title: Are regional habitat models useful at a local-scale? A case study of threatened and common insectivorous bats in South-Eastern Australia.
abstract: Habitat modelling and predictive mapping are important tools for conservation planning, particularly for lesser known species such as many insectivorous bats. However, the scale at which modelling is undertaken can affect the predictive accuracy and restrict the use of the model at different scales. We assessed the validity of existing regional-scale habitat models at a local-scale and contrasted the habitat use of two morphologically similar species with differing conservation status (Mormopterus norfolkensis and Mormopterus species 2). We used negative binomial generalised linear models created from indices of activity and environmental variables collected from systematic acoustic surveys. We found that habitat type (based on vegetation community) best explained activity of both species, which were more active in floodplain areas, with most foraging activity recorded in the freshwater wetland habitat type. The threatened M. norfolkensis avoided urban areas, which contrasts with M. species 2 which occurred frequently in urban bushland. We found that the broad habitat types predicted from local-scale models were generally consistent with those from regional-scale models. However, threshold-dependent accuracy measures indicated a poor fit and we advise caution be applied when using the regional models at a fine scale, particularly when the consequences of false negatives or positives are severe. Additionally, our study illustrates that habitat type classifications can be important predictors and we suggest they are more practical for conservation than complex combinations of raw variables, as they are easily communicated to land managers.
authors: School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia.
authors: Anna
authors: A
authors: McConville
authors: Bradley S
authors: BS
authors: Law
authors: Michael J
authors: MJ
authors: Mahony
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001315:Australia; D002138:Calibration; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000502:physiology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D056727:Endangered Species; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005843:Geography; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
references: Biometrika. 1950 Jun;37(1-2):17-23
references: 15420245
references: Conserv Biol. 2006 Apr;20(2):449-59
references: 16903106
references: Science. 1988 Jun 3;240(4857):1285-93
references: 3287615
references: Biometrics. 1977 Mar;33(1):159-74
references: 843571