Project period: 5 1 24-4 30 26PROJECT title: dietary pathways of contaminant effects on bats in nrdar casesbats in the united states (U.S.) are facing many threats, including but not limited to…

This $191,220 Cooperative Agreement, awarded by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) under the CFDA 15.808 Research and Data Collection program, supports research to assess the impacts of contaminants on bat populations in the context of Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) cases.

The primary objectives are to: 1) Review how bats are considered in existing NRDAR cases, including exposure pathways, species traits, and contaminant classes; 2) Identify NRDAR cases likely to overlap with bat foraging areas; 3) Develop a decision tool to guide assessment of aquatic-terrestrial dietary exposures for bats; and 4) Produce best practice guidance for incorporating bats in NRDAR processes. The research will benefit federal agencies like the USGS and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in their bat conservation efforts. The award recipient is the University of Tennessee, which will leverage its agricultural research and modeling expertise to deliver the project outputs over the 2-year performance period.

Project period: 5 1 24-4 30 26PROJECT title: dietary pathways of contaminant effects on bats in nrdar casesbats in the united states (U.S.) are facing many threats, including but not limited to habitat loss, habitat disturbance, wind turbine fatalities, the non-native fungal disease white-nose syndrome, and pollution. There are multiple BAT species currently listed or being evaluated to be listed under the U.S. Endangered species act, based on existing and emerging threats. As threats to bats emerge and worsen with anthropogenic influence, there is a need to consider the risks posed to bats in regulatory processes. Natural resource and damage assessment (nrdar) cases assess harm to natural resources from contaminant release or oil spill events. Many of these cases occur in areas within the range of threatened and endangered (t e) BAT species in the eastern U.S. The overall goal of this project is to provide support for practitioners to include bats in the assessment of injuries in nrdar cases related to the dietary effects of contaminants. Propose the following specific objectives to achieve this overarching goal. Objective 1. Review nrdar cases to summarize: a) how the risk to bats is currently considered in nrdar cases, b) the pathways of contaminant exposure to bats that are considered in cases, c) the species traits that are considered, d) the different contaminant classes considered, e) what should be measured to determine restoration efforts due to ecological injury and economic damages objective 2. Identify and describe the types of nrdar cases likely to overlap with BAT foraging areas objective 3. Aid practitioners in designing studies to consider aquatic-terrestrial dietary pathways in nrdar risk assessments and restoration processes by developing a decision tree that complements existing aquatic-terrestrial decision tools for aerial insectivores but focuses on bats specifically and objective 4. Produce a document outlining best practices for considering bats in nrdar cases. For the first objective, will compile all nrdar documents that can access and complete a comprehensive review. To complete objective 2, will use BAT capture and acoustic data from the U.S. Geological survey north american BAT monitoring program and other sources to model foraging habitat of t e bats in various landscapes in the eastern and western US. Will use this information to determine what types of nrdar cases are likely to occur in BAT foraging areas. To develop a decision tree to complement the existing aquatic-terrestrial framework and complete objective 3, will work with collaborators, including biologists and economists, to use information gained from objectives 1 and 2 to understand the food web effects of contaminants in bats, routes of dietary exposure, and BAT foraging areas likely to be injured from contaminant releases. Lastly, for objective 4, will summarize all the results from above. Will produce 4 deliverables from this project. The first will be a review manuscript that investigates how nrdar cases consider injuries to bats and the role of dietary pathways of contaminants (objective 1). The next will be a manuscript leveraging BAT data in selected landscapes in the eastern and western US to model and identify BAT foraging areas and include discussion of case study examples of different contaminant release scenarios in those landscapes. The third will be a manuscript specifically considering the assessment of harm and recovery for bats building off an existing aquatic-terrestrial decision tool. The fourth deliverable will be a white paper that summarizes all the efforts of this project and outlines best practices for considering and mitigating harm to bats in contaminant release scenarios. This project will benefit BAT conservation efforts of federal agencies, including the U.S. Geological survey and U.S. Fish and wildlife service, as well as other state agencies and organizations across the U.S. Engaged in BAT management