You are what you eat: How insects affect bat populations and diversity

As white nose syndrome (WNS) causes devastating impacts to bat species, it becomes integral to understand the availability of prey. Bat diet studies use PCR to test guano samples, providing identification of organisms in the sample. Data from PCR studies are unable to provide frequency of these organisms, nutritional value, or definitive species due to false positives. The overall goal of this research is to assess the relationship between habitat, prey density, prey diversity, and bat abundance. Abundance of arthropods and bats will be determined at six sites at Arnold Air Force Base (AAFB) (middle Tennessee) using light traps, carbon dioxide traps, and mist-nets. Acoustic data from four sites will be supplemented for mist-net data in off season. Summer and year-round samples will be collected from May 2022 to August 2023. Insect samples will be sorted to family and assigned weight classes. Trends suggest insects peak in mid-summer, declining into fall. Relative to mist-netting, gray bats and evening bats were the prevalent species in July and eastern red bats in August. Acoustic data support trends found in mist-netting. Habitat is more influential on bat activity followed by insect availability. Frequency of prey alludes to relative nutritional availability for bats foraging before and in hibernation periods that are disturbed by WNS. This research aims to address problems in bat diet research and recognize important factors in bat foraging strategies. This research will inform management decisions about how to increase high nutritional diets for bats and mitigate mortality rates associated with WNS.