Evaluate the collective function of references cited together in a given text segment.
Classify their combined role into one of the following categories: 'method', 'background', or 'result'.

Text:3; Appendix S4), however, indicate changes in regional bat abundances throughout the study period, including declines in all species that began prior to the wide proliferation of white-nose syndrome in the region beginning in 2008–2010, and prior even to the first detection of white-nose syndrome in 2006 [22,34].
Category: