Knowledge of species' functional traits is essential for understanding biodiversity patterns, predicting the impacts of global environmental changes, and assessing the efficiency of conservation measures. Bats are major components of mammalian diversity and occupy a variety of ecological niches and geographic distributions. However, an extensive compilation of their functional traits and ecological attributes is still missing. Here we present EuroBaTrait 1.0, the most comprehensive and up-to-date trait dataset covering 47 European bat species. The dataset includes data on 118 traits including genetic composition, physiology, morphology, acoustic signature, climatic associations, foraging habitat, roost type, diet, spatial behaviour, life history, pathogens, phenology, and distribution. We compiled the bat trait data obtained from three main sources: (i) a systematic literature and dataset search, (ii) unpublished data from European bat experts, and (iii) observations from large-scale monitoring programs. EuroBaTrait is designed to provide an important data source for comparative and trait-based analyses at the species or community level. The dataset also exposes knowledge gaps in species, geographic and trait coverage, highlighting priorities for future data collection.

Understanding how species respond to climate change is key to informing vulnerability assessments and designing effective conservation strategies, yet research efforts on wildlife responses to climate change fail to deliver a representative overview due to inherent biases. Bats are a species-rich, globally distributed group of organisms that are thought to be particularly sensitive to the effects of climate change because of their high surface-to-volume ratios and low reproductive rates. We systematically reviewed the literature on bat responses to climate change to provide an overview of the current state of knowledge, identify research gaps and biases and highlight future research needs. We found that studies are geographically biased towards Europe, North America and Australia, and temperate and Mediterranean biomes, thus missing a substantial proportion of bat diversity and thermal responses. Less than half of the published studies provide concrete evidence for bat responses to climate change. For over a third of studied bat species, response evidence is only based on predictive species distribution models. Consequently, the most frequently reported responses involve range shifts (57% of species) and changes in patterns of species diversity (26%). Bats showed a variety of responses, including both positive (e.g. range expansion and population increase) and negative responses (range contraction and population decrease), although responses to extreme events were always negative or neutral. Spatial responses varied in their outcome and across families, with almost all taxonomic groups featuring both range expansions and contractions, while demographic responses were strongly biased towards negative outcomes, particularly among Pteropodidae and Molossidae. The commonly used correlative modelling approaches can be applied to many species, but do not provide mechanistic insight into behavioural, physiological, phenological or genetic responses. There was a paucity of experimental studies (26%), and only a small proportion of the 396 bat species covered in the examined studies were studied using long-term and/or experimental approaches (11%), even though they are more informative about the effects of climate change. We emphasise the need for more empirical studies to unravel the multifaceted nature of bats' responses to climate change and the need for standardised study designs that will enable synthesis and meta-analysis of the literature. Finally, we stress the importance of overcoming geographic and taxonomic disparities through strengthening research capacity in the Global South to provide a more comprehensive view of terrestrial biodiversity responses to climate change.

Miniopterus schreibersii is a cave-dwelling bat species with a wide distribution in the western Palearctic spanning southern and central Europe, North Africa, Anatolia, the Middle East, and the Caucasus. We investigated the social structure and its effects on the genetic makeup of this species, using 10 nuclear microsatellite markers and a partial fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. Samples were examined from the species' entire circum-Mediterranean range. Local structuring that was previously detected among populations of M. schreibersii using mitochondrial markers was not observed for microsatellite markers, indicating male-biased dispersal for the species. Some support was found for postglacial expansions in Europe, with Anatolia potentially acting as the primary refugium during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). However, support for this hypothesis is not as strong as that previously detected using mitochondrial DNA markers. This is likely due to the diminishing effect of male-mediated dispersal, replenishing the nuclear diversity faster than the mitochondrial diversity in regions that are relatively far from the glacial refugia.

The isolation of populations in the Iberian, Italian and Balkan peninsulas during the ice ages define four main paradigms that explain much of the known distribution of intraspecific genetic diversity in Europe. In this study we investigated the phylogeography of a wide-spread bat species, the bent-winged bat, Miniopterus schreibersii around the Mediterranean basin and in the Caucasus. Environmental Niche Modeling (ENM) analysis was applied to predict both the current distribution of the species and its distribution during the last glacial maximum (LGM). The combination of genetics and ENM results suggest that the populations of M. schreibersii in Europe, the Caucasus and Anatolia went extinct during the LGM, and the refugium for the species was a relatively small area to the east of the Levantine Sea, corresponding to the Mediterranean coasts of present-day Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and northeastern and northwestern Egypt. Subsequently the species first repopulated Anatolia, diversified there, and afterwards expanded into the Caucasus, continental Europe and North Africa after the end of the LGM. The fossil record in Iberia and the ENM results indicate continuous presence of Miniopterus in this peninsula that most probably was related to the Maghrebian lineage during the LGM, which did not persist afterwards. Using our results combined with similar findings in previous studies, we propose a new paradigm explaining the general distribution of genetic diversity in Europe involving the recolonization of the continent, with the main contribution from refugial populations in Anatolia and the Middle East. The study shows how genetics and ENM approaches can complement each other in providing a more detailed picture of intraspecific evolution.

First biological research of deep pits in the Northern Velebit area started in 1992 with discovery of the cave system Lukina jama – Trojama. It is the deepest pit of the Dinaric Karst (-1421 m), situated in the Northern Velebit National Park. From its entrance zone to the 320 m of depth it is filled with ice and snow and therefore not suitable for the majority of cave- dwelling fauna. The temperature range (measured in 2010) gradually increases from bellow 0°C (entrance) to 4, 9°C (depth of 1381 m). Deepest part of the pit reaches phreatic zone which is explored up to 40 m in depth. During high water stands water can rise more than 100 m. Altogether 29 taxa are recorded in Lukina jama – Trojama cave system, 20 troglobionts (Gastropoda 1 ; Palpigrada 1 ; Acari 2 ; Opiliones 2 ; Pseudoscorpiones 1 ; Isopoda 2 ; Chilopoda 1 ; Diplopoda 1 ; Collembola 5 ; Diplura 1 ; Coleoptera 3) ; 7 stygobionts (Porifera 1 ; Bivalvia 1 ; Hirudinea 1 ; Polychaeta 1 ; Amphipoda 2 ; Decapoda 1) ; 1 tentative troglophile (Diptera) and 1 trogloxene (Chiroptera). Almost total absence of troglophiles can be explained with low temperatures in the entrance parts of the pit. The number of collected specimens of most taxa is extremely low considering the collection effort. In total 16 troglobionts and 2 stygobionts found in the cave system are endemic for Velebit Mt. and Lika region. However, several troglobionts recorded in deep pits only few kilometers away from Lukina jama – Trojama have not been found (Hirudinea 1 ; Araneae 2 ; Pseudoscorpiones 1 ; Isopoda 1 ; Collembola 1 ; Coleoptera 1). Along with a species of Coleoptera adapted to hygropetric habitat, extremely troglomorphic representatives of Collembola and Isopoda terrestria were found. In comparison to the world's deepest subterranean community from Krubera – Voronja cave (Western Caucasus), Lukina jama - Trojama has higher species richness (29 vs. 16 taxa) probably as a result of more frequent collection effort but also biogeographical position. The vertical distribution of species richness is different where the highest number of collected taxa in Voronja-Krubera is in the entrance zone (60 m deep) and in Lukina jama – Trojama in a chamber at 1000 m depth. About half of the taxa collected in Lukina jama – Trojama are still undescribed, including several new genera, but more specimens are needed for the taxonomical studies.