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... Dioxin-like compounds (DLCs) elicit adverse effects through activation of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR). Prior investigations demonstrated that sensitivity to activation of AHR1 in an in vitro AHR transactivation assay is predictive of early life stage mortality among birds. The present study investigated the link between sensitivity to activation of AHR1s and AHR2s and early life stage mort ...
Falco peregrinus; birds; juveniles; Gulf of Mexico
Abstract:
... In October 2017, we opportunistically observed up to 50 Peregrine Falcons (Falco peregrinus) on a ship moored in the western Gulf of Mexico. All birds we aged were juveniles, and they hunted from the ship, frequently perching extremely close to one another (<1 m apart) on cables. Both the number of birds and also the very short inter-individual distances when perching make these observations unusu ...
Maureen D. Correll; Whitney A. Wiest; Thomas P. Hodgman; Joseph T. Kelley; Brian J. Mcgill; Chris S. Elphick; W. Gregory Shriver; Meaghan Conway; Christopher R. Field; Brian J. Olsen
biomass; birds; community structure; competitive exclusion; ecosystems; evolution; functional diversity; habitat destruction; habitats; humans; hurricanes; ice; infrastructure; latitude; paleoecology; paleozoology; salt marshes; species diversity; surveys; Northeastern United States
Abstract:
... There is growing evidence to support that paleo‐timescale events are important determinants in the present‐day distribution of organisms. We explored the relationship between community composition of tidal marsh birds in the northeastern United States and potential drivers of biodiversity patterns across timescales to explore the relevance of historical contingency in this ecosystem. These potenti ...
aquatic invertebrates; biocenosis; birds; environmental impact; fish; lakes; mammals; roadside plants; runoff; snow; soil structure; water salinization; North America
Abstract:
... Road-salt runoff is an increasing problem in areas of North America that receive snow. Its effects include groundwater salinization, loss or reduction in lake turnover, and changes in soil structure. Road-salt runoff can affect biotic communities by causing changes in the composition of fish or aquatic invertebrate assemblages. It also poses threats to birds, mammals, and roadside vegetation. ...
... Chlamydiae have a worldwide distribution causing a wide range of diseases in human hosts, livestock, and companion animals as well as in wildlife and exotic species. Moreover, they can persist in their hosts as asymptomatic infections for extended periods of time. The introduction of molecular techniques has revolutionized the Chlamydia field by expanding the host range of known chlamydial species ...
... Honey bees are used in intensive way in agriculture due to their vital role in pollination of crops. Moreover, there are many valuable products from the bee colonies. Unfortunately, there are many enemies to honey bees. These enemies belong to various taxonomic ranks, including birds, insects and mites. Serious damages can be caused to honey bee colonies by these enemies. The sophisticated evoluti ...
Common Agricultural Policy; agri-environmental policy; agricultural land; biodiversity conservation; birds; economic incentives; landscapes; livestock production; markets; models; production technology; rain; steppes; traditional farming
Abstract:
... High Nature Value (HNV) farmland is declining in the EU, with negative consequences for biodiversity conservation. Agri-environment schemes implemented under the Common Agricultural Policy have addressed this problem, with recent proposals advocating direct support to HNV farming systems. However, research is lacking on the economics of HNV farming, which makes it difficult to set the level and ty ...
anthropogenic activities; arid zones; avifauna; birds; drying; ecosystems; population size; steppes; surface water; wetlands; Russia
Abstract:
... We have developed a technique to assess the state of shore ornithocomplexes that can be used for any artificial water bodies to reveal disturbances in their functioning and use. The article presents data on some artificial reservoirs of the dry-steppe zone in the south of the European part of Russia (Republic of Kalmykia). Our research has revealed the main factors of the environmental influence ( ...
