Assessing the scope and severity of threats is necessary for evaluating impacts on populations to inform conservation planning. Quantitative threat assessment often requires monitoring programs that provide reliable data over relevant spatial and temporal scales, yet such programs can be difficult to justify until there is an apparent stressor. Leveraging efforts of wildlife management agencies to record winter counts of hibernating bats, we collated data for 5 species from over 200 sites across 27 U.S. states and 2 Canadian provinces from 1995 to 2018 to determine the impact of white-nose syndrome (WNS), a deadly disease of hibernating bats. We estimated declines of winter counts of bat colonies at sites where the invasive fungus that causes WNS (Pseudogymnoascus destructans) had been detected to assess the threat impact of WNS. Three species undergoing species status assessment by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Myotis septentrionalis, Myotis lucifugus, and Perimyotis subflavus) declined by more than 90%, which warrants classifying the severity of the WNS threat as extreme based on criteria used by NatureServe. The scope of the WNS threat as defined by NatureServe criteria was large (36% of Myotis lucifugus range) to pervasive (79% of Myotis septentrionalis range) for these species. Declines for 2 other species (Myotis sodalis and Eptesicus fuscus) were less severe but still qualified as moderate to serious based on NatureServe criteria. Data-sharing across jurisdictions provided a comprehensive evaluation of scope and severity of the threat of WNS and indicated regional differences that can inform response efforts at international, national, and state or provincial jurisdictions. We assessed the threat impact of an emerging infectious disease by uniting monitoring efforts across jurisdictional boundaries and demonstrated the importance of coordinated monitoring programs, such as the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat), for data-driven conservation assessments and planning.

中文翻译：

---

北美冬眠蝙蝠白鼻综合征的范围和严重程度

评估威胁的范围和严重程度对于评估对种群的影响以告知保护规划是必要的。定量威胁评估通常需要在相关空间和时间尺度上提供可靠数据的监控程序，但在出现明显压力源之前，此类程序很难证明其合理性。利用野生动物管理机构记录冬眠蝙蝠数量的努力，我们整理了 1995 年至 2018 年美国 27 个州和加拿大 2 个省的 200 多个地点的 5 个物种的数据，以确定白鼻综合征 (WNS) 的影响，这是一种冬眠蝙蝠的致命疾病。我们估计了在导致 WNS 的侵入性真菌（Pseudogymnoascus destructans) 已被检测到以评估 WNS 的威胁影响。接受美国鱼类和野生动物管理局物种状况评估的三个物种（Myotis septentrionalis、Myotis lucifugus和Perimyotis subflavus）下降了 90% 以上，这保证了根据 NatureServe 使用的标准将 WNS 威胁的严重程度归类为极端。对于这些物种，NatureServe 标准定义的 WNS 威胁范围从大（36% 的Myotis lucifugus范围）到普遍（79% 的Myotis septentrionalis范围）。其他 2 个物种（Myotis sodalis和Eptesicus fuscus）数量下降) 不太严重，但仍符合 NatureServe 标准的中度至重度标准。跨辖区的数据共享提供了对 WNS 威胁的范围和严重性的全面评估，并指出了区域差异，可以为国际、国家和州或省辖区的响应工作提供信息。我们通过联合跨辖区的监测工作来评估新出现的传染病的威胁影响，并证明了协调监测计划（例如北美蝙蝠监测计划 (NABat)）对于数据驱动的保护评估和规划的重要性。