Guild Vertical Stratification and Drivers of Bat Foraging in a Semi-Arid Tropical Region, Kenya.

Africa faces significant challenges in reconciling economic and social development while preserving its natural resources. Little is known about the diverse bat community on the continent, particularly in drier ecosystems. A better understanding of the bat community will help improve and inform the management of these ecosystems. Our study aimed to provide detailed information on the main drivers of bat richness and activity at three different heights above the ground in a semi-arid region of Kenya. We assessed how bat activity varied with space and height using acoustic sampling and complementary methods. We sampled 48 sites at ground level and two sites on meteorological masts at 20 m and 35 m above the ground. We recorded more than 20 bat species, including one species of concern for conservation. Our models showed that the use of space varies with bat guild, creating trade-offs in the variables that affect their activity. Low-flying bat species are mostly associated with habitat variables, whereas high-flying species are more dependent on weather conditions. Our study highlights the richness of bat assemblages in semi-arid environments and emphasizes the need for management measures to protect bat diversity in the face of habitat degradation caused by climate change, land management, and development projects.

Urbanisation generates multiple trait syndromes for terrestrial animal taxa worldwide.

Cities can host significant biological diversity. Yet, urbanisation leads to the loss of habitats, species, and functional groups. Understanding how multiple taxa respond to urbanisation globally is essential to promote and conserve biodiversity in cities. Using a dataset encompassing six terrestrial faunal taxa (amphibians, bats, bees, birds, carabid beetles and reptiles) across 379 cities on 6 continents, we show that urbanisation produces taxon-specific changes in trait composition, with traits related to reproductive strategy showing the strongest response. Our findings suggest that urbanisation results in four trait syndromes (mobile generalists, site specialists, central place foragers, and mobile specialists), with resources associated with reproduction and diet likely driving patterns in traits associated with mobility and body size. Functional diversity measures showed varied responses, leading to shifts in trait space likely driven by critical resource distribution and abundance, and taxon-specific trait syndromes. Maximising opportunities to support taxa with different urban trait syndromes should be pivotal in conservation and management programmes within and among cities. This will reduce the likelihood of biotic homogenisation and helps ensure that urban environments have the capacity to respond to future challenges. These actions are critical to reframe the role of cities in global biodiversity loss.

Assessing roost disturbance of straw-coloured fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) through tri-axial acceleration.

The disturbance of wildlife by humans is a worldwide phenomenon that contributes to the loss of biodiversity. It can impact animals' behaviour and physiology, and this can lead to changes in species distribution and richness. Wildlife disturbance has mostly been assessed through direct observation. However, advances in bio-logging provide a new range of sensors that may allow measuring disturbance of animals with high precision and remotely, and reducing the effects of human observers. We used tri-axial accelerometers to identify daytime flights of roosting straw-coloured fruit bats (Eidolon helvum), which were used as a proxy for roost disturbance. This bat species roosts on trees in large numbers (often reaching hundreds of thousands of animals), making them highly vulnerable to disturbance. We captured and tagged 46 straw-coloured fruit bats with dataloggers, containing a global positioning system (GPS) and an accelerometer, in five roosts in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Zambia. Daytime roost flights were identified from accelerometer signatures and modelled against our activity in the roosts during the days of trapping, as a predictor of roost disturbance, and natural stressors (solar irradiance, precipitation and wind speed). We found that daytime roost flight probability increased during days of trapping and with increasing solar irradiance (which may reflect the search for shade to prevent overheating). Our results validate the use of accelerometers to measure roost disturbance of straw-coloured fruit bats and suggest that these devices may be very useful in conservation monitoring programs for large fruit bat species.

