Environmental Drivers of Temperate Bat Species Richness and Abundance: The Role of Hibernacula

ABSTRACT Aim Explaining the phenomenon of high biodiversity of biota remains one of the most significant challenges in the natural sciences, especially when it concerns long‐lived, highly mobile and cryptic taxa. Underground hibernation sites, where temperate bats congregate in winter, are key biodiversity hotspots that are systematically monitored in many countries and represent important population data. We investigated bat species richness and abundance in relation to hibernacula, considering multiple scale features—climate, ecoregion, topography, landscape use and site characteristics. Location Central Europe, Czech Republic. Taxon Bats (Chiroptera). Methods We used unpublished data from a long‐term monitoring programme of bat censuses at hibernation sites (caves, mines, cellars and bunkers) in the Czech Republic. To test the possible effects of four features (environmental, climatic, entrance position and inner roost parameters) on bat species richness and abundance, we ran Generalized Linear Models for each dependent variable. Further, an additional step was performed to eliminate multicollinear variables using variance inflation factors. Results Species richness was most strongly influenced by temperature seasonality, with additional effects from hibernaculum entrance height and length. In the total abundance models, the most influential predictors were hibernaculum accessibility and complexity of the hibernaculum, determined by the profile of the corridors and denivelation. Climate and internal spatial features of hibernacula were stronger predictors of bat occupancy and species richness than broad‐scale environmental variables. Main Conclusions Our study jointly analysed how climate, land use, entrance position and the internal structure of a hibernaculum influence the species richness and abundance of bats. Our results show that, in addition to relationships documented in previous studies, the internal structure of hibernacula is of fundamental importance in structuring bat assemblages in hibernation sites and in the distribution of certain species populations.