Data from: Geographic origins and population genetics of bats killed at wind-energy facilities

An unanticipated impact of wind-energy development has been large-scale
mortality of insectivorous bats. In eastern North America, where mortality
rates are among the highest in the world, the hoary bat (Lasiurus
cinereus) and the eastern red bat (L. borealis) comprise the majority of
turbine-associated bat mortality. Both species are migratory tree bats
with widespread distributions; however, little is known regarding the
geographic origins of bats killed at wind-energy facilities or the
diversity and population structure of affected species. We addressed these
unknowns by measuring stable hydrogen isotope ratios (δ2H) and conducting
population genetic analyses of bats killed at wind-energy facilities in
the central Appalachian Mountains (USA) to determine the summering
origins, effective size, structure, and temporal stability of populations.
Our results indicate that ~1% of hoary bat mortalities and ~57% of red bat
mortalities derive from non-local sources, with no relationship between
the proportion of non-local bats and sex, location of mortality, or month
of mortality. Additionally, our data indicate that hoary bats in our
sample consist of an unstructured population with a small effective size
(Ne) and either a stable or declining history. Red bats also showed no
evidence of population genetic structure, but in contrast to hoary bats,
the diversity contained in our red bat samples is consistent with a much
larger Ne that reflects a demographic expansion after a bottleneck. These
results suggest that the impacts of mortality associated with intensive
wind-energy development may affect bat species dissimilarly, with red bats
potentially better able to absorb sustained mortality than hoary bats
because of their larger Ne. Our results provide important baseline data
and also illustrate the utility of stable isotopes and population genetics
for monitoring bat populations affected by wind-energy development.