PUBLICACIÓN CIENTÍFICA

Pre-fledgling oxidative damage predicts recruitment in a long-lived bird

Enlace mardeaves Phalacrocorax aristotelis,PUBLICACIÓN CIENTÍFICA,REPOSITORIO ,,

Noguera, J. C., Kim, S.-Y. & Velando, A. Pre-fledgling oxidative damage predicts recruitment in a long-lived bird. Biology letters rsbl20110756 (2011).

Empirical evidence has shown that stressful conditions experienced during development may exert long-term negative effects on life-history traits. Although it has been suggested that oxidative stress has long-term effects, little is known about delayed consequences of oxidative stress experienced early in life in fitness-related traits. Here, we tested whether oxidative stress during development has long-term effects on a life-history trait directly related to fitness in three colonies of European shags Phalacrocorax aristotelis. Our results revealed that recruitment probability decreased with oxidative damage during the nestling period; oxidative damage, in turn, was related to the level of antioxidant capacity. Our results suggest a link between oxidative stress during development and survival to adulthood, a key element of population dynamics.

Maternal testosterone influences a begging component that makes fathers work harder in chick provisioning

Enlace mardeaves Larus michahellis,PUBLICACIÓN CIENTÍFICA,REPOSITORIO ,,,,

Noguera, J. C., Kim, S.-Y. & Velando, A. Maternal testosterone influences a begging component that makes fathers work harder in chick provisioning. Hormones and behavior 64, 19–25 (2013).

In species with biparental care, parents disagree evolutionarily over the amount of care that each of them is willing to provide to offspring. It has recently been hypothesised that females may try to manipulate their mates by modifying offspring begging behaviour through yolk hormone deposition, shifting the division of labour in their own favour. To test this hypothesis we first investigated how yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis) parents feed offspring in relation to each component of complex begging behaviour and if feeding behaviour varies between sexes. Then we investigated the effect of yolk testosterone on chicks’ begging by experimentally increasing yolk testosterone levels. Our results revealed that yolk testosterone has a component-specific effect on chicks’ begging, specifically increasing the number of chatter calls. Parental feeding effort was influenced by the number of chatter calls emitted by chicks, but most importantly, the influence was stronger in male than in female parents. Moreover, chick body mass increased with the number of paternal feeds. In conclusion, these results show that female gulls may use yolk testosterone deposition to exploit their partners as predicted by the ‘Manipulating Androgen Hypothesis (MAH)’.

Henslow’s swimming crab (Polybius henslowii) as an important food for yellow-legged gulls (Larus cachinnans) in NW Spain

Enlace mardeaves Larus michahellis,PUBLICACIÓN CIENTÍFICA,REPOSITORIO ,,,

Munilla, I. Henslow’s swimming crab (Polybius henslowii) as an important food for yellow-legged gulls (Larus cachinnans) in NW Spain. ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil 54, 631–634 (1997).

An analysis of the contents of 2562 pellets sampled from 1987 to 1993 at breeding colonies and roosting sites showed that Henslow’s swimming crabs (Polybius henslowii) are by far the most important marine prey for yellow-legged gulls (Larus cachinnans) on the coasts of Galicia (north-western Spain), occurring in 36.4% of pellets. The results also suggest that yellow-legged gulls in Galicia are to a great extent marine foragers. Galicia has one of the largest yellow-legged gull populations in western Europe, largely dominating the seabird community. Polybius henslowii is the most abundant decapod crab over the continental shelf of Galicia. It enters coastal waters in large shoals and frequently stays close to the sea surface. Compared with the diets of other yellow-legged gull populations or any of the other closely related gull species, such as the herring (L. argentatus) and the lesser black-backed gull (L. fuscus), Polybius henslowii appears as a characteristic and even exclusive prey of yellow-legged gull populations in the Iberian Atlantic. There is also some evidence that the regular irruption of large Polybius henslowii shoals is a phenomenon peculiar to Iberian Atlantic waters.

Desplazamientos de la Gaviota Patiamarilla (Larus cachinnans) en poblaciones del norte de la Península Ibérica

Enlace mardeaves Larus michahellis,PUBLICACIÓN CIENTÍFICA,REPOSITORIO ,,,,

Munilla, I. Desplazamientos de la Gaviota Patiamarilla (Larus cachinnans) en poblaciones del norte de la Península Ibérica. Ardeola 44, 19–26 (1997).

