An international participation to the Workshop and Training School targeting Bat Monitoring Techniques paves the way to improving bat conservation assessment across Europe. The CLIMBATS COST Action (CA18107) organised these events at the University of Malta Valletta Campus focusing on the effects of climate change on bats through relevant science for effective conservation measures.
These events involved the expertise of the CLIMBATS Cost Action Chair Prof Danilo Russo, together with other foreign and local experts. Prof Adriana Vella, chaired the scientific committee and convened these events in Malta. Support by the Valletta Campus Operation and Events Unit, University Website organisers and Project Support Office also allowed these events to run successfully together with the convener and the CLIMBATS cost action scientific team.
During the CLIMBATS Training School various case studies and methods were presented and participants had the opportunity to run an extended acoustic field survey followed by analyses of the data recorded. This was possible through local bat research experience that has been operative for over two decades by the Conservation Biology Research Group of the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science at the University of Malta, which has been following bat populations around the Maltese Islands, some of which declining seriously in numbers.
Climate change also poses major threats to biological communities and the ecosystem services they provide. Bats are sensitive to human-driven habitat alteration, and changes in temperature and water availability induced by climate change may affect their distribution and survival. Due to this, climate change is likely to influence European bat populations.
By affecting insect consumption, bat declines in farmland, forests, green and urban areas, are likely to have serious consequences on biodiversity conservation (as more artificial insecticides would be used, polluting the environment further), human health (more mosquitoes and insect pests) and the economy (especially on agriculture and tourism).
The CLIMBATS COST Action therefore supports the reduction in knowledge gaps linked to bat monitoring by guiding and assessing data already available while training researchers to contribute further toward conservation monitoring of all bat species. A list and short biography of the experts involved and some information of these events may be found online.
