Vlaschenko A. Forest-dwelling bats (Chiroptera: Mammalia) of Eastern Europe in Anthropocene, monitoring and conservation management

Bat species composition and distribution, assemblage and population structure, and population dynamic, and results of monitoring programs for the area of countries of Eastern Europe are presented in the doctoral thesis. Distribution and population structure of bats had been being studied in the vast areas of Ukraine and European Russia since 1999; one-time expeditions were conducted in Georgia, Turkey, and Romania. The data set for the dissertation was more than 30000 handed individuals of 32 bat species. Field, acoustics, genetics, stable isotope, laboratory, and captivity experimental methods were applied in the research. We identified that urban landscapes are the main areas of changes in the species composition and population structure of bats in the Anthropocene. It was showed the stability of bat assemblages in natural landscapes, bat monitoring programs were introduced. The structure of bat summer assemblages of forest landscapes of the countries of Eastern Europe was studied and described, habitat preferences of species were specified. Inventory of winter bat aggregations in mines were conducted and long-term monitoring was established. The structure and dynamics (long-term and seasonal) of bat assemblages are described on the example of the city of Kharkiv; the presence of a resident population of N. noctula was confirmed and the history of its formation was described. The sex-age structure of bat populations in the surveyed areas was described. The modern picture of bat migration activity in the south of Ukraine and in the territory of the Black Sea basin was presented. The list of prey species of insects and other arthropods in the diet of bats was presented. The results of the experiment of feeding bats in captivity and collecting their feces in nature allowed us to calculate the conversion factor - the conversion of the mass of feces to the mass of potentially eaten insects. The results of screening of viral, bacterial and fungal agents in bats were presented.