TY  - JOUR
AU  - López-Baucells, Adrià
AU  - Revilla-Martín, Natalia
AU  - Mas, Maria
AU  - Alonso-Alonso, Pedro
AU  - Budinski, Ivana
AU  - Fraixedas, Sara
AU  - Fernández-Llamazares, Álvaro
PY  - 2023
UR  - http://radar.ibiss.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/5767
AB  - The media is a valuable pathway for transforming people’s attitudes towards conservation issues. Understanding how bats are framed in the media is hence essential for bat conservation, particularly considering the recent fearmongering and misinformation about the risks posed by bats. We reviewed bat-related articles published online no later than 2019 (before the recent COVID19 pandemic), in 15 newspapers from the five most populated countries in Western Europe. We examined the extent to which bats were presented as a threat to human health and the assumed general attitudes towards bats that such articles supported. We quantified press coverage on bat conservation values and evaluated whether the country and political stance had any information bias. Finally, we assessed their terminology and, for the first time, modelled the active response from the readership based on the number of online comments. Out of 1095 articles sampled, 17% focused on bats and diseases, 53% on a range of ecological and conservation topics, and 30% only mention bats anecdotally. While most of the ecological articles did not present bats as a threat (97%), most articles focusing on diseases did so (80%). Ecosystem services were mentioned on very few occasions in both types (< 30%), and references to the economic benefits they provide were meagre (< 4%). Disease-related concepts were recurrent, and those articles that framed bats as a threat were the ones that garnered the highest number of comments. Therefore, we encourage the media to play a more proactive role in reinforcing positive conservation messaging by presenting the myriad ways in which bats contribute to safeguarding human well-being and ecosystem functioning.
PB  - Springer Nature
T2  - EcoHealth
T1  - Newspaper Coverage and Framing of Bats, and Their Impact on Readership Engagement
DO  - 10.1007/s10393-023-01634-x
ER  - 

@article{
author = "López-Baucells, Adrià and Revilla-Martín, Natalia and Mas, Maria and Alonso-Alonso, Pedro and Budinski, Ivana and Fraixedas, Sara and Fernández-Llamazares, Álvaro",
year = "2023",
abstract = "The media is a valuable pathway for transforming people’s attitudes towards conservation issues. Understanding how bats are framed in the media is hence essential for bat conservation, particularly considering the recent fearmongering and misinformation about the risks posed by bats. We reviewed bat-related articles published online no later than 2019 (before the recent COVID19 pandemic), in 15 newspapers from the five most populated countries in Western Europe. We examined the extent to which bats were presented as a threat to human health and the assumed general attitudes towards bats that such articles supported. We quantified press coverage on bat conservation values and evaluated whether the country and political stance had any information bias. Finally, we assessed their terminology and, for the first time, modelled the active response from the readership based on the number of online comments. Out of 1095 articles sampled, 17% focused on bats and diseases, 53% on a range of ecological and conservation topics, and 30% only mention bats anecdotally. While most of the ecological articles did not present bats as a threat (97%), most articles focusing on diseases did so (80%). Ecosystem services were mentioned on very few occasions in both types (< 30%), and references to the economic benefits they provide were meagre (< 4%). Disease-related concepts were recurrent, and those articles that framed bats as a threat were the ones that garnered the highest number of comments. Therefore, we encourage the media to play a more proactive role in reinforcing positive conservation messaging by presenting the myriad ways in which bats contribute to safeguarding human well-being and ecosystem functioning.",
publisher = "Springer Nature",
journal = "EcoHealth",
title = "Newspaper Coverage and Framing of Bats, and Their Impact on Readership Engagement",
doi = "10.1007/s10393-023-01634-x"
}

López-Baucells, A., Revilla-Martín, N., Mas, M., Alonso-Alonso, P., Budinski, I., Fraixedas, S.,& Fernández-Llamazares, Á.. (2023). Newspaper Coverage and Framing of Bats, and Their Impact on Readership Engagement. in EcoHealth
Springer Nature..
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-023-01634-x

López-Baucells A, Revilla-Martín N, Mas M, Alonso-Alonso P, Budinski I, Fraixedas S, Fernández-Llamazares Á. Newspaper Coverage and Framing of Bats, and Their Impact on Readership Engagement. in EcoHealth. 2023;.
doi:10.1007/s10393-023-01634-x .

