Sewall Conservation Ecology Lab

Dr. Sewall has presented at a national conference on the emerging bat disease known as white-nose syndrome.  The National White-Nose Syndrome Workshop, which was convened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, brought together researchers and managers from across North America and beyond to share the latest findings on this emerging threat to native bat species and to the services they provide to ecosystems and people.  The conference featured research presentations and meetings among working groups to guide and help implement the White-Nose Syndrome National Plan, an integrated plan to respond to this disease.  Dr. Sewall’s presentation, entitled “Improved analysis of long-term monitoring data demonstrates marked regional declines of bat populations in the eastern United States” demonstrated that four hibernating bat species have undergone substantial regional-scale declines over the last 13 years.  The presentation was co-authored by 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 were equal co-lead authors on the presentation.

To see an article closely related to this presentation, see a recent article by the same three co-authors at:

http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0065907

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

Dr. Sewall has won a competitive grant awarded through the Temple University Faculty Senate.  The grant provides support for Dr. Sewall’s ongoing research on community ecology.  The grant focuses on improving theoretical and empirical understanding of mutualistic networks, the sets of mutually-beneficial interactions that link diverse species within ecological communities.  The research involves field research in Madagascar, where Dr. Sewall is quantifying mutualisms between frugivores (fruit-eating animals) and fruit-bearing trees in a tropical dry forest.