Data from: Trait-dependant tolerance of bats to urbanisation: a global meta-analysis

Urbanization is a severe threat to global biodiversity, often leading to taxonomic and functional homogenization. However, current urban ecology research has focused mostly on urban birds and plants, limiting our ability to make generalisations about the drivers of urban biodiversity globally. To address this gap, we conducted a global meta-analysis of 87 studies, including 180 bat species (Chiroptera) from urban areas in Asia, Australia, Europe, North & South America. We aimed to 1) understand the importance of functional traits and phylogeny in driving changes in urban bat assemblages, and 2) assess the capacity of traits for predicting which types of species are most sensitive to urbanization. Our results indicate that species-specific functional traits explain differences in the intensity of urban habitat use. Urban tolerance mainly occurred within the open and edge space foraging and trawling species as well as in bats with flexible roosting strategies. In addition, across bioregions and independent of phylogeny, urban tolerance correlated with higher aspect ratio, a trait enabling fast flight but less agile maneuvers during aerial food acquisition. Predictive success varied between bioregions, however yielded in a range between 43-83 %. Our analysis demonstrates that the local extinction of bat species in urban areas is non-random, trait-based and predictable, allowing urban landscape managers to tailor local conservation actions to particular types of species.

城市化是全球生物多样性面临的重大威胁之一，常引发分类学与功能层面的均质化效应。然而当前城市生态学研究多聚焦于城市鸟类与维管植物，这限制了我们对全球范围内城市生物多样性驱动因素的普适性归纳能力。为填补这一研究空白，我们开展了一项全球性元分析，共纳入87项相关研究，涵盖来自亚洲、大洋洲、欧洲、北美及南美城市区域的180个翼手目（Chiroptera）蝙蝠物种。本研究旨在达成两个目标：其一，解析功能性状与系统发育对城市蝙蝠类群组成变化的调控作用；其二，评估利用性状预测哪些物种对城市化最为敏感的可行性。研究结果显示，物种特异性功能性状能够解释不同类群对城市生境的利用强度差异。具备城市耐受性的类群主要为在开阔及边缘生境觅食、且采用拖捕式策略的物种，以及具备灵活栖息策略的蝙蝠类群。此外，在不同生物区系内且不受系统发育因素干扰的前提下，城市耐受性与更高的展弦比（aspect ratio）呈显著相关；该翼型性状可支持蝙蝠实现高速飞行，但会削弱其空中摄食时的动作敏捷性。不过预测准确率在不同生物区系间存在差异，其范围介于43%至83%之间。本研究分析表明，城市区域内蝙蝠物种的局部灭绝并非随机事件，而是基于功能性状的、可预测的过程，这使得城市景观管理者能够针对特定类群量身定制本地保护措施。