López-Baucells, Adrià, Revilla-Martín, Natalia, Mas, Maria, Alonso-Alonso, Pedro, Budinski, Ivana, Fraixedas, Sara, Fernández-Llamazares, Álvaro, "Newspaper Coverage and Framing of Bats, and Their Impact on Readership Engagement" in EcoHealth (2023),
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-023-01634-x . .

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Montauban, Cecilia
AU  - Mas, Maria
AU  - Tuneu-Corral, Carme
AU  - Wangensteen, Owen S.
AU  - Budinski, Ivana
AU  - Martí-Carreras, Joan
AU  - Flaquer, Carles
AU  - Puig-Montserrat, Xavier
AU  - López-Baucells, Adrià
PY  - 2021
UR  - https://radar.ibiss.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/4169
AB  - Animals modify their behaviours and interactions in response to changing environments. In bats, environmental adaptations are reflected in echolocation signalling that is used for navigation, foraging and communication. However, the extent and drivers of echolocation plasticity are not fully understood, hindering our identification of bat species with ultrasonic detectors, particularly for cryptic species with similar echolocation calls. We used a combination of DNA barcoding, intensive trapping, roost and emergence surveys and acoustic recording to study a widespread European cryptic species complex (Pipistrellus pipistrellus and Pipistrellus pygmaeus) to investigate whether sibling bat species could exhibit extreme echolocation plasticity in response to certain environmental conditions or behaviours. We found that P. pygmaeus occupied the acoustic niche of their absent congeneric species, producing calls with P. pipistrellus’ characteristic structure and peak frequencies and resulting in false positive acoustic records of that species. Echolocation frequency was significantly affected by the density of bats and by maternity rearing stage, with lower frequency calls emitted when there was a high density of flying bats, and by mothers while juveniles were non-volant. During roost emergence, 29% of calls had peak frequencies typical of P. pipistrellus, with calls as low as 44 kHz, lower than ever documented. We show that automatic and manual call classifiers fail to account for echolocation plasticity, misidentifying P. pygmaeus as P. pipistrellus. Our study raises a vital limitation of using only acoustic sampling in areas with high densities of a single species of a cryptic species pair, with important implications for bat monitoring.
PB  - Springer Nature
T2  - Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
T1  - Bat echolocation plasticity in allopatry: a call for caution in acoustic identification of Pipistrellus sp.
VL  - 75
DO  - 10.1007/s00265-021-03002-7
SP  - 70
ER  - 

@article{
author = "Montauban, Cecilia and Mas, Maria and Tuneu-Corral, Carme and Wangensteen, Owen S. and Budinski, Ivana and Martí-Carreras, Joan and Flaquer, Carles and Puig-Montserrat, Xavier and López-Baucells, Adrià",
year = "2021",
abstract = "Animals modify their behaviours and interactions in response to changing environments. In bats, environmental adaptations are reflected in echolocation signalling that is used for navigation, foraging and communication. However, the extent and drivers of echolocation plasticity are not fully understood, hindering our identification of bat species with ultrasonic detectors, particularly for cryptic species with similar echolocation calls. We used a combination of DNA barcoding, intensive trapping, roost and emergence surveys and acoustic recording to study a widespread European cryptic species complex (Pipistrellus pipistrellus and Pipistrellus pygmaeus) to investigate whether sibling bat species could exhibit extreme echolocation plasticity in response to certain environmental conditions or behaviours. We found that P. pygmaeus occupied the acoustic niche of their absent congeneric species, producing calls with P. pipistrellus’ characteristic structure and peak frequencies and resulting in false positive acoustic records of that species. Echolocation frequency was significantly affected by the density of bats and by maternity rearing stage, with lower frequency calls emitted when there was a high density of flying bats, and by mothers while juveniles were non-volant. During roost emergence, 29% of calls had peak frequencies typical of P. pipistrellus, with calls as low as 44 kHz, lower than ever documented. We show that automatic and manual call classifiers fail to account for echolocation plasticity, misidentifying P. pygmaeus as P. pipistrellus. Our study raises a vital limitation of using only acoustic sampling in areas with high densities of a single species of a cryptic species pair, with important implications for bat monitoring.",
publisher = "Springer Nature",
journal = "Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology",
title = "Bat echolocation plasticity in allopatry: a call for caution in acoustic identification of Pipistrellus sp.",
volume = "75",
doi = "10.1007/s00265-021-03002-7",
pages = "70"
}