Projeto de Intervenção Comunitária "PI. Come" / Community Intervention Project "PI. Come"

O excesso de peso apresenta-se como um dos principais fatores de risco para mortalidade e incapacidade, sendo responsável por mais de 10% do total de mortes na Europa. Em 2019, cerca de 29,6% das crianças portuguesas apresentavam excesso de peso e 12% obesidade, sendo considerado um grave problema de saúde pública. Aliada ao excesso de peso, a baixa literacia em saúde dos portugueses, contribui de forma significativa para a não adoção de comportamentos saudáveis que promovam a saúde. Através da elaboração de um diagnóstico de situação, para aferir as reais necessidades da população de uma comunidade da região centro percebeu-se que, localmente, os dados iam ao encontro dos apresentados a nível nacional. Numa perspetiva de responder às necessidades, com base na problemática identificada, nomeadamente, o défice de conhecimentos acerca da alimentação saudável, que se priorizou em primeiro lugar, procedeu-se a uma Scoping Review, identificando-se na evidência obtida, a necessidade de aumento do conhecimento dos pais acerca de alimentação saudável e prevenção da obesidade, através de programas que ainda que sejam de âmbito comunitário,atendam às características de cada família. Tendo como base a metodologia do Planeamento em Saúde e alicerçado no Modelo da Promoção da Saúde de Nola Pender, foi elaborado um Projeto de Intervenção Comunitária de forma a aumentar os conhecimentos dos pais acerca da alimentação infantil. Após a implementação do projeto, os resultados demonstram um aumento dos conhecimentos, passando de 20% dos participantes com bom conhecimento acerca da alimentação infantil, para 50%, traduzindo o impacto positivo do projeto. O desenvolvimento deste Relatório, surge no âmbito do 1º Curso de Mestrado em Enfermagem Comunitária: Área de Enfermagem de Saúde Comunitária e de Saúde Pública, e tem como objetivo descrever o processo reflexivo para a aquisição de competências enquanto Enfermeiro Especialista em Enfermagem Comunitária ­ Área de Saúde Comunitária e de Saúde Pública.

Excess weight is one of the main risk factors for mortality and disability, being responsible for more than 10% of total deaths in Europe. In 2019, around 29.6% of Portuguese children were overweight and 12% were obese, considered a serious public health problem. Combined with excess weight, the low health literacy of the Portuguese contributes significantly significant for the non-adoption of healthy behaviors that promote health. Through the elaboration of a situation diagnosis, to assess the real needs of the population of a community in the central region realized that, locally, the data were in line with those presented at national level. From a perspective of responding to needs, based on the identified problem, namely, the lack of knowledge about healthy eating, which was prioritized first, a Scoping Review was carried out, identifying in the evidence obtained, the need to increase parents' knowledge about healthy eating and obesity prevention, through programs that, although community in scope, meet the characteristics of each family. Based on the Health Planning methodology and based on the Health Model, Health Promotion by Nola Pender, a Community Intervention Project was designed to increase parents' knowledge about infant nutrition. After implementing the project, the results demonstrate an increase in knowledge, with more than 20% of participants having good knowledge about the child nutrition, to 50%, reflecting the positive impact of the project. The development of this Report comes within the scope of the 1st Master's Course in Community Nursing: Community Health and Public Health Nursing Area, and aims to describe the reflective process for acquiring skills as a Specialist Nurse in Community Nursing ­ Community Health and Public Health Area.

The importance of distance to resources in the spatial modelling of bat foraging habitat.

Many bats are threatened by habitat loss, but opportunities to manage their habitats are now increasing. Success of management depends greatly on the capacity to determine where and how interventions should take place, so models predicting how animals use landscapes are important to plan them. Bats are quite distinctive in the way they use space for foraging because (i) most are colonial central-place foragers and (ii) exploit scattered and distant resources, although this increases flying costs. To evaluate how important distances to resources are in modelling foraging bat habitat suitability, we radio-tracked two cave-dwelling species of conservation concern (Rhinolophus mehelyi and Miniopterus schreibersii) in a Mediterranean landscape. Habitat and distance variables were evaluated using logistic regression modelling. Distance variables greatly increased the performance of models, and distance to roost and to drinking water could alone explain 86 and 73% of the use of space by M. schreibersii and R. mehelyi, respectively. Land-cover and soil productivity also provided a significant contribution to the final models. Habitat suitability maps generated by models with and without distance variables differed substantially, confirming the shortcomings of maps generated without distance variables. Indeed, areas shown as highly suitable in maps generated without distance variables proved poorly suitable when distance variables were also considered. We concluded that distances to resources are determinant in the way bats forage across the landscape, and that using distance variables substantially improves the accuracy of suitability maps generated with spatially explicit models. Consequently, modelling with these variables is important to guide habitat management in bats and similarly mobile animals, particularly if they are central-place foragers or depend on spatially scarce resources.