Coarse-scale online data reveals habitat similarities but weak cross-taxa congruence between insectivorous bats and birds in the eastern U.S.

Prudent use of cross-taxa congruence can aid biodiversity conservation by quantitatively evaluating possible indicator taxa. However, highly variable results among spatial extents and study regions present challenges to its practical application. We aim to evaluate insectivorous birds as possible surrogate taxa for bats. Bats are cryptic, understudied, and imperiled animals that may greatly benefit from conservation actions targeted at more easily observable surrogate taxa, should strong congruence exist. We used six years of data from eBird and the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) to explore cross-taxa congruence and broad-scale habitat associations between insectivorous birds and bats in eastern North America. We used spatial linear models to evaluate cross-taxa congruence and community responses to coarse-scale habitat features. Our results indicated weak positive congruence for the species richness of bats and birds. We revealed similarly strong community resp..., , , # Coarse-scale online data reveals habitat similarities but weak cross-taxa congruence between insectivorous bats and birds in the eastern U.S.

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zcrjdfnn6](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zcrjdfnn6)

This dataset pertains to the habitat associations and cross-taxa congruence of insectivorous bats and birds in the eastern United States. There are three .csv files in this dataset:

1. The full dataset analyzed via linear models: DrakeE2024_GridCellData.csv
2. Data used to calculate bat functional diversity metrics: DrakeE2024_BatFunctionalDiversity.csv
3. Data used to calculate bird functional diversity metrics: DrakeE2024_BirdFunctionalDiversity.csv
## Description of the data and file structure

These files were uploaded into the R Studio program for analysis.

Column headings are explained as follows:

1. The full dataset analyzed via linear models
* GRTS_ID: an identifying number referring to the NABat grid cell number associated with this data
* Year...,