Halloween is long past, but Shannon Farrell, a professor of environmental and forest biology at SUNY-ESF, still has bats on her mind.

Farrell and her students at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry are researching the movement and roosting patterns of bats in eastern North America, even as a fungal disease called white-nose syndrome has recently devastated bat populations in the region.

Farrell’s objective is to understand the ways bats are impacted by white-nose syndrome, and her findings could improve efforts to protect remaining populations, according to her website. Farrell has been collecting data on the roosting habits of bats in Cape Cod and her team has found more bats than originally expected in unusual places.  

“We see (the bats) using human structures in areas where many seemingly otherwise suitable trees are available for roosting,” Farrell said in an email. “Perhaps avoiding crowds (of bats) helps them reduce the probability of exposure to the pathogen being transmitted from other bats.”

Farrell and her students said bats play important roles in many ecosystems and can even impact humans.

“Bats provide important ecosystem services, including playing a significant role in arthropod suppression, seed dispersal, and pollination,” said Megan Gallagher, a graduate student who works in Farrell’s lab, in an email. “Bat species eat a variety of insects, some of which are considered pest species to humans, crops or other interests.”

If bat numbers continue to decline, there could be an increase in crop losses because the populations of pests that bats normally hunt will grow. Some plants may also suffer without the pollination and seed-dispersal that bats provide.  

“I think we don’t yet really know and may not have the full scope to predict how huge declines in bats may affect ecosystems more broadly,” she said. “Ecosystems and species interactions can be complex.”

She said she believes more research will be needed to find out exactly why bats in Cape Cod seem to be doing better than other bat species. It’s still uncertain if bat populations will be able to recover from white-nose syndrome.

The disease is continuing to spread westward, Farrell said, and she worries that researchers can only hope individual bats resist or fight the disease.

“If we can identify any factors that may make bats more or less likely to encounter or suffer from WNS, that information could be used to better manage the disease risk for other bats or at least predict future effects,” she said.

Her work could identify populations of bats that might be most likely to “bounce back” from the disease, she said.

Bronson Curry, an ecology major at SUNY-ESF who works in Farrell’s lab, said in an email researchers learn more about the disease and its progression each year.

His research focuses on habitat conservation because other environmental factors beside white-nose syndrome could be impacting bat populations.

“Even if bats can hang on in the face of white-nose, they do face other challenges and stressors including loss of habitats and broad-scale application of pesticides,” Curry said.

Gallagher said bat boxes — where bats can roost — might help protect vulnerable bats.  Local citizen-science projects can also help conservation efforts, she added.

Farrell said residents can support conservation organizations and legislation that protects the natural habitat or reduces pesticide use.  

As more people become aware of the threats bats face and push for changes to protect them, the chances that bats can survive in the face of white-nose syndrome will improve, she said.

Published on December 3, 2017 at 11:17 pm

Contact Maizy: mtludden@syr.edu