictic population across their range with no evidence for the historical use of divergent migratory pathways by any portion of the population; 2) the effective size of this population is in the hundreds of thousands to millions; and 3) for large populations, genetic diversity measures and at least one coalescent method are insensitive to even very high rates of population decline over long time scales and until population size has become very small. Our data provide important context for understanding the population-level impacts of wind power development on affected bat species.
- Research Organization:
- Western Michigan Univ., Kalamazoo MI (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Wind and Water Technologies Office (EE-4W)
- DOE Contract Number:
- EE0000533
- OSTI ID:
- 1312842
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-WMU-0533
- Resource Relation:
- Related Information: Vonhof, M. J., and A. L. Russell. 2015. Genetic approaches to the conservation of migratory bats: a study of the eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis). PeerJ 3:e983; DOI 10.7717/peerj.983
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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