... The anticoagulant rodenticides brodifacoum, chlorophacinone, and diphacinone have been proposed for broadcast application in some forested areas in Hawai'i to protect rare and endangered native bird species from introduced mice and rats. Groundwater resources in Hawai'i are prone to contamination due to the intrinsic aquifer vulnerability to leaching from the land surface. Because of the hydrogeol ...
... As part of an ongoing camera trapping project in the Sabangau Peat-swamp Forest (Central Kalimantan, Indonesia), we present camera-trap data on the avifauna. The camera traps have captured images and videos since 2008, including 224 individual bird photos representing 142 unique events of 25 species, 11 of which are Endangered, Vulnerable, or Near-Threatened, all of which we describe in species ac ...
Dermanyssus gallinae; birds; blood; case studies; dermatitis; females; histology; humans; kittens; mite infestations; mites; nests; poultry industry; rural areas; scanning electron microscopy; skin lesions; small mammals; urban areas; veterinary medicine
Abstract:
... BACKGROUND: Dermanyssus gallinae is a major threat for the poultry industry; these mites also feed on the blood of many other birds, small mammals and potentially humans. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: Three cats with dermatitis attributed to D. gallinae infestation. ANIMALS: Two 40‐day‐old kittens, living in a rural area, and one 7‐year‐old female indoor cat, were presented with a pruritic skin condition ...
agricultural zoning; birds; climate; climate change; habitat preferences; land use change; models; probability; species richness; surveys; temperature; urbanization; California
Abstract:
... Climate and land‐use changes are thought to be the greatest threats to biodiversity, but few studies have directly measured their simultaneous impacts on species distributions. We used a unique historic resource—early 20th‐century bird surveys conducted by Joseph Grinnell and colleagues—paired with contemporary resurveys a century later to examine changes in bird distributions in California's Cent ...
... BACKGROUND: Current knowledge of urban bird ecology and biodiversity relies on evidence from cities of the Northern Hemisphere, while the Southern Hemisphere is underrepresented. Santiago is a large city from South America, located in central Chile, which is both a biodiversity hotspot and an Endemic Bird Area. This work is a synthesis, which aims to provide a diversity account for Santiago, and t ...
Darren E. Irwin; Borja Milá; David P. L. Toews; Alan Brelsford; Haley L. Kenyon; Alison N. Porter; Christine Grossen; Kira E. Delmore; Miguel Alcaide; Jessica H. Irwin
... Detailed evaluations of genomic variation between sister species often reveal distinct chromosomal regions of high relative differentiation (i.e., “islands of differentiation” in FST), but there is much debate regarding the causes of this pattern. We briefly review the prominent models of genomic islands of differentiation and compare patterns of genomic differentiation in three closely related pa ...
... Individual specificity can be found in the vocalizations of many avian and mammalian species. However, it is often difficult to determine whether these vocal cues to identity rise from “unselected” individual differences in vocal morphology or whether they have been accentuated by selection for the purposes of advertising caller identity. By comparing the level of acoustic individuality of differe ...
Cyanistes caeruleus; allometry; birds; breeding sites; calcium; clutch size; eggs; forests; habitats; life history; phylogeny; progeny; urban parks
Abstract:
... BACKGROUND: Interspecies variation in avian egg shape and size is understandable in terms of adaptation, allometry and phylogeny. Within-species variation in egg properties influences offspring fitness and can be explained by differences in allocation of resources into reproductive components of life history in mulidimensionally variable environments. Egg size is inherently traded-off with clutch ...
... The Antarctic petrel (Thalassoica antarctica) has been identified as a key species for monitoring the status and health of the Southern Ocean and Antarctic ecosystems. Breeding colonies of the Antarctic petrel are often found on isolated nunataks far from inhabited stations, some up to hundreds of kilometers from the shoreline. It is difficult therefore to monitor and census known colonies, and it ...
Passeriformes; birds; case studies; cost effectiveness; monitoring; protocols; wildlife
Abstract:
... Capsule: We describe an effective monitoring protocol for detecting wildlife presence using autonomous recording units (ARUs) under different density scenarios. Aims: To describe an effective protocol for monitoring a night-time singing passerine, the Dupont’s Lark Chersophilus duponti, using ARUs. Methods: We estimate, using both simulations and field-collected data, the number of devices needed ...
birds; indigenous species; museums; species identification; Caribbean; Slovakia
Abstract:
... A collection of exotic birds deposited in the Šariš Museum in Bardejov (SMB), Slovakia, has not been evaluated critically since their deposition. We assessed the accuracy of identification of 465 bird specimens deposited in SMB with native distributions outside of Slovakia. Specimens belonged to 322 species of 82 families and 26 orders. Of the specimen represented, 34 belonged to species considere ...
... The β-defensin, one of the antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), is a significant component of the innate immune with a broad range of antimicrobial activities. Differing from the widely-studied mammals and birds, limited information about β-defensins has been reported in reptiles, especially in crocodilians. As a same ancient species as dinosaurs and the most endangered species of 23 crocodilians, the s ...
... Capsule: Automated acoustic recording can be used as a valuable survey technique for Capercaillie Tetrao urogallus leks, improving the quality and quantity of field data for this endangered bird species. However, more development work and testing against traditional methods are needed to establish optimal working practices. Aims: This study aims to determine whether Capercaillie vocalizations can ...
Colaptes auratus; birds; data collection; genetic markers; genetic variation; genome; genomics; high-throughput nucleotide sequencing; hybridization; hybrids; loci; models; phylogeny; plumage; single nucleotide polymorphism; Great Plains region; North America
Abstract:
... Next-generation sequencing technologies are increasingly being employed to explore patterns of genomic variation in avian taxa previously characterized using morphology and/or traditional genetic markers. The hybridization dynamics of the Northern Flicker complex have received considerable attention, primarily due to the conspicuous plumage differences among these birds and the geographically exte ...
Yvonne Andersson-Sköld; Jenny Klingberg; Bengt Gunnarsson; Kevin Cullinane; Ingela Gustafsson; Marcus Hedblom; Igor Knez; Fredrik Lindberg; Åsa Ode Sang; Håkan Pleijel; Pontus Thorsson; Sofia Thorsson
bees; birds; ecosystem services; ecosystems; green infrastructure; herbs; interviews; inventories; leaves; models; planning; shrubs; trees; vegetation; Sweden
Abstract:
... Ongoing urban exploitation is increasing pressure to transform urban green spaces, while there is increasing awareness that greenery provides a range of important benefits to city residents. In efforts to help resolve associated problems we have developed a framework for integrated assessments of ecosystem service (ES) benefits and values provided by urban greenery, based on the ecosystem service ...
... Tropical cloud forests are under severe distress, as deforestation leads to forest fragmentation and degradation. This represents a severe threat to small-ranged, forest-dependent species, as they are at risk of losing habitat and connectivity between populations. These detrimental effects are aggravated by upslope range shifts caused by climate change, as further habitat loss is expected. To miti ...
Blattodea; Diptera; birds; butterflies; cattle; foraging; fruit flies; geophysics; magnetic fields; sea turtles; sensory system
Abstract:
... The Earth's geomagnetic field (GMF) is known to act as a sensory cue for magnetoreceptive animals such as birds, sea turtles, and butterflies in long‐distance migration, as well as in flies, cockroaches, and cattle in short‐distance movement or body alignment. Despite a wealth of information, the way that GMF components are used and the functional modality of the magnetic sense are not clear. A GM ...
Animalia; amphibians; birds; covariance; energy; energy costs; females; fish; invertebrates; latitude; life history; progeny; reproduction; turtles
Abstract:
... Offspring size is a key functional trait that can affect all phases of the life history, from birth to reproduction, and is common to all the Metazoa. Despite its ubiquity, reviews of this trait tend to be taxon‐specific. We explored the causes and consequences