Body size information in large-scale acoustic bat databases
Background Citizen monitoring programs using acoustic data have been useful for detecting population and community patterns. However, they have rarely been used to study broad scale patterns of species traits. We assessed the potential of acoustic data to detect broad scale patterns in body size. We...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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PeerJ Inc.
2018-08-01
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| Series: | PeerJ |
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| Online Access: | https://peerj.com/articles/5370.pdf |
| _version_ | 1827607113453535232 |
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| author | Caterina Penone Christian Kerbiriou Jean-François Julien Julie Marmet Isabelle Le Viol |
| author_facet | Caterina Penone Christian Kerbiriou Jean-François Julien Julie Marmet Isabelle Le Viol |
| author_sort | Caterina Penone |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background Citizen monitoring programs using acoustic data have been useful for detecting population and community patterns. However, they have rarely been used to study broad scale patterns of species traits. We assessed the potential of acoustic data to detect broad scale patterns in body size. We compared geographical patterns in body size with acoustic signals in the bat species Pipistrellus pipistrellus. Given the correlation between body size and acoustic characteristics, we expected to see similar results when analyzing the relationships of body size and acoustic signals with climatic variables. Methods We assessed body size using forearm length measurements of 1,359 bats, captured by mist nets in France. For acoustic analyses, we used an extensive dataset collected through the French citizen bat survey. We isolated each bat echolocation call (n = 4,783) and performed automatic measures of signals, including the frequency of the flattest part of the calls (characteristic frequency). We then examined the relationship between forearm length, characteristic frequencies, and two components resulting from principal component analysis for geographic (latitude, longitude) and climatic variables. Results Forearm length was positively correlated with higher precipitation, lower seasonality, and lower temperatures. Lower characteristic frequencies (i.e., larger body size) were mostly related to lower temperatures and northern latitudes. While conducted on different datasets, the two analyses provided congruent results. Discussion Acoustic data from citizen science programs can thus be useful for the detection of large-scale patterns in body size. This first analysis offers a new perspective for the use of large acoustic databases to explore biological patterns and to address both theoretical and applied questions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:48:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-207978afe07f453d8794d2f44ada0ae7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2167-8359 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:48:58Z |
| publishDate | 2018-08-01 |
| publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PeerJ |
| spelling | doaj.art-207978afe07f453d8794d2f44ada0ae72023-12-03T10:29:15ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ2167-83592018-08-016e537010.7717/peerj.5370Body size information in large-scale acoustic bat databasesCaterina Penone0Christian Kerbiriou1Jean-François Julien2Julie Marmet3Isabelle Le Viol4Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, SwitzerlandCESCO UMR7204 MNHN-UPMC-CNRS-Sorbonne Université, Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI), Paris, FranceCESCO UMR7204 MNHN-UPMC-CNRS-Sorbonne Université, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, FranceCESCO UMR7204 MNHN-UPMC-CNRS-Sorbonne Université, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, FranceMarine Station, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Concarneau, FranceBackground Citizen monitoring programs using acoustic data have been useful for detecting population and community patterns. However, they have rarely been used to study broad scale patterns of species traits. We assessed the potential of acoustic data to detect broad scale patterns in body size. We compared geographical patterns in body size with acoustic signals in the bat species Pipistrellus pipistrellus. Given the correlation between body size and acoustic characteristics, we expected to see similar results when analyzing the relationships of body size and acoustic signals with climatic variables. Methods We assessed body size using forearm length measurements of 1,359 bats, captured by mist nets in France. For acoustic analyses, we used an extensive dataset collected through the French citizen bat survey. We isolated each bat echolocation call (n = 4,783) and performed automatic measures of signals, including the frequency of the flattest part of the calls (characteristic frequency). We then examined the relationship between forearm length, characteristic frequencies, and two components resulting from principal component analysis for geographic (latitude, longitude) and climatic variables. Results Forearm length was positively correlated with higher precipitation, lower seasonality, and lower temperatures. Lower characteristic frequencies (i.e., larger body size) were mostly related to lower temperatures and northern latitudes. While conducted on different datasets, the two analyses provided congruent results. Discussion Acoustic data from citizen science programs can thus be useful for the detection of large-scale patterns in body size. This first analysis offers a new perspective for the use of large acoustic databases to explore biological patterns and to address both theoretical and applied questions.https://peerj.com/articles/5370.pdfCitizen sciencePipistrellus pipistrellusEcholocationCharacteristic frequencyLatitudeBergmann’s rule |
| spellingShingle | Caterina Penone Christian Kerbiriou Jean-François Julien Julie Marmet Isabelle Le Viol Body size information in large-scale acoustic bat databases PeerJ Citizen science Pipistrellus pipistrellus Echolocation Characteristic frequency Latitude Bergmann’s rule |
| title | Body size information in large-scale acoustic bat databases |
| title_full | Body size information in large-scale acoustic bat databases |
| title_fullStr | Body size information in large-scale acoustic bat databases |
| title_full_unstemmed | Body size information in large-scale acoustic bat databases |
| title_short | Body size information in large-scale acoustic bat databases |
| title_sort | body size information in large scale acoustic bat databases |
| topic | Citizen science Pipistrellus pipistrellus Echolocation Characteristic frequency Latitude Bergmann’s rule |
| url | https://peerj.com/articles/5370.pdf |
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