EDP Baixo Sabor: Bat Roosts [acoustic sampling] - Ecological Monitoring Program (PME) (2012-2014)

Paulo Mota1, José Vítor Vingada1, Pedro Rodrigues2, Nuno Garrido3, Nuno Pinto3, Virgínia Duro3, Frederico Oliveira3, Tiago Múrias4

1 BIOLINK - Consultoria Ambiental, Unipessoal, Lda, Praceta Caminho da Cruz, 9, 4405-625 VN Gaia, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal; 2 BIOLINK - Consultoria Ambiental, Unipessoal, Lda, , Portugal; 3 BIOLINK - Consultoria Ambiental, Unipessoal, Lda, ; 4 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): Paulo Mota (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

Mota P, Vingada J V, Rodrigues P, Garrido N, Pinto N, Duro V, Oliveira F, Múrias, T (2020): EDP Baixo Sabor: Bat Roosts [acustic sampling] - Ecological Monitoring Program (PME) (2012-2014). v1. EDP - Energias de Portugal. Dataset/Samplingevent. http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/resource?r=edp_sabor_chiroptera_roosts_acoustic&amp;v=1.0

Abstract

The dataset contains records of bats (Chiroptera) collected in the lower valley of River Sabor, in the scope of the long-term Ecological Monitoring Program (PME) of  the Baixo Sabor Hydroelectric Dams, promoted by EDP – Energias de Portugal, S.A. Data were collected between July 2012 and August 2014, during field visits to 12 known bat hibernation, reproduction and pre-dispersion (post-reproduction) roosts with restricted access (caves and mine entrances). These roosts were located within a 5-km radius buffer around the lower valley of River Sabor. The presence and identity of the bat species were assessed by acoustic sampling of the echo-location calls emitted in flight. The records include taxa identified at the species, genus, family or order level, as well as several potential species present in 2 acoustic “species complexes”. Due to the vulnerability of the roost locations, the precision of the geographic coordinates was degraded to 0.01, according to the recommendations of Chapman & Grafton (2008). The dataset with the original (undergraded) coordinates may be provided upon request by the resource contact from EDP, who will define the terms and conditions for its use. 

Keywords: bats; occurrence; acoustic sampling; hibernation; reproduction; refuges; roosts

General description

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

Project details

Project title: EDP Baixo Sabor: Bat Roosts [acustic sampling] - Ecological Monitoring Program (PME) (2012-2014)
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 part of the sub-basin of river Sabor directly or indiirectly affected by the construction of the Baixo Sabor Hydroelectric Dam, as well as in control areas nearby. The sampling included 12 known roosts with restricted access (caves and mines) in a radius of 5 km around the flooded area (caves, mines, tunnels, buildings, etc.), and to a total lenght of 90 km upstream, in the municipalities of Torre de Moncorvo, Mogadouro, Vimioso, Bragança and Miranda do Douro
Design description: The objective of the study was to monitor the fate of bats roosts (hibernation and/or reproduction, and pre-dispersion periods) that could not be monitored by visual methods, and associated bat populations in the area of the Baixo Sabor Hydroelectric Dam, centered in a 5-km radius buffer around the river, during the final phases of construction and flooding (2012-2104). 

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

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: The taxonomic coverage of this dataset spans 1 class, 1 order, 2 families, 2 genera and 2 species positively identified. 
Taxonomic ranks
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Chiroptera
Family: Rhinolophidae, Vespertilionidae

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: Data were collected in an area of 62,500 ha corresponding to 25 5x5 km squares around the lower Sabor river affected by the Sabor Dam, and in an additional area of 30,000 ha not directly affected by the dam, encompassing a set of 12 5x5 km squares (control area), in the municipalities of Torre de Moncorvo, Mogadouro, Vimioso, Bragança and Miranda do Douro 
Coordinates: 41°6'7.64''N and 41°55'7.06''N Latitude; 7°9'52.05''W and 6°14'24.84''W Longitude 

Temporal coverage: July 27, 2012 - August 27, 2014

Methods

Method step description: To be completed
Study extent description: The data were collected within a 5-km radius buffer around the lower valley of River Sabor Northeast Portugal), up to 90 km from the mouth, in the municipalities of Torre de Moncorvo, Alfândega da Fé, Mogadouro, Macedo de Cavaleiros, Vimioso and Bragança.
Sampling description: Sampling was designed to cover all the bat roosts in the study area that could not be accessed due to security reasons, particularly mines and caves. Each point, located at the entrance of the roost, was visited at least once per season - spring (April-June), reproduction (July) and post-breeding (September-October) - in favorable conditions (temperature above 10º 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 analyses of the acoustic records were performed using the sound analysis program BatSound Pro (Pettersson Elektronik AB). This program generates graphs (oscillogram, sonogram and power spectra) where 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 Roosts [acoustic sampling] - Ecological Monitoring Program (PME) (2012-2014)
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_roosts_acoustic
Publication date of data: 2020-04-28
Language: English
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2020-04-08
Hierarchy level: Dataset

References
Chapman AD & Grafton O (2008) Guide to Best Practices for Generalising Sensitive Species-Occurrence Data. Copenhagen: GBIF Secretariat. https://doi.org/10.15468/doc-b02j-gt10