There are increasing concerns regarding bat mortality at wind energy facilities, especially as installed capacity continues to grow. In North America, wind energy development has recently expanded into the Lower Rio Grande Valley in south Texas where bat species had not previously been exposed to wind turbines. Our study sought to characterize genetic diversity, population structure, and effective population size in Dasypterus ega and D. intermedius, two tree-roosting yellow bats native to this region and for which little is known about their population biology and seasonal movements. There was no evidence of population substructure in either species. Genetic diversity at mitochondrial and microsatellite loci was lower in these yellow bat taxa than in previously studied migratory tree bat species in North America, which may be due to the non-migratory nature of these species at our study site, the fact that our study site is located at a geographic range end for both taxa, and possibly weak ascertainment bias at microsatellite loci. Historical effective population size (NEF) was large for both species, while current estimates of Ne had upper 95% confidence limits that encompassed infinity. We found evidence of strong mitochondrial differentiation between the two putative subspecies of D. intermedius (D. i. floridanus and D. i. intermedius) which are sympatric in this region of Texas, yet little differentiation using microsatellite loci. We suggest this pattern is due to secondary contact and hybridization and possibly incomplete lineage sorting at microsatellite loci. We also found evidence of some hybridization between D. ega and D. intermedius in this region of Texas. We recommend that our data serve as a starting point for the long-term genetic monitoring of these species in order to better understand the impacts of wind-related mortality on these populations over time.

中文翻译：

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德克萨斯州南部两种黄蝙蝠的遗传多样性、种群结构和有效种群规模

人们越来越担心风能设施中的蝙蝠死亡率，特别是随着装机容量的持续增长。在北美，风能开发最近已扩展到德克萨斯州南部的下里奥格兰德河谷，那里的蝙蝠物种以前从未接触过风力涡轮机。我们的研究旨在描述 Dasypterus ega 和 D. intermedius 的遗传多样性、种群结构和有效种群规模，这两种栖息在该地区的树栖黄蝠，对其种群生物学和季节性迁徙知之甚少。没有证据表明这两个物种存在种群亚结构。这些黄蝙蝠类群的线粒体和微卫星位点的遗传多样性低于之前研究的北美迁徙树蝠物种，这可能是由于我们研究地点这些物种的非迁徙性质，事实上我们的研究地点位于两个类群的地理范围末端，并且微卫星位点的确定偏差可能较弱。这两个物种的历史有效种群规模 (NEF) 都很大，而目前 Ne 的估计值具有 95% 的置信上限，其中包含无穷大。我们发现了德克萨斯州该地区同域的两个假定的 D. intermedius 亚种（D. i. floridanus 和 D. i. intermedius）之间存在强烈线粒体分化的证据，但使用微卫星位点的差异很小。我们认为这种模式是由于二次接触和杂交以及微卫星位点可能不完整的谱系分选所致。我们还在德克萨斯州这个地区发现了 D. ega 和 D. intermedius 之间存在杂交的证据。我们建议将我们的数据作为对这些物种进行长期遗传监测的起点，以便更好地了解与风相关的死亡率随着时间的推移对这些种群的影响。