Bats as Indicators of Biodiversity

Bats are a vital part of our native wildlife, accounting for almost a third of all mammal species in the UK and occupy a wide range of habitats, such as wetlands, woodlands, farmland, as well as urban areas. They can tell us a lot about the state of the environment, as they are top predators of common nocturnal insects and are sensitive to changes in land use practices. The pressures they face - such as landscape change, agricultural intensification, development, and habitat fragmentation are also relevant to many other wildlife species, making them excellent indicators for the wider health of the UK's wildlife.

• Using BCT data to monitor biodiversity
• UK biodiversity indicator species
• EUROBATS - recent biodiversity indicator work

Using BCT data

BCT has been monitoring UK bat populations for more than 10 years under its National Bat Monitoring Programme (NBMP), with the help of more than 2,000 dedicated volunteers.

These long term population trends have been used to inform conservation work and provide a picture of the state of the UK's bats but they are now also being used to provide an indication of the state of our environment as a whole. They complement existing environmental indicators, such as birds and butterflies in that they are nocturnal, and so are more relevant to less documented environmental changes such as light pollution.

UK Biodiversity Indicators

In 2008 the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) included bats in their set of ‘indicator species,' which help measure progress towards the Government's target of halting biodiversity loss. The indicators show changes in aspects of biodiversity such as the population size of important species or the area of land managed for wildlife. They provide part of the evidence to assess whether the targets set out above have been achieved.

The six species used as indicator species are the noctule, lesser horseshoe bat, common pipistrelle, soprano pipistrelle, serotine and Daubenton's bat. Download a copy of Biodiversity Indicators in Your Pocket

EUROBATS: Intersessional Working Group on Bats as Indicators 

BCT has led recent projects on the development of biodiversity indicators using NBMP data and convenes the EUROBATS Intersessional Working Group on Bats as Indicators. Examples of recent indicator work include:

• BICCO - NET: the biodiversity impacts of climate change observation network
• Indicators of sustainable change in Eastern Europe
• Bats as indicators of environmental quality

BICCO-NET: the biodiversity impacts of climate change observation network

BCT is contributing to the BICCO-Net project through its provision of access to various NBMP datasets, such as the Field Survey, which covers noctule, serotine and pipistrelle bats and the Waterway Survey which covers Daubenton's bats.

The BICCO-NET is a project that aims to develop a process for collating, analysing and providing rapid web-based feedback of evidence of climate. Key monitoring data sets, covering a range of terrestrial and coastal taxa and habitats, are brought together and using a combination of statistical analysis and qualitative assessment, those species, communities and habitats that are most likely to be impacted by climate change in the UK will be identified.

Output from BICCO-Net will inform the development of adaptation strategies by enabling an adaptive management approach, refining techniques in the light of emerging evidence. The findings of the project will thus have a significant influence on climate change adaptation policy and future strategies for monitoring climate change impacts.  

Indicators of sustainable change in Eastern Europe

BCT is currently working in partnership with The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) on this Darwin project delivered in Romania and Bulgaria. Teams of NBMP volunteers have been trained to conduct roadside surveys to record bat distribution and abundance on long-distance transects. The Indicator Bats Program - iBats is a partnership between ZSL and BCT, working in partnership with a number of national NGOs. Together we run a number of national and international bat biodiversity monitoring projects to track changes in global biodiversity.  

Bats as indicators of environmental quality

In 2003, BCT developed models for predicting the occurance of Daubenton's bat using environmental data from the Environment Agency River Habitat Survey (RHS). In 2008 this work was revisited and sites in the NBMP Daubenton’s Bat Waterway Survey were matched to RHS monitoring data to understand links to environmental variables. The model was recently updated incorporating newly available RHS variables. A paper outlining the development and testing of the model was published in 2009 in Aquatic Conservation.