Introduction

Tab Summaries

About the Sewanee Bat Study

Welcome!

Bats are a vital part of ecosystems, but many species are declining due to 'white-nose syndrome', one of the worst wildlife diseases in modern history. Dr. Amy Turner and her team have worked together over the last six years on the Sewanee Bat Study to monitor Sewanee’s bat populations and make land management decisions in an effort to conserve. The goals of this project include: analyzing the trends in frequencies in bat activity across time and management areas to see which locations are crucial for bats, what land management practices are harmful or helpful, and what species seem to be thriving or not. We are analyzing the data and creating a dashboard to help make data-driven forest management decisions in collaboration with The Office of Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability and Domain Management.

Key Terms & Definitions:

Cave Obligate means that a particular species of bat requires a cave year-round to roost in. Cave obligate bat species are the most vulnerable to white-nose syndrome.

Non Cave Obligate means that a species of a bat does not require a cave at all, and may rarely/never use one. These bats live primarily in the forest instead.

Seasonal Cave Obligate means that a species of bat requires a cave for hibernation only and spends the warmer months roosting in the forest.

Bats of Sewanee:

Land Management Practices:

Our land management strategies are currently broken up into three categories: Managed, Unmanaged, and Cove. Managed land means that the land has experienced some type of alteration, such as a controlled burn or logging. Unmanaged land indicates that the land hasn’t received any management for several years. Coves are a separate entity, as it’s a small bay or inlet, and cannot be managed in the same ways that forest land can.

Data Acessibility:

For further information, or acess to the raw data, please email our team at oess@sewanee.edu

Further resources:

Tennessee Bat Working Group
The North American Bat Monitoring Program
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service

Long-Term Trends

This tab will display an overview of bat activity trends across all recorded years, with the option to compare across forest management types. Also available are optional weather overlays tracking average wind, rain, and temperature in each year.

Seasonal Trends

This tab will display bat activity trends by month of the year, with the option to compare across years or forest management types. Also available are optional weather overlays tracking the average wind, rain, and temperature in each month.

Circadian Trends

This tab will display bat activity trends by hour of the day on a 24-hour cycle, with the option to compare across months, years, or forest management types.

Spatial Trends

This tab will display the annual bat activity in any given geographical compartment, with the option to compare across sampling sites.

Diversity Trends

This tab will display the proportion of bat activity accounted for by each species in each year, with the option to compare across forest management types.

Sampling Activity

This tab will display a graph of sampling activity over time, as well as the proportions of noise and unidentifiable bat calls for each sensor and microphone.

Meet the Team

Sewanee Bat Study:

Dr. Amy Turner

Amy is the Director of the Office of Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability and has been in this position since 2017. She received her B.S in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences; a B.S. in Political Science from Texas A&M University; an M.S. in Environmental Science from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi; and a Ph.D. in Wildlife Science from Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Prior to serving at Sewanee, Amy worked at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an Ecologist alongside her fellow biologists to preserve and protect resources for future generations. She has spent the majority of her career dedicated to natural resource conservation and education, ensuring that the youth of today will be the informed leaders of tomorrow.
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Kevin Fouts

Kevin is the Research Manager for the Office of Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability at Sewanee. He received his M.S. in Wildlife Management and Ecology from the University of Georgia and has put that degree to work studying aquatic systems and their inhabitants throughout the southeast. Prior to joining the University, he investigated links between management practices and stream salamander communities in the Smokies, worked with managers of southeastern reservoirs to reduce incidence of wildlife disease, and helped examine the effects of biofuel production on water quality. A whitewater guide in his younger years, Kevin loves spending time in local streams and is helping coordinate the Sewanee Headwaters Initiative .
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Sewanee DataLab:

Shelby Cline C'23 - fellow

Major: Biology
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Hallie Rutten C'22 - fellow

Major: Mathematics, Minor: Computer Science
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Monae Scott C'23 - fellow

Major: Sustainability
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Dr. Eric Keen - mentor

Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Eric Keen is a data scientist, marine ecologist, and educator. He is the Science Co-director at BCwhales , a research biologist at Marecotel , a data scientist at Hyfe , a mentor for Sewanee DataLab , and a professor of Environmental Studies at Sewanee: the University of the South. He earned his BA at Sewanee (2008) and his Ph.D. at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (2017). His research focuses on the ecology and conservation of whales in developing coastal habitats. He is passionate about whales, conservation, teaching, small-scale farming, running, and bicycles. And pizza.
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