Montauban, C., Mas, M., Tuneu-Corral, C., Wangensteen, O. S., Budinski, I., Martí-Carreras, J., Flaquer, C., Puig-Montserrat, X.,& López-Baucells, A.. (2021). Bat echolocation plasticity in allopatry: a call for caution in acoustic identification of Pipistrellus sp.. in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
Springer Nature., 75, 70.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-021-03002-7

Montauban C, Mas M, Tuneu-Corral C, Wangensteen OS, Budinski I, Martí-Carreras J, Flaquer C, Puig-Montserrat X, López-Baucells A. Bat echolocation plasticity in allopatry: a call for caution in acoustic identification of Pipistrellus sp.. in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 2021;75:70.
doi:10.1007/s00265-021-03002-7 .

Montauban, Cecilia, Mas, Maria, Tuneu-Corral, Carme, Wangensteen, Owen S., Budinski, Ivana, Martí-Carreras, Joan, Flaquer, Carles, Puig-Montserrat, Xavier, López-Baucells, Adrià, "Bat echolocation plasticity in allopatry: a call for caution in acoustic identification of Pipistrellus sp." in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 75 (2021):70,
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-021-03002-7 . .

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Wright, Patrick G. R.
AU  - Newton, Jason
AU  - Agnelli, Paolo
AU  - Budinski, Ivana
AU  - Di Salvo, Ivy
AU  - Flaquer, Carles
AU  - Fulco, Antonio
AU  - Georgiakakis, Panagiotis
AU  - Martinoli, Adriano
AU  - Mas, Maria
AU  - Mazija, Mirna
AU  - Mucedda, Mauro
AU  - Papadatou, Eleni
AU  - Petrov, Boyan
AU  - Rodrigues, Luisa
AU  - Mathews, Fiona
AU  - Russo, Danilo
PY  - 2020
UR  - https://bmcecol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12898-020-00321-7
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32993600
UR  - http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=PMC7526252
UR  - https://radar.ibiss.bg.ac.rs/123456789/3917
AB  - BACKGROUND The Schreiber's bat, Miniopterus schreibersii, is adapted to long-distance flight, yet long distance movements have only been recorded sporadically using capture-mark-recapture. In this study, we used the hydrogen isotopic composition of 208 wing and 335 fur specimens from across the species' European range to test the hypothesis that the species migrates over long distances. RESULTS After obtaining the hydrogen isotopic composition (δ2H) of each sample, we performed geographic assignment tests by comparing the δ2H of samples with the δ2H of sampling sites. We found that 95 bats out of 325 showed evidence of long-distance movement, based on the analysis of either fur or wing samples. The eastern European part of the species range (Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia) had the highest numbers of bats that had moved. The assignment tests also helped identify possible migratory routes, such as movement between the Alps and the Balkans. CONCLUSIONS This is the first continental-scale study to provide evidence of migratory behaviour of M. schreibersii throughout its European range. The work highlights the need for further investigation of this behaviour to provide appropriate conservation strategies.
PB  - Springer Science and Business Media LLC
T2  - BMC Ecology
T1  - Hydrogen isotopes reveal evidence of migration of Miniopterus schreibersii in Europe.
IS  - 1
VL  - 20
DO  - 10.1186/s12898-020-00321-7
SP  - 52
ER  - 

