Bats in the spotlight: Spatiotemporal response of foraging and commuting bats to anthropogenic light at night

Summary

Urbanization is a major threat for biodiversity due to various sources of pollution, including artificial light at night, which lead to disturbance of the natural habitat. Bats are almost exclusively nocturnal; the safety of darkness is the essence of their temporal niche in the ecosystem. This makes them particularly vulnerable to light pollution. Therefore, an outright demand for mitigation measures arises to protect bats. In order to establish effective mitigation measures, for instance by keeping illumination intensity below the disturbance threshold, it is essential to know how the response of bats to light depends on light intensity.

The overall aim of this thesis was to investigate the spatiotemporal response of bats to light intensity under different light spectra. This study would help to draw guidelines to prevent negative impact of nightly illumination on bats, especially in term of habitat loss and habitat fragmentation.