Figure 4.

Geographic prediction of white-nose syndrome in the Palearctic. (a) Fungal load of Pseudogymnoascus destructans growth on hibernating bats (scale bar in log₁₀(ng cm⁻²)) as a function of mean annual surface temperature at the site (°C). (b) Number of UV fluorescent skin lesions diagnostic for white-nose syndrome (scale bar in log₁₀(cm⁻²)) dependent on mean annual surface temperature. (c) Invasiveness of the P. destructans infection (Equation 3) in hibernating bats as a ratio of invasive fungal growth based on values predicted in (b) to the sum of invasive growth and skin surface colonization based on predictions in (a). Red crosses show sampled sites and the area for prediction is delimited with distribution ranges of bat species investigated herein (Figure S1) and range of mean annual surface temperatures at the sites sampled in this study.