Social Bats Pay a Price: Fungal Disease, White-Nose Syndrome ... Extinction?
(Please note, NSF press release. Copyright concerns are nil.)
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=124679&org=NSF&from=news
Press Release 12-120
[font face=Serif][font size=5]Social Bats Pay a Price: Fungal Disease, White-Nose Syndrome ... Extinction?[/font]
[font size=4]Study determines which bat species are headed for trouble[/font]
[font size=3]July 3, 2012
The effect on bat populations of a deadly fungal disease known as white-nose syndrome may depend on how gregarious the bats are during hibernation, scientists have discovered.
Species that hibernate in dense clusters even as their populations get smaller will continue to transmit the disease at a high rate, dooming them to continued decline, according to results of a new study led by biologists at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC).
One gregarious species has surprised biologists, however, by changing its social behavior.
The joint National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) Program funded the study. The Directorates for Biological Sciences and Geosciences at NSF supports the EEID Program.
"Managing disease outbreaks appears to be a daunting task, given the complexity of most ecosystems," said Sam Scheiner, EEID program director at NSF. "This study, however, shows that in fact we can identify the key factors needed for adequate management."
White-nose syndrome has decimated bat colonies throughout the northeast since it first appeared in New York in 2006. It continues to spread in the United States and Canada.
In the study, researchers analyzed population trends in six bat species in the northeast.
They found that some bat populations are stabilizing at lower abundances, while others appear to be headed for extinction.
The results, published in the current issue of the journal Ecology Letters, centered around data from bat surveys between 1979 and 2010, covering a long period of population growth followed by dramatic declines caused by white-nose syndrome.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01829.x