Se analizan todas las recuperaciones disponibles de gaviotas patiamarillas anilladas como pollos que conciernen al Atlántico norte español (Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria y País Vasco), y se comparan con las recuperaciones de aves anilladas en la provincia de Gerona. Las gaviotas patiamarillas de las colonias del Atlántico norte español no parecen realizar desplazamientos de carácter migratorio, recuperándose la mayoría de las aves a menos de 100 km de la colonia natal, situación que contrasta con el claro comportamiento migratorio de las patiamarillas del Mediterráneo occidental. En las poblaciones del Atlántico se han encontrado diferencias significativas entre clases de edad en las distancias a la colonia natal, correspondiendo los mayores desplazamientos a las aves inmaduras. Por el contrario, los datos de la provincia de Gerona no parecen indicar la existencia de tales diferencias. En ambos casos se observa un marcado ciclo estacional, si bien las menores distancias a la colonia de anillamiento se producen entre mayo y septiembre en el Atlántico, mientras que en Gerona este periodo tiene lugar entre marzo y junio. Por otra parte, los resultados sugieren que las gaviotas del Atlántico norte español constituyen una población cerrada, sin apenas relaciones con otras poblaciones de Larus cachinnans.

The Iberian guillemot population crash: A plea for action at the margins

Enlace mardeaves PUBLICACIÓN CIENTÍFICA,REPOSITORIO,Uria aalge

Munilla, I. & Velando, A. The Iberian guillemot population crash: A plea for action at the margins. Biological Conservation 191, 842 (2015).

We would like to thank Dr. Martínez-Abraín for his interest in our study on the collapse of the Iberian guillemots (Munilla et al., 2007) as it gives us the opportunity to comment on the importance of some of the issues concerning the conservation of marginal, rear edge populations. In our retrospective analyses of the quasi-extinction of Iberian guillemots, we found that the only demographic parameter which explained the dra- matic population crash that occurred between 1960 and 1974 was the disappearance of breeding adults.

Oiling of live gulls as a tool to monitor acute oil spill effects on seabirds

Enlace mardeaves PUBLICACIÓN CIENTÍFICA,REPOSITORIO ,,,,

Munilla, I. & Velando, A. Oiling of live gulls as a tool to monitor acute oil spill effects on seabirds. Ibis 152, 405–409 (2010).

Here we present a novel non-intrusive approach that can be useful to assess oil effects on seabirds based on the monitoring of oiling rates in live free-ranging gulls. To assess the feasibility of this method, we established a monitoring scheme to record oiling rates in live gulls in a coastal area affected by the Prestige oil spill disaster in Galicia (northwest Spain).

Colony Foundation in an Oceanic Seabird

Enlace mardeaves Calonectris diomedea,PUBLICACIÓN CIENTÍFICA,REPOSITORIO ,,,,,

Munilla, I., Genovart, M., Paiva, V. H. & Velando, A. Colony Foundation in an Oceanic Seabird. PloS one 11, e0147222 (2016).

Seabirds are colonial vertebrates that despite their great potential for long-range dispersal and colonization are reluctant to establish in novel locations, often recruiting close to their natal colony. The foundation of colonies is therefore a rare event in most seabird species and little is known about the colonization process in this group. The Cory’s shearwater (Calonectris diomedea) is a pelagic seabird that has recently established three new colonies in Galicia (NE Atlantic) thus expanding its distribution range 500 km northwards. This study aimed to describe the establishment and early progress of the new Galician populations and to determine the genetic and morphometric characteristics of the individuals participating in these foundation events. Using 10 microsatellite loci, we tested the predictions supported by different seabird colonization models. Possibly three groups of non-breeders, adding up to around 200 birds, started visiting the Galician colonies in the mid 2000’s and some of them eventually laid eggs and reproduced, thus establishing new breeding colonies. The Galician populations showed a high genetic diversity and a frequency of private alleles similar to or even higher than some of the large historical populations. Most individuals were assigned to several Atlantic populations and a few (if any) to Mediterranean colonies. Our study suggests that a large and admixed population is settling in Galicia, in agreement with predictions from island metapopulation models of colonization. Multiple source colonies imply that some birds colonizing Galicia were dispersing from very distant colonies (> 1500 km). Long-distance colonizations undertaken by relatively large and admixed groups of colonizers can help to explain the low levels of genetic structure over vast areas that are characteristic of most oceanic seabird species.

Are edge bird populations doomed to extinction? A retrospective analysis of the common guillemot collapse in Iberia

Enlace mardeaves PUBLICACIÓN CIENTÍFICA,REPOSITORIO,Uria aalge ,,,

Munilla, I., Díez, C. & Velando, A. Are edge bird populations doomed to extinction? A retrospective analysis of the common guillemot collapse in Iberia. Biological Conservation 137, 359–371 (2007).

In the first half of the XXth century, the common guillemot (Uria aalge) was the seabird with the largest breeding population in Atlantic Iberia (ca. 20,000 individuals), the low-latitude limit of the species breeding range. However, this population suffered a dramatic decline and is quasi-extinct at present. The decline was believed to be associated with reduced availability of pelagic prey fish due to climate change. In this study, we analyzed the population change of Iberian guillemots in the second half of the XXth century by means of a retrospective analysis. Our study showed that between 1960 and 1974 the guillemots in Iberia suffered a dramatic population crash (33.3% annual decline) and that subsequently, the population continued to decline at a slower annual rate (13.4%). Simulation models indicated that the factors driving the population crash should be related to adult survival, rather than reproduction. The analysis of environmental and fishery data suggested good climate conditions and higher or sustained availability of pelagic prey fish when the Iberian guillemots crashed. In contrast, relevant human-related factors were affecting adult mortality in that period, specially a rapid and large increase in the number of synthetic fishing nets. During the collapse, no conservation measures were undertaken to mitigate anthropogenic threats and it was assumed, in some extent, that this low-latitude edge population was somehow prone to extinction as a consequence of climate change. This study high- lights that to carelessly attribute the decline of rear edge populations to climate change could be highly misleading if the population is suffering from other, particularly human, threats.

Nidificación urbana de Gaviota patiamarilla (Larus cachinnans) en Vigo (Galicia)

Enlace mardeaves Larus michahellis,PUBLICACIÓN CIENTÍFICA,REPOSITORIO ,,

Mouriño, J., Sierra Abraín, F. & Arcos, F. Nidificación urbana de Gaviota patiamarilla (Larus cachinnans) en Vigo (Galicia). Chioglossa 1, 47–52 (1999).

Entre 90 y 120 parejas de Gaviota Patiamarilla (Larus cachinnans) nidificaron en el casco urbano de Vigo en 1989. La colonia se encuentra en el centro de la ciudad. fundamentalmente en casas bajas y antiguas. donde crían en tejados y chimeneas cerradas. El período de puesta coincide con el conocido para las vecinas islas Cíes. concentrándose a primeros de mayo. Las gaviotas habrían colonizado la ciudad alrededor de 1980 a raíz del incremento de la colonia de Cíes. Se prevé que dado el mantenimiento de las favorables condiciones y la abundancia de recursos tróficos. las gaviotas seguirán expandiéndose por la ciudad.

Caracterización de la vegetación de los acantilados del Parque Natural de las Islas Cíes y su relación con la colonia de gaviota patiamarilla (Larus cachinnans)

Enlace mardeaves Larus michahellis,PUBLICACIÓN CIENTÍFICA,REPOSITORIO ,

Mouriño, J. & Pérez, X. L. O. Caracterización de la vegetación de los acantilados del Parque Natural de las Islas Cíes y su relación con la colonia de gaviota patiamarilla (Larus cachinnans). Cuadernos de la Sociedad Española de Ciencias Forestales 135–142 (2002).

La vegetación característica de los pastos aerohalófilos de Galicia, adscrita a la comunidad Dauco-Festucetum pruinosae, no se encuentra representada en los acantilados estudiados de las islas Cíes. La singularidad en cuanto a la composición florística de estos acantilados, donde son comunes especies pioneras o de marcado carácter nitrófilo (p. ej. Holcus lanatus, Urtica membranacea), está relacionada con la influencia que ejerce la colonia de gaviota patiamarilla (Larus cachinnans) que se estima en unas 20.000 parejas reproductoras. Por otra parte, también se han encontrado importantes cambios en la frecuencia de aparición de ciertas especies tanto a nivel estacional como interanual.