EDP Foz Tua: Bat Roosts -  Baseline and Complementary Studies [2008-2010]

Susana Batista1, Sérgio Bruno Ribeiro1, Pedro Geraldes2, Pedro Araújo3, Tiago Múrias4, Tiago Múrias5, Tiago Múrias6

1 Profico Ambiente e Ordenamento Lda, Rua Alfredo da Silva, 11B, 1300-040 Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal; 2 Profico Ambiente e Ordenamento Lda, Rua Alfredo da Silva, 11B, 1300-040 Lisboa, Lisbon; 3 Profico Ambiente e Ordenamento Lda, Rua Alfredo da Silva, 11B, 1300-040 Lisboa, , Portugal; 4 CIBIO-InBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Campus Agrário de Vairão, 4485-661 Vairão, Vairão, Portugal; 5 CIBIO-InBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Campus Agrário de Vairão - Crasto, 4485-661, Vairão, Vila do Conde, Portugal; 6 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): Susana Batista (ambiente@profico.pt)Sérgio Bruno Ribeiro (ambiente@profico.pt)Pedro Geraldes (ambiente@profico.pt)Pedro Araújo (ambiente@profico.pt)Tiago Múrias (tdsantos@cibio.up.pt), 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

Batista S, Ribeiro S B, Geraldes P, Araújo P, Múrias T (2020): EDP Foz Tua: Bat Roosts -  Baseline and Complementary Studies [2008-2010]. v1.2. EDP - Energias de Portugal. Dataset/Samplingevent. http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/resource?r=edp_tua_batroosts_bcs_2008&v=1.2

Abstract

The dataset contains records of bats (Chiroptera) collected in the lower valley of the River Tua and included in the Baseline (2008-2009) and Complementary (2010) Studies of the Environmental Impact Assessment of the Foz Tua Hydroelectric Dam, promoted by EDP – Energias de Portugal, S.A. Data were collected between November 2008 and April 2010 during field visits to 27 known or presumed bat roosts used for hibernation and/or reproduction, within a 15-km radius buffer around the Tua valley. The presence of individuals was recorded by direct observation. When the identification raised doubts, or the numbers were too high to allow individual examination, the specimens were photographed for later identification. The records include taxa identified at the species or genus level. In several occasions it was not possible to separate the potential species of the genus Myotis, so they were simply included in 2 “species complexes”: “large” Myotis (2 species) and “small” Myotis (5 species).
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 (undegraded) coordinates may be provided upon request by the resource contact from EDP, who will define the terms and conditions for its use. 

Keywords: occurrence, Bats; observation; hibernation; reproduction; roosts, Samplingevent

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 Foz Tua: Bat Roosts - Baseline and Complementary Studies [2008-2010]
Personnel: Susana Batista, Sérgio Bruno Ribeiro, Pedro Geraldes, Pedro Araújo, 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 Tua, prior to the construction and subsequent flooding of the lower part of this river’s valley by the Foz-Tua Hydroelectric Dam. The sampling included all known and presumed roosts located in the flooded area and those found in a 15 km radius buffer around the future reservoir banks (caves, mines, tunnels, buildings, etc.), and up to a length of about 50 km from the Tua mouth.
Design description: The objective of the study was do document the usage of known and presumed bat roosts in the Tua lower valley before the dam construction, and to gather quality data to support the design and implementation of mitigation and/or compensation measures.

Data published through GBIF: http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/resource?r=edp_tua_batroosts_bcs_2008

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: The taxonomic coverage of this dataset spans 1 phylum, 1 class, 1 order, 3 families, 4 genus and 9 species positively identified.
Taxonomic ranks
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Chiroptera
Family: Vespertilionidae, Miniopteridae, Rhinolophidae, Molossidae

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: The data were collected within a 15-km buffer around the valley of the River Tua (Northeast Portugal), up to 50 km from the mouth, in the municipalities of Carrazeda de Ansiães, Vila Flor, Mirandela and Sabrosa.
Coordinates: 41°10'12''N and 41°31'44.4''N Latitude; 7°33'39.6''W and 7°7'8.4''W Longitude 

Temporal coverage: November 7, 2008 - April 23, 2010

Methods

Method step description: To be completed
Study extent description: The data were collected within a 15-km buffer around the Tua lower valley (Northeast Portugal), up to 50 km from the mouth, in the municipalities of Carrazeda de Ansiães, Vila Flor, Alijó, Mirandela and Sabrosa.
Sampling description: Sampling was designed to cover all known and presumed bat roosts in the study area,  including railroad tunnels, caves, mines, wells and all sorts of abandoned or little used buildings. A place was considered to be a roost when the presence of bats was confirmed, either by direct observations or by indirect evidences (eg., faeces, urine stains, etc.). Each roost was visited once in winter (January-February, hibernation period) and once in spring (April, reproduction period) of 2010. In 2008-2009, only a subset of the sites (railroad tunnels) were visited. 

All potential roosts were searched for the presence of bat colonies by two observers, which recorded all individuals of each species detected. The time spent in each refuge varied according to the number of bats present, and the accessibility conditions. 

Species identification were usually made “in loco”, with the aid of head-torches, binoculars and field guides. When the visual identification raised doubts, or the numbers present were too large to be identified in a suitable time, photographs were taken to be identified later. Sometimes, reliable counts were not possible (e.g. due to the packing of the groups), so only the presence of the species was recorded.

Quality control description: All individual identifications were performed by qualified technicians

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive EDP Foz Tua: Bat Roosts -  Baseline and Complementary Studies [2008-2010]
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/archive.do?r=edp_tua_batroosts_bcs_2008
Publication date of data: 2020-12-15
Language: English
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2018-12-04
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