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ARS Home » Plains Area » Sidney, Montana » Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory » Pest Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #426563
Research Project: Biological Control and Habitat Restoration for Invasive Weed Management

Location: Pest Management Research

Title: Holocene population baselines of an endangered bat in the southeastern US: multi-millennial resilience to climate change and humans

Author
item VACHULA, RICHARD - Auburn University
item TSALICKIS, ALEXANDRA - Auburn University
item CULLEN, THOMAS - Auburn University
item Campbell, Joshua
item WATERS, MATTHEW - Auburn University

Submitted to: Environmental Research Communications
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/10/2025
Publication Date: 11/18/2025
Citation: Vachula, R.S., Tsalickis, A., Cullen, T.M., Campbell, J.W., Waters, M.N. 2025. Holocene population baselines of an endangered bat in the southeastern US: multi-millennial resilience to climate change and humans. Environmental Research Communications. 7. Article 111008. https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/ae1dcf.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/ae1dcf

Interpretive Summary: We radiocarbon dated bat guano deposited by the endangered gray bat in Cave Springs Cave, USA, to reconstruct bat population changes over the last ~10,000 years. We resolve a ~5,500 year period of bat resilience to climate and humans (locally and regionally) in the early Holocene. But we also find that bat populations were affected by the onset of more arid hydroclimate conditions and the development of new regional human land use ~4,500 years ago. Altogether, our analyses indicate that the combined human and climate disturbance exceeded a threshold level to begin impacting bat populations. Overall, our analyses highlight the importance of mitigating hydroclimate and regional anthropogenic impacts for gray bat conservation efforts. Further, our approach represents an important new methodology for understanding bat population changes without impacting the bats themselves and on timescales exceeding observational records, opening many new doors for future research.

Technical Abstract: Climate change and humans are causing animals to become endangered globally. Bats are particularly affected but our understanding of their resilience is limited. By looking at how guano (poop) accumulated in a cave beneath the endangered gray bat, we reconstructed their population changes over the last 10,000 years. People were local to the cave over the whole time period, and so the bats weren’t too affected by local people. But we did find that when a drought coincided with regional human land management changes, the bat guano started accumulating more slowly (indicating a decreased bat population). This means that to protect these endangered bats, we should worry about droughts and broad-scale land use changes. Also, our way of doing this (looking at bat guano) is a new method to track their population without disturbing bat colonies. It also means there is a lot more work to do using this method.