BatLog: open-source passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag logger for wildlife behavioral studies
Automated monitoring of individually marked animals enables the collection of high-resolution activity data, yet commercial systems capable of continuous individual organism tracking remain inaccessible to many research programs. BatLog is a modular, open-source passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag logging system built on Arduino-compatible hardware, costing ~3.5% of average commercial systems. BatLog is designed to extend the application of existing PIT tag infrastructure by incorporating individual identification data into continuous behavioral datasets, without requiring additional animal handling or marking. A dual-antenna configuration enables directional detection, allowing each tracking interaction to be classified as an animal entry or exit event. Deployed in a controlled laboratory setup at Bucknell University, USA, the BatLog system recorded 40,653 paired directional events across 20 individually identified organisms. The Arduino-compatible architecture supports integration with additional sensors, including temperature, humidity, accelerometers, and acoustic monitors, making BatLog broadly applicable to behavioral and ecological studies across taxa.

Impacts of Acid Rain on Microbial Community Composition Along a pH Gradient

Acid rain has been a critical issue impacting water sources and ecosystems in central Pennsylvania for decades. Several streams in Union County and surrounding areas have been affected, including a stream in the Buffalo Creek watershed that has undergone remediation to restore its natural pH. Despite acid rain’s known impacts on aquatic flora and fauna, few studies have addressed the effects of acid rain on microbes. Microorganisms are essential for soil health, carbon and nutrient cycling, and are crucial components of the food chain in many ecosystems. We collected triplicate sediment samples from a total of seven various inlet and outlet points at the remediation site to assess the impact of the acid remediation treatment on Buffalo Creek, and compare the microbial state of the treated waters to an untreated control. We extracted DNA using the DNeasy PowerSoil Pro Kit and performed metagenomic sequencing to identify the differential composition of the microbial community across the natural pH gradients in the watershed, as well as extract information about specific microbial functions and biogeochemical cycles that might be disrupted by acid rain disturbances. We hope to find microbes that can serve as “indicator taxa” of ecosystem health and recovery levels, and whether we could someday build microbial solutions to aid stream remediation and recovery.

Historical Gradient of Host-Pathogen Dual Transcriptomics in White Nose Syndrome
White Nose Syndrome (WNS) is a cutaneous fungal disease caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd) . Since its arrival in 2006, WNS has spread rapidly across North America (NA), resulting in mass mortality in hibernating bats and threatening extinction in some species. These findings aim to provide insight into how Pd pathogenesis changes over time to identify potential targets for the prevention and treatment of WNS.

Incubation effort and telomere dynamics in Leach’s storm-petrels

Avian embryos cannot regulate their own temperature, necessitating parental thermal buffering to stabilize developmental conditions throughout incubation. Many pelagic seabird pairs take turns between incubation and foraging during the breeding period. However, because of unpredictable food resources and fluctuating environmental conditions, breeding pairs often differ in how they divide parental tasks. This variable parental care during the incubation period may impose a physiological cost, which can be investigated using cellular biomarkers. Telomeres—the protective, terminal caps on linear chromosomes—are one biomarker of organismal cellular health. In previous studies of seabirds, shorter telomeres have been linked to improved reproductive performance, which could suggest that decreased energy expenditure towards self-maintenance has a cellular cost on telomeres. Here, we examine the impact of incubation effort on telomere dynamics in Leach’s storm petrels (Hydrobates leucorhous). To assess changes in telomere length, blood samples were collected from adults approximately 10 days post-egg lay date and 3 days before expected hatch date (average incubation period: 41.7 2 days). Erythrocyte telomere length was measured using the telomere restriction fragment assay. We will discuss telomere length changes at both the individual and pair level to evaluate how incubation effort may trade off with somatic maintenance. This study improves our understanding of the physiological costs of parental investment during incubation, with potential long-term effects on organismal physiology and future reproductive outcomes.

Assembling the genome of a bat (Epomophorus labiatus) with an XO sex determination system

Several members of the Pteropodidae family of bats are among the few mammals described without a Y chromosome. In these animals, sex is presumably determined by the dosage of the X chromosome. Additionally, bat genomes can reveal the genes involved with viral tolerance, as bats are notably asymptomatic to certain viruses. Therefore, we assembled the genome of a male epauletted fruit bat (Epomophorus labiatus) using Pacbio HiFi reads and Hi-C sequencing data to generate chromosome-scale scaffolds. The resulting assembly spans 2.1 billion bases, with a BUSCO completeness score of 99.56%. With visualization tools PretextView and HiGlass, we manually curated the assembly into 17 autosomes and an X chromosome. Annotation was performed with TSEBRA, which integrates gene predictions from the TOGA2 and Stringtie pipelines. These annotations will enable us to perform comparative genomics to identify positively-selected immune-related genes across bat lineages. Additionally, we plan to obtain a karyotype from samples collected in Uganda to confirm the absence of a Y chromosome in this species. We are currently identifying the genes under selection that facilitate this XO sex determination, including genes found on autosomes that are present on Y chromosomes in other bat species. Ultimately, this work will increase our understanding of the evolution of mammalian sex determination and the evolutionary genomics of bat immunity.