Genetic Approaches Are Necessary to Accurately Understand Bat-Wind Turbine Impacts
Date
2020-06-11
Authors
Chipps, Austin
Hale, Amanda
Weaver, Sara
Williams, Dean A.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Abstract
Bats are killed at wind energy facilities worldwide and we must improve our understanding of why this is happening and implement effective strategies to minimize impacts. To this end, we need accurate assessments of which individuals from which bat species are being killed at individual wind projects and at regional and range-wide scales. Traditional fatality searches have relied on physical characteristics to ascertain species and sex of bat carcasses collected at wind turbines; however, the resulting data can be incomplete and inaccurate. In contrast, the use of readily available and low-cost molecular methods improves both the quality and quantity of available data. We applied such methods to a bat fatality dataset (n = 439 bats) from far-south Texas, USA. Using DNA barcoding, we increased accurate species identification from 83% to 97%, and discovered the presence of 2 bat species outside of their known geographic ranges. Using a PCR-based approach to determine sex, the number of carcasses with correct sex assignment increased from 35% to 94%, and we documented a female-biased sex ratio for all species combined and for Dasypterus ega. We recommend that molecular methods be used during future survey efforts to accurately assess the impacts of wind energy on bats.
Description
Keywords
bats, conservation genetics, Dasypterus, Lasiurus, mortality, wind energy, wind turbine, yellow bats, Biology
Citation
Chipps, A. S., Hale, A. M., Weaver, S. P., & Williams D. A. (2020). Genetic approaches are necessary to accurately understand bat-wind turbine impacts. Diversity, 12(6), 236.
Rights
Rights Holder
© 2020 The Authors.
Rights License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.