Landscape simplification and degradation through agricultural intensification is widely recognized as a main driver of biodiversity loss. In intensively used agricultural landscapes, patches of semi-natural habitats and particularly connections between them are of high importance for many taxa. Vegetated connections like hedgerows are especially important for foraging and commuting of mobile taxa such as bats. However, the interest of another treeless linear habitat – herbaceous field margins – remains unstudied for insectivorous bats. Field margins are nevertheless known as an important habitat for other taxa, including bat prey. Here we assessed the importance of field margins for bats compared to other landscape variables. We measured bat activity based on a repeated passive acoustic monitoring during 17 complete nights in summer on 112 study sites in an intensively used agricultural landscape. Each night, we sampled bat species activity and community metrics (i.e. species richness and community habitat specialization index) at different distances to field margins, and along a gradient of relative density of field margins. To compare field margin effects with other landscape variables, the sampled sites were selected by keeping a large variability in these other variables (land-cover Shannon diversity index, forests, hedgerows, water bodies, main roads, urban areas, grasslands, number of crops and rapeseed percentage). Only Myotis sp. were affected by herbaceous field margins. Specifically, the Myotis group activity decreased with the distance to herbaceous field margins (i.e. towards field crop cores), and positively correlated with relative density of herbaceous field margins, for which the effect size was comparable to other landscape variables. However, other landscape variables such as the proportion of and the distance to forests, the relative density of and the distance to hedgerows or land-cover Shannon diversity index, affected species richness, community specialization index, and bat activity of species from open, edge and narrow-space foragers, including the Myotis group as well. Our results highlight that herbaceous field margins have a positive effect on the activity of narrow-space bat foragers as Myotis species, but do not replace other landscape variables that drive the activity of the whole community.

通过农业集约化造成的景观简化和退化被广泛认为是生物多样性丧失的主要驱动因素。在密集使用的农业景观中，半自然栖息地的斑块，尤其是它们之间的联系，对许多类群都非常重要。像树篱这样的植被连接对于蝙蝠等移动类群的觅食和通勤尤为重要。然而，另一个无树的线性栖息地——草本田地边缘——对食虫蝙蝠的兴趣仍未得到研究。尽管如此，田野边缘仍是其他类群（包括蝙蝠猎物）的重要栖息地。在这里，我们评估了与其他景观变量相比，蝙蝠的场地边缘的重要性。我们在夏季 17 个完整的夜晚在一个密集使用的农业景观中的 112 个研究地点根据重复的被动声学监测测量了蝙蝠的活动。每天晚上，我们在距田地边缘不同距离处，并沿着田地边缘的相对密度梯度对蝙蝠物种活动和群落指标（即物种丰富度和群落栖息地专业化指数）进行采样。为了将田地边缘效应与其他景观变量进行比较，通过保持这些其他变量（土地覆盖香农多样性指数、森林、树篱、水体、主要道路、城市地区、草地、农作物数量）的较大可变性来选择采样点和油菜籽百分比）。仅有的 物种丰富度和群落栖息地专业化指数）与田地边缘的不同距离，并沿着田地边缘的相对密度梯度。为了将田地边缘效应与其他景观变量进行比较，通过保持这些其他变量（土地覆盖香农多样性指数、森林、树篱、水体、主要道路、城市地区、草地、农作物数量）的较大可变性来选择采样点和油菜籽百分比）。仅有的 物种丰富度和群落栖息地专业化指数）与田地边缘的不同距离，并沿着田地边缘的相对密度梯度。为了将田地边缘效应与其他景观变量进行比较，通过保持这些其他变量（土地覆盖香农多样性指数、森林、树篱、水体、主要道路、城市地区、草地、农作物数量）的较大可变性来选择采样点和油菜籽百分比）。仅有的 草原、作物数量和油菜籽百分比）。仅有的 草原、作物数量和油菜籽百分比）。仅有的Myotis sp. 受草本田地边缘影响。具体而言，Myotis组活动随着距离草本田地边缘（即朝向田间作物核心）的距离而降低，并与草本田地边缘的相对密度呈正相关，其影响大小与其他景观变量相当。然而，其他景观变量，如与森林的比例和距离、与树篱的相对密度和距离或土地覆盖的香农多样性指数、受影响的物种丰富度、群落专业化指数以及开放、边缘物种的蝙蝠活动。和狭小空间觅食者，包括Myotis组也是如此。我们的结果强调，草本田地边缘对狭窄空间蝙蝠觅食者作为Myotis物种的活动有积极影响，但不能取代驱动整个社区活动的其他景观变量。