Dr. Sewall has published a new article demonstrating marked population declines in four bat species of the eastern United States. The article, published in the journal PLOS One, shows that over the past 13 years, a once-common bat species known as the little brown bat or little brown myotis (Myotis lucifugus) has declined 71%. In addition, the three other bat species studied – tri-colored bats (Perimyotis subflavus), Indiana myotis (Myotis sodalis), and northern myotis (Myotis septentrionalis) – have all declined by at least 30% during the same time period. This result suggests that white-nose syndrome and a range of other threats together pose a grave menace to the long-term persistence of these hibernating bat species. The article also presented a statistical method with broad application for understanding changes in populations over time for bats and other wildlife species. The article was written in partnership with collaborators Thomas Ingersoll of the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis and Sybill Amelon of the U.S. Forest Service. Drs. Sewall and Ingersoll are equal co-lead authors on the paper.
The article is available freely via Open Access at: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0065907