DOI: 10.5061/dryad.44n7b7t
title: Data from: Following the water? landscape-scale temporal changes in bat spatial distribution in relation to Mediterranean summer drought

description: Understanding how the spatial distribution of ecological resources shape
 species’ diversity and abundance in human-modified landscapes is a central
 theme in conservation biology. However, studies often disregard that such
 patterns may vary over time, thereby potentially missing critical
 environmental constraints to species persistence. This may be particularly
 important in highly mobile species such as bats, which are able to track
 temporal variations in spatial resource distribution. Here we test the
 hypothesis that bats in Mediterranean landscapes are strongly affected by
 the progressive reduction in water availability during the seasonal summer
 drought. We analysed the effects of landscape composition and structure on
 bat diversity and activity, during Pregnancy, Lactation and Post-lactation
 periods, and identified the most influential variables within and across
 periods. Water bodies showed the strongest positive effect on bats,
 followed by riparian habitats and areas with steeper (&gt;30%) slopes.
 However, while during Pregnancy there were only small landscape effects,
 these increased during Lactation and Post-lactation, highlighting a
 progressively stronger association with water habitats during the summer
 drought. The spatial projection of habitat models showed that the
 landscape distribution of bat diversity and activity hotspots changed
 markedly over time. During Pregnancy the spatial pattern of hotspot
 distribution was weakly defined, while during Lactation and particularly
 Post-lactation there was a concentration of hotspots along permanently
 flowing watercourses. Our study highlights that permanently flowing
 watercourses are critical for bat conservation in Mediterranean
 landscapes, calling for measures to counteract their ongoing degradation
 due in particular to climate change, water abstraction and damming. More
 generally, our study underlines the importance of considering the temporal
 dimension in habitat selection studies, without which there is the risk of
 overlooking the importance of habitats that are key for species
 persistence only at certain times of the year.
description: Data with transect
 information, including response variables and predictorsIn this data file, you
 can find transect identifier (Transect), sampling year and season, as well
 as all the predictors and response variables. Predictors are scaled and
 weighted according to transect area. Predictors: alt_stdev (Altitude
 standard deviation); slp_range (slope range); s30 (Slopes stepper than
 30º); nort.media (northness median); east.media (eastness median); NP_C
 (number of closed patches); ED_C (edge density closed patches); AREA_MN_C
 (mean area of closed patches); PR_C (closed patches richness); NP_O
 (number of open patches); ED_O (edge density open patches); AREA_MN_O
 (mean area of open patches); PR_O (open patches richness). Species: Bbar
 (Barbastella barbastellus), Eser.Eisa (Eptesicus serotinus, E.
 isabellinus); Eser.Eisa.Nlei (Eptesicus serotinus, E. isabellinus,
 Nyctalus leisleri); Mdau (Myotis daubentonii); Mesc (M. escalerai);
 Mmyo.Mbly (M. Myotis, M. blythii); Msmall (small Myotis group – M.
 daubentonii, M. escalerai, M. mystacinus, M. emarginatus, M. bechsteinii);
 Nlas.Nnoc (N. lasiopterus, N. noctula); Nlei (N. leisleri); Nlei.Nlas.Nnoc
 (N. leisleri, N. lasiopterus, N. noctula); Hsav (Hypsugo savii); Pkuh
 (Pipistrellus kuhlii); Ppip (P. pipistrellus); Paus.Paur (Plecotus
 austriacus, P. auritus); Reur.Rmeh.Rhip (Rhinolophus euryale, R. mehelyi,
 R. hipposideros); Rfer (R. ferrumequinum); Rhip (R. hipposideros); Tten
 (Tadarida teniotis); NI (Non identified calls). Response variables: Tact
 (Total activity); Sr (Species richness)dryad_FAmorim.xlsx