Data from: Separating the effects of water quality and urbanization on temperate insectivorous bats at the landscape scale

Many local scale studies have shown that bats respond to water quality
degradation or urbanization in a species-specific manner. However, few
have separated the effects of urbanization vs water quality degradation on
bats, in single city or single watershed case studies. Across North
Carolina, USA, we used the standardized North American Bat Monitoring
Program mobile transect protocol to survey bat activity in 2015 and 2016
at 41 sites. We collected statewide water quality and urban land cover
data to disentangle the effects of urbanization and water degradation on
bats at the landscape scale. We found that statewide, water quality and
urbanization were not correlated. We found that bats responded to water
quality degradation and urbanization independently at the landscape scale.
Eptesicus fuscus and Lasiurus cinereus negatively responded to water
quality degradation. Lasiurus borealis and Perimyotis subflavus positively
responded to water quality degradation. Lasionycteris noctivagans did not
respond to water quality degradation but was more active in more urbanized
areas. Tadarida brasiliensis positively responded to urbanization and was
less active in areas with degraded water quality. We show that bat-water
quality relationships found at the local scale are evident at a landscape
scale. We confirm that bats are useful bioindicators for both urbanization
and water degradation. We suggest that water quality can be used to
predict the presence of bat species of conservation concern, such as P.
subflavus, in areas where it has not been studied locally.