@article{
author = "Wright, Patrick G. R. and Newton, Jason and Agnelli, Paolo and Budinski, Ivana and Di Salvo, Ivy and Flaquer, Carles and Fulco, Antonio and Georgiakakis, Panagiotis and Martinoli, Adriano and Mas, Maria and Mazija, Mirna and Mucedda, Mauro and Papadatou, Eleni and Petrov, Boyan and Rodrigues, Luisa and Mathews, Fiona and Russo, Danilo",
year = "2020",
abstract = "BACKGROUND The Schreiber's bat, Miniopterus schreibersii, is adapted to long-distance flight, yet long distance movements have only been recorded sporadically using capture-mark-recapture. In this study, we used the hydrogen isotopic composition of 208 wing and 335 fur specimens from across the species' European range to test the hypothesis that the species migrates over long distances. RESULTS After obtaining the hydrogen isotopic composition (δ2H) of each sample, we performed geographic assignment tests by comparing the δ2H of samples with the δ2H of sampling sites. We found that 95 bats out of 325 showed evidence of long-distance movement, based on the analysis of either fur or wing samples. The eastern European part of the species range (Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia) had the highest numbers of bats that had moved. The assignment tests also helped identify possible migratory routes, such as movement between the Alps and the Balkans. CONCLUSIONS This is the first continental-scale study to provide evidence of migratory behaviour of M. schreibersii throughout its European range. The work highlights the need for further investigation of this behaviour to provide appropriate conservation strategies.",
publisher = "Springer Science and Business Media LLC",
journal = "BMC Ecology",
title = "Hydrogen isotopes reveal evidence of migration of Miniopterus schreibersii in Europe.",
number = "1",
volume = "20",
doi = "10.1186/s12898-020-00321-7",
pages = "52"
}

Wright, P. G. R., Newton, J., Agnelli, P., Budinski, I., Di Salvo, I., Flaquer, C., Fulco, A., Georgiakakis, P., Martinoli, A., Mas, M., Mazija, M., Mucedda, M., Papadatou, E., Petrov, B., Rodrigues, L., Mathews, F.,& Russo, D.. (2020). Hydrogen isotopes reveal evidence of migration of Miniopterus schreibersii in Europe.. in BMC Ecology
Springer Science and Business Media LLC., 20(1), 52.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12898-020-00321-7

Wright PGR, Newton J, Agnelli P, Budinski I, Di Salvo I, Flaquer C, Fulco A, Georgiakakis P, Martinoli A, Mas M, Mazija M, Mucedda M, Papadatou E, Petrov B, Rodrigues L, Mathews F, Russo D. Hydrogen isotopes reveal evidence of migration of Miniopterus schreibersii in Europe.. in BMC Ecology. 2020;20(1):52.
doi:10.1186/s12898-020-00321-7 .

Wright, Patrick G. R., Newton, Jason, Agnelli, Paolo, Budinski, Ivana, Di Salvo, Ivy, Flaquer, Carles, Fulco, Antonio, Georgiakakis, Panagiotis, Martinoli, Adriano, Mas, Maria, Mazija, Mirna, Mucedda, Mauro, Papadatou, Eleni, Petrov, Boyan, Rodrigues, Luisa, Mathews, Fiona, Russo, Danilo, "Hydrogen isotopes reveal evidence of migration of Miniopterus schreibersii in Europe." in BMC Ecology, 20, no. 1 (2020):52,
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12898-020-00321-7 . .

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Tuneu-Corral, Carme
AU  - Puig-Montserrat, Xavier
AU  - Flaquer, Carles
AU  - Mas, Maria
AU  - Budinski, Ivana
AU  - López-Baucells, Adrià
PY  - 2020
UR  - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X1930843X?via%3Dihub
UR  - https://radar.ibiss.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/3564
AB  - Bats are well known for playing an important role in several ecosystem services such as arthropod population control, insect pest suppression in agricultural systems and vector disease control, but also for acting as ecological indicators. Their population dynamics are strongly linked to environmental variations and, in some cases, reflect the health status of ecosystems. Hence, some species have an excellent potential as ecological indicators due to their sensitivity to ecosystem changes. Despite the general decrease of many bat populations worldwide and the recent upsurge in the use of autonomous acoustic detectors, the acoustic monitoring of bat assemblages is still an emerging field in bat research and conservation. Probably due to a general lack of methodological standards and the lack of common ecological indices, few long-term bat acoustic monitoring programs are currently active and data is rarely shared and compared between regions. In this study we propose and adapt a set of different ecological indices that can be used in acoustic surveys designed to detect changes in bat diversity, activity and assemblage composition, all of which can be linked to species’ climatic and habitat-related preferences. Using a dataset collected during three years of bat monitoring in Catalonia (NE Iberian Peninsula), we used three traditional indices (richness, activity and Shannon diversity) and developed four new ecological indices (Community Thermal Index, Community Precipitation Index, Community Openness Index and Community Specialization Index) that enabled us to study bat communities and compare them at different spatial and temporal scales. Here, we demonstrate the applicability of these indices in bat monitoring programs. We also provide a consistent tool for generating easy-to-interpret ecological indices when monitoring the short- and long-term responses of bats under the current scenario of global change. Using standardized protocols and robust ecological indices enables studies and datasets to be compared, which in turn promotes the development of proper management and conservation measures via international cooperation.
PB  - Elsevier
T2  - Ecological Indicators
T1  - Ecological indices in long-term acoustic bat surveys for assessing and monitoring bats' responses to climatic and land-cover changes
VL  - 110
DO  - 10.1016/J.ECOLIND.2019.105849
SP  - 105849
ER  - 

