A heterogeneous landscape composed of high, medium, and low burn severity patches within a forest altered by large wildfires provided habitat for different bat species, but water density and range in elevation were more important for predicting bat habitat use than fire severity in this arid landscape. When burn severity was a predictor, agile species had higher activity in areas that were unburned or had low severity burn. Stream density and elevation range were more important predictors for species groups than burn severity. No scale was selected preferentially by any species or group. We conducted a multi-scale analysis of landscape structure and composition around each location from a 90 to 5760 m radius. We classified echolocation calls to species or group and calculated an activity index by adjusting the calls per hour. We deployed acoustic detectors at randomly selected locations within a 217,712 ha wildfire boundary in Arizona.

Three years post wildfire, we assessed how burn severity, water, landform type, elevation, vegetation type, and roads affected use by bats of a forest landscape at multiple spatial scales. However, the spatial scale at which these changes affect bats depends on their use of habitat elements. Wildfire causes rapid changes in vegetation that affect habitat use. Bats are among the most widespread mammals on Earth, and are subject to habitat change, loss, and other disturbances such as fire.

Slow Burn by V.J. Chambers