Beauty and the beast: how a bat utilizes forests shaped by outbreaks of an insect pest

摘要: The consequences of different management strategies following natural disturbances are a matter global concern. In former production forests around the Northern Hemisphere, abandonment intervention, such as removal dead wood, after outbreaks bark beetles has been increasingly promoted to regain more conditions. However, many focal species conservation, barbastelle bat Barbastella barbastellus, do not primarily depend on wood but might respond indirectly disturbance-induced changes forest structural attributes. We investigated response B. barbastellus foraging activity and roost selection by combining acoustic surveys, radio telemetry, airborne light detection ranging (LiDAR) characterize habitat use scales. increased with increasing canopy opening. Maternity colonies were recorded exclusively in trees killed beetles. Bats preferred higher volume (m3 ha−1) live surrounding, average larger diameters than nearby control trees. Our results revealed that result attributes suitable for barbastellus. Salvage logging, i.e., beetle-affected trees, generally deteriorates positive effects bark-beetle roosting recommend maintaining snags large diameter if salvage logging is mandatory.