TY - JOUR
T1 - Habitat loss for black flying foxes and implications for Hendra virus
AU - Baranowski, Kelsee
AU - Bharti, Nita
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Tim Ryan and Dale Richter at the Queensland Herbarium for providing the Vegetation Management Regional Ecosystem maps. We also thank Matt Bradford for his communication of black flying fox diet species from Bradford et al. 2022 and Bell et al. 2021. The content of the information does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the U.S. government, and no official endorsement should be inferred.
Funding Information:
This work was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (Grant No. CNH-L: 1716698 and GRFP: DGE1255832), the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency PREEMPT program (Cooperative Agreement #D18AC00031), and the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University, USA.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/6
Y1 - 2023/6
N2 - Context: Environmental change impacts natural ecosystems and wildlife populations. In Australia, native forests have been heavily cleared and the local emergence of Hendra virus (HeV) has been linked to land-use change, winter habitat loss, and changing bat behavior. Objectives: We quantified changes in landscape factors for black flying foxes (Pteropus alecto), a reservoir host of HeV, in sub-tropical Queensland, Australia from 2000–2020. We hypothesized that native winter habitat loss and native remnant forest loss were greatest in areas with the most human population growth. Methods: We measured the spatiotemporal change in human population size and native ‘remnant’ woody vegetation extent. We assessed changes in the observed P. alecto population and native winter habitats in bioregions where P. alecto are observed roosting in winter. We assessed changes in the amount of remnant vegetation across bioregions and within 50 km foraging buffers around roosts. Results: Human populations in these bioregions grew by 1.18 M people, mostly within 50 km foraging areas around roosts. Remnant forest extent decreased overall, but regrowth was observed when policy restricted vegetation clearing. Winter habitats were continuously lost across all spatial scales. Observed roost counts of P. alecto declined. Conclusion: Native remnant forest loss and winter habitat loss were not directly linked to spatial human population growth. Rather, most remnant vegetation was cleared for indirect human use. We observed forest loss and regrowth in response to state land clearing policies. Expanded flying fox population surveys will help better understand how land-use change has impacted P. alecto distribution and Hendra virus spillover.
AB - Context: Environmental change impacts natural ecosystems and wildlife populations. In Australia, native forests have been heavily cleared and the local emergence of Hendra virus (HeV) has been linked to land-use change, winter habitat loss, and changing bat behavior. Objectives: We quantified changes in landscape factors for black flying foxes (Pteropus alecto), a reservoir host of HeV, in sub-tropical Queensland, Australia from 2000–2020. We hypothesized that native winter habitat loss and native remnant forest loss were greatest in areas with the most human population growth. Methods: We measured the spatiotemporal change in human population size and native ‘remnant’ woody vegetation extent. We assessed changes in the observed P. alecto population and native winter habitats in bioregions where P. alecto are observed roosting in winter. We assessed changes in the amount of remnant vegetation across bioregions and within 50 km foraging buffers around roosts. Results: Human populations in these bioregions grew by 1.18 M people, mostly within 50 km foraging areas around roosts. Remnant forest extent decreased overall, but regrowth was observed when policy restricted vegetation clearing. Winter habitats were continuously lost across all spatial scales. Observed roost counts of P. alecto declined. Conclusion: Native remnant forest loss and winter habitat loss were not directly linked to spatial human population growth. Rather, most remnant vegetation was cleared for indirect human use. We observed forest loss and regrowth in response to state land clearing policies. Expanded flying fox population surveys will help better understand how land-use change has impacted P. alecto distribution and Hendra virus spillover.
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U2 - 10.1007/s10980-023-01642-w
DO - 10.1007/s10980-023-01642-w
M3 - Article
C2 - 37229480
AN - SCOPUS:85151734482
SN - 0921-2973
VL - 38
SP - 1605
EP - 1618
JO - Landscape Ecology
JF - Landscape Ecology
IS - 6
ER -