NABat Project
FAQ
Creating Project/Selecting Cells
What if my NABat project includes grid cells on the state border? Should I still survey them if < 50% is in my state?
NABat aims to understand status and trends of bat species at range-wide scales, regardless of state or jurisdictional boundaries. Assuming you have access to the entire grid, sample as usual, regardless of partial state ownership. If you have contact information for the landowner/manager in the adjacent state, this could be an opportunity for collaboration. If surveyed appropriately, information from that cell will contribute to state-level analyses for both states.
How should we survey grid cells where 1 or more 5 x 5 km quadrants is in ocean/water? Do we allocate 4 detectors in the quadrants on land or stick to 1 detector per 5 x 5 km quadrant?
How should I allocate effort if only 1 quadrant of a cell occurs within my jurisdictional boundary and I don’t have time or energy to find and coordinate sampling with “owners” of other quadrants?
My agency/university/nonprofit is interested in becoming a NABat partner and collecting data. How do I register a new project?
The first step to becoming a NABat partner is requesting an account. Once your account has been approved, you’ll receive an email with a link to create your username and password which can be used to login to the NABat partner portal. Once logged in, new users can create a new project and begin selecting grid cells to survey by clicking the blue "Add New Project" button on the right side of the page.
For more detailed guidance on creating new projects and selecting grid cells for survey, see the video tutorials in the "How to" section of our Resources tab or click here.
Sampling Methods
How flexible is the spatial and temporal sampling (number of detectors, number of nights) within a 10 x 10 km grid cell?
Unless a power analysis has been completed for your region indicating otherwise**, please adhere to the guidance in Loeb et al. (2015), which states that 2-4 detectors should be deployed for a minimum of 4 consecutive nights within each 10 x 10 km (100 km2) grid cell. Ideally, 1 detector is deployed in each of the four 5 x 5 km quadrants within a single 100 km2 grid cell to minimize spatial autocorrelation among detectors. In other words, species detections among detectors within the same grid cell are not independent samples. However, because the goal is to collect a representative sample of the true community of species within that grid cell, detectors should be deployed at a variety of habitat types within the cell.
** A new power analysis tool, R package "dynOccuPow", is currently in development. This package identifies optimal sampling across a region of interest (# grid cells to survey) while ensuring data collected can be used to meet regional objectives. The supporting manuscript, "Statistical power to detect change over time using dynamic occupancy models" (Banner et al. 2019), was recently published and is available for free here.
Is it preferable to survey 4 different habitat types within the cell or to ensure that all 4 quadrants are surveyed?
What is the ideal sampling window across regions? In California, for example? Will data collected before or after this window be useful?
All sampling should be conducted during the pre-volant maternity season. This will vary by latitude, elevation, local weather patterns, and other variables. Please consult with state biologists or regional bat working groups for specific guidance and the most up-to-date information for species in your area. Links to regional working groups can be found here.
California Forest Service Example:
The Forest Service has lands from low-latitude desert habitats to high-latitude, alpine sites. We have decided on a sampling window of May 6-July 20. With the low latitude, low elevation, and perhaps coastal sites sampled earlier … depends on logistics. If you have the personnel and detectors to get all your units sampled during June 10-July 10, for instance, that would be ideal. - Ted Weller
How are NABat partners gathering weather covariates? Data logger/weather stations with detectors, or online weather station data?
The answer depends on the objective of the analyses. For large-scale NABat status and trends analyses, NABat will rely on weather information from online sources with standard measures collected across large spatial extents (e.g., BioClim).
There are no priority GRTS cells in my area, but I'm interested in contributing data to NABat. Do you want data from non-priority cells?
Yes.
I've been collecting acoustic data in my area for years, but my methods don't match those outlined in the Plan for NABat. Should I contribute my data anyway? If so, what kind of project should I create (legacy or NABat)?
NABat encourages users to contribute any and all monitoring data they have collected. While some of these data may not be used in our occupancy analyses, they can be used in a number of other ways, including for Bayesian priors.
Uploading Data
I've finished surveying all my GRTS cells for this season. What data am I supposed to provide NABat? What is the best method for uploading data?
NABat requires the following data:
I have data for a cell that I will no longer be monitoring. Should I deselect the cell or maintain the cell as claimed by my project? Is it OK to upload data for a cell that I haven't claimed?
If you do not plan to continue monitoring a cell, deselect that cell so that others will know it is available for future monitoring, even if you plan to upload past data for that cell. Regardless of cell status, NABat will have access to the data and can use it for trends analyses.
My bulk upload status shows errors. What does that mean?
When uploading a bulk metadata CSV to the NABat Partner Portal, rows that contain any error are rejected and listed under the "Errors Found" column of the "Bulk Upload Status" tab. Clicking the blue hyperlink, which indicates the number of errors, will download a report with complete metadata for each row containing an error and two additional columns listing the row number and the type of error. Users have the option to correct errors in the original metadata CSV and re-upload it to their project (if the filename remains the same, the updated CSV will overwrite the original upload) or make corrections within the error report and upload that CSV to their project.
Miscellaneous
Is there a formal letter or statement that we can present to private landowners when inquiring about access to sample on their land?
Yes, a formal letter template requesting permission to access private land is available for download on our Resources page or by clicking here. Please also consider downloading and sharing the latest NABat Info Sheet with your partners and landowners. Contact the NABat Coordinating Office (breichert@usgs.gov) or your NABat Regional Monitoring Hub if you need help or require additional documentation.
Data Privacy/Use
Once my data are uploaded to NABat, who can access those data?
Users can manage data privacy settings by clicking the "Data Use & Sharing" tab from within the project homepage.