@article{
author = "Tuneu-Corral, Carme and Puig-Montserrat, Xavier and Flaquer, Carles and Mas, Maria and Budinski, Ivana and López-Baucells, Adrià",
year = "2020",
abstract = "Bats are well known for playing an important role in several ecosystem services such as arthropod population control, insect pest suppression in agricultural systems and vector disease control, but also for acting as ecological indicators. Their population dynamics are strongly linked to environmental variations and, in some cases, reflect the health status of ecosystems. Hence, some species have an excellent potential as ecological indicators due to their sensitivity to ecosystem changes. Despite the general decrease of many bat populations worldwide and the recent upsurge in the use of autonomous acoustic detectors, the acoustic monitoring of bat assemblages is still an emerging field in bat research and conservation. Probably due to a general lack of methodological standards and the lack of common ecological indices, few long-term bat acoustic monitoring programs are currently active and data is rarely shared and compared between regions. In this study we propose and adapt a set of different ecological indices that can be used in acoustic surveys designed to detect changes in bat diversity, activity and assemblage composition, all of which can be linked to species’ climatic and habitat-related preferences. Using a dataset collected during three years of bat monitoring in Catalonia (NE Iberian Peninsula), we used three traditional indices (richness, activity and Shannon diversity) and developed four new ecological indices (Community Thermal Index, Community Precipitation Index, Community Openness Index and Community Specialization Index) that enabled us to study bat communities and compare them at different spatial and temporal scales. Here, we demonstrate the applicability of these indices in bat monitoring programs. We also provide a consistent tool for generating easy-to-interpret ecological indices when monitoring the short- and long-term responses of bats under the current scenario of global change. Using standardized protocols and robust ecological indices enables studies and datasets to be compared, which in turn promotes the development of proper management and conservation measures via international cooperation.",
publisher = "Elsevier",
journal = "Ecological Indicators",
title = "Ecological indices in long-term acoustic bat surveys for assessing and monitoring bats' responses to climatic and land-cover changes",
volume = "110",
doi = "10.1016/J.ECOLIND.2019.105849",
pages = "105849"
}

Tuneu-Corral, C., Puig-Montserrat, X., Flaquer, C., Mas, M., Budinski, I.,& López-Baucells, A.. (2020). Ecological indices in long-term acoustic bat surveys for assessing and monitoring bats' responses to climatic and land-cover changes. in Ecological Indicators
Elsevier., 110, 105849.
https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ECOLIND.2019.105849

Tuneu-Corral C, Puig-Montserrat X, Flaquer C, Mas M, Budinski I, López-Baucells A. Ecological indices in long-term acoustic bat surveys for assessing and monitoring bats' responses to climatic and land-cover changes. in Ecological Indicators. 2020;110:105849.
doi:10.1016/J.ECOLIND.2019.105849 .

Tuneu-Corral, Carme, Puig-Montserrat, Xavier, Flaquer, Carles, Mas, Maria, Budinski, Ivana, López-Baucells, Adrià, "Ecological indices in long-term acoustic bat surveys for assessing and monitoring bats' responses to climatic and land-cover changes" in Ecological Indicators, 110 (2020):105849,
https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ECOLIND.2019.105849 . .