Securing the Future of Bats: Research Trends in Diversity, Ecology, and Conservation Solutions

Bats (order Chiroptera) are the second most diverse group of mammals and provide essential ecosystem services, including agricultural pest suppression, pollination, seed dispersal, and nutrient cycling. Despite their ecological and economic importance, bats remain among the most understudied and threatened mammals worldwide. Habitat loss and fragmentation, climate change, infrastructure expansion—including wind energy development—hunting, persecution, and disease-related pressures are contributing to population declines, particularly in regions where monitoring and conservation capacity are limited. At the same time, bats remain central to debates surrounding zoonotic disease emergence, highlighting the importance of accurately understanding bat diversity, distributions, behavior, and parasite communities without reinforcing unsupported associations between bats and disease. Recent studies using acoustic monitoring, molecular tools, genomic approaches, and improved ecological models have revealed previously unrecognized diversity, expanded knowledge of bat distributions, and clarified responses to environmental change. However, persistent taxonomic, geographic, ecological, and socioeconomic knowledge gaps continue to limit evidence-based management. Integrating these fields is essential to improve conservation outcomes, strengthen public understanding, and support balanced assessments of both the benefits and risks associated with bats.

This Research Topic aims to consolidate emerging research that strengthens the scientific foundation for bat conservation in a rapidly changing world. It will advance understanding of bat diversity, distribution, behavior, ecology, parasites, ecosystem services, and responses to human-induced pressures. Contributions may address how new taxonomic, molecular, and monitoring approaches can improve species identification and population assessment; how bats respond to habitat alteration, climate change, and infrastructure; and how conservation interventions can be designed, evaluated, and implemented effectively, particularly in under-resourced regions. The Research Topic also seeks to promote interdisciplinary research connecting biodiversity science, parasitology, public health, economics, and applied conservation. By bringing together current evidence across these areas, it aims to identify priorities for future research and translate scientific knowledge into practical solutions that safeguard bat populations, the ecosystem services they provide, and the ecological processes they support.

To gather further insights into the diversity, ecology, health, threats, and conservation of bats globally, this Research Topic will consider studies across all geographic regions and ecological contexts, while emphasizing evidence-based approaches with clear relevance to conservation, management, policy, or public engagement. We welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

New bat taxa, taxonomic revisions, species complexes, and updated distribution records
Bat phylogenetics, phylogeography, genomics, and molecular identification
Advances in acoustic, visual, genetic, and community-based monitoring
Bat behavior, movement ecology, migration, communication, and social organization
Population dynamics, species distributions, and responses to climate change
Habitat loss, fragmentation, land-use change, pollution, hunting, and other anthropogenic pressures
Impacts of wind energy, transportation infrastructure, urbanization, and agricultural intensification
Parasites, pathogens, microbiomes, and host–parasite relationships
Evidence-based research on bats, zoonotic disease, and One Health
Pollination, seed dispersal, pest suppression, and the valuation of bat-derived ecosystem services
Conservation planning, protected areas, restoration, mitigation, and population recovery
Human–bat interactions, public perceptions, environmental education, and community engagement
Conservation policy, governance, monitoring frameworks, and management in under-resourced regions

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Chiroptera, Bats, Bat Taxonomy, Bat Systematics, Echolocation, Ectoparasites, Ebola, Species Distribution Modelling, Ecosystem Services, Conservation, Zoonoses, Wind Energy, Urbanisation

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.