Scholarly record
GANTRY STRUCTURES USED ON BAT FLIGHT PATHS
Abstract
Environmental compensation aimed at keeping bat flight paths open is a major environmental protection issue. The small mammals play a very important role in eliminating pests and insects, pollination and seed dispersal. New roads often sever the continuity of bat migration routes. Not only do bats have traditional migration routes, but also their winter habitats rarely change. Given the above, many countries use different solutions of sustainable civil engineering, geared towards maintaining free passage for bats over currently constructed or rebuilt traffic routes. New gantry structures over S3, a new expressway in Puszcza Bukowa (Beech Woods) near Szczecin. A total of three gantries were built over S3, two at the end of forest edge and one along a forest clearing on both sides of the road. All the three objects were located precisely on bat migration routes, confirmed by several years of monitoring. Monitoring studies were conducted again after the road had been completed and commissioned to confirm the effectiveness of the solutions. The paper hypothesises on the reasons for better or worse performance of the three gantries on bat migration routes to their winter habitats.
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References15
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