Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Rocky Mountain CESU

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The U.S. Geological Survey, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK), is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner to assist with statistical analysis and methodology development for existing bat data. With the outbreak of white-nose syndrome and growing awareness of the risks to bats at wind power generating facilities, land management agencies have a need for monitoring information that can be used to inform management decisions. The North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) has been developed to support coordinated monitoring of bat populations across North America. A cornerstone of NABat is the use of automated recording devices deployed for multiple nights. To effectively use this data, there is a clear need for guidance on the workflow for acoustic analyses, methodology for accounting for species misidentification within an occupancy model, and method development to properly account for the inherent uncertainty in acoustic bat data. Existing acoustic survey pilot data that have been collected and should be retrievable from direct data sources can be used to inform these issues.

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