Author: Tiago Múrias
Keywords: occurrence, bats; coustic sampling; hibernation; reproduction; Vilariça stream

EDP Baixo Sabor: Bat acoustic sampling - Compensatory Measures Program (MC1) [2013-2014]

Mota Paulo^1, José Vítor Vingada^1, Pedro Rodrigues^1, Nuno Garrido^1, Nuno Pinto^1, Virgínia Duro^1, Frederico Oliveira^2, Tiago Múrias^3

1 BioLink - Consultoria Ambiental, Unipessoal, Lda, Pta. Caminho da Cruz, 9, 4405-625 Vila Nova de Gaia, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal; 2 BioLink - Consultoria Ambiental, Unipessoal, Lda, 4405-625 Vila Nova de Gaia, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal; 3 CIBIO-InBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Campus Agrário de Vairão, 4485-661 Vairão, Vairão, Portugal

Corresponding author(s): Mota Paulo (biolink.lda@gmail.com)José Vítor VingadaPedro RodriguesNuno GarridoNuno PintoVirgínia DuroFrederico Oliveira, Tiago Múrias (tdsantos@cibio.up.pt)

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource Citation

Paulo M, Vingada J V, Rodrigues P, Garrido N, Pinto N, Duro V, Oliveira F, Múrias, T (2019): EDP Baixo Sabor: Bat acoustic sampling - Compensatory Measures Program (MC1) (2013-2014). v1. EDP - Energias de Portugal. Dataset/Samplingevent. http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/resource?r=edp_sabor_chiroptera_acoustic_mc1&amp;v=1.0

Abstract

The dataset contains records of bats (Chiroptera) collected in the lower valley of River Sabor (NE Portugal), in the scope of the long-term Ecological Monitoring Program (PME) of  the Baixo Sabor Hydroelectric Dams (AHBS), promoted by EDP – Energias de Portugal, S.A. Specifically, this dataset includes results of surveys made in the scope of the monitoring of the project of Compensation Habitat of Vilariça valley for Chiroptera (MC1). Data were collected between April 2013 and August 2014, during field visits to 2 selected points located along the Vilariça stream, a tributary of the Sabor river, located near its mouth. The presence and identity of bat species were assessed by acoustic sampling of the echo-location calls emitted in fligth. The records include taxa identified at the species, genus, family or order level, as well as groups of species that share common calls but cannot be identified to any taxonomic level, and that were thus assigned to acoustic “species complexes”.

Keywords: occurrence, bats; coustic sampling; hibernation; reproduction; Vilariça stream

General description

Purpose: This dataset is part of a broader initiative whereby the company EDP - Energias de Portugal S.A. will made available biodiversity data collected during impact assessment and biological monitoring studies. 

Project details

Project title: EDP Baixo Sabor: Bat acoustic sampling - Compensatory Measures Program (MC1) [2013-2014]
Personnel: Paulo Mota, José Vítor Vingada, Pedro Rodrigues, Nuno Garrido, Nuno Pinto, Virgínia Duro, Frederico Oliveira, Tiago Múrias
Funding: The work was funded by EDP - Energias de Portugal, S.A.
Study area descriptions/descriptor: The study was conducted in the Vilariça stream, a tributary of River Sabor not directly affected by the construction of the Baixo Sabor Hydroelectric Dams. The sampling included 2 randomly selected points located in final 5 km stretch of the stream. The points were more than 100 m apart from each other.
Design description: The objective of the study was to monitor the species identity and relative distribution of Chiroptera in 2 sampling points with suitable habitats before the implementation of the project "Compensatory Habitat for Vilariça stream" (MC1), in the framework of the Compensatory Monitoring Program of the AHBS. This dataset will be used as the reference situation for the future monitoring of the Compensatory Measure MC1.

Data published through GBIF: http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/resource?r=edp_sabor_chiroptera_acoustic_mc1

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: The taxonomic coverage of this dataset spans 1 class, 1 order, 3 families, 9 genera and 6 species positively identified. 
Taxonomic ranks
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Chiroptera
Family: Rhinolophidae, Vespertilionidae, Molossidae

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: Data were collected in a buffer of 500 meters around 2 sampling points located in the final 5 km of the Vilariça stream, a tributary of the Sabor river located near its mouth.
Coordinates: 41°11'47.33''N and 41°15'1.62''N Latitude; 7°6'25.65''W and 7°4'46.77''W Longitude 

Temporal coverage: April 16, 2013 - August 30, 2014

Methods

Method step description: To be completed

Study extent description: The data were collected within a 500-m buffer around 2 sampling points located in the final 5 km stretch of the Vilariça stream, in the municipality of Torre de Moncorvo.
Sampling description: Sampling was designed to cover the most relevant feeding habitats for Chiroptera along the 5km final stretch of the Vilariça stream. Two sampling points located at least 100 m apart were set in the area. Each point was visited at least once per season: spring (April-May), reproduction (July) and post-breeding (August-October). Sampling was carried out when there were favourable weather conditions, including temperature above 10ºC and absence of strong winds and rainfall. Acoustic sampling in each plot was initiated at sunset and had a fixed duration of 90 minutes. 

The detection of the specimens in flight was made with a bat detector (Pettersson Elektronik, D240X model), with a frequency range of 10-120 kHz. The detector was connected to an automatic digital recorder (model Sony ICD-PX312) which saved the recordings in a “Wave” format, at a frequency of 44 kHz and at an expanded mode of 10x, making them audible to the human ears while, at the same time, preserving the original acoustic characteristics.

The analysis of the acoustic records were peformed using the sound analysis program BatSound Pro (Pettersson Elektronik AB). This program generates graphs (oscillogram, sonogram and power spectra) using the various sound variables that allow the identification of species or complexes of species detected.

The exact identification of the bat species by sound analysis is not always possible, due to problems in detectability and/or identifiability. In the context of this work, whenever it was not possible to perform the identification to the species level, the binomials, multinomials or genera to which the identification was possible were considered to be present. Thus, the presence of all species constituting these phonic groups (or “species complexes”) was considered possible.
Quality control description: All individual identifications were performed by qualified technicians 

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive EDP Baixo Sabor: Bat acoustic sampling - Compensatory Measures Program (MC1) [2013-2014]
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/archive.do?r=edp_sabor_chiroptera_acoustic_mc1
Publication date of data: 2019-12-09
Language: English
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2019-11-28
Hierarchy level: Dataset