Thermoregulation of European bats inhabiting artificial roosts

Anthropogenic land use changes, such as deforestation and commercial forestry, have substantially reduced natural roost sites for European bats. A common conservation solution is to provide artificial roosts (i.e., bat boxes), but there are concerns that these can become hotter than natural roosts in summer and could be death traps during heat waves. Nevertheless, females of several bat species form maternity colonies in these boxes, thus occupying hotter and more humid microclimates than solitarily roosting males. We tested if cooling efficiency and heat tolerance differ between sexes in European bats, and estimated the evaporative water requirements of living in bat boxes during hot summer days.
We used indirect calorimetry and thermometry to quantify thermoregulation at high air temperatures (Ta) in four species of verspitilionid bats that regularly occupy artificial roosts. We measured resting metabolic heat production, evaporative water loss rates (EWL), and body temperature (Tb) a...

人为土地利用变化（如森林砍伐与商业林业活动）已大幅缩减欧洲蝙蝠的自然栖息位点。当前主流的保护干预手段为搭建人工栖息箱（artificial roosts，即蝙蝠箱），但学界存在担忧：这类箱体在夏季的温度会高于自然栖息位点，且在热浪期间可能沦为致命陷阱。尽管如此，多个蝙蝠物种的雌性个体仍会在这类箱中形成育幼群体，因此相较于单独栖息的雄性个体，它们所处的微气候温度更高、湿度更大。本研究旨在检验欧洲蝙蝠两性间的降温效率与耐热性是否存在差异，并估算夏季高温时段栖息于蝙蝠箱内所需的蒸发需水量。
我们采用间接测热法（indirect calorimetry）与测温技术（thermometry），对4种常栖息于人工栖息箱的蝙蝠科（Vespertilionidae）蝙蝠在高空气温度（high air temperatures，Ta）下的体温调节情况进行量化分析。我们测量了静息代谢产热量、蒸发失水率（evaporative water loss rates，EWL）以及体温（body temperature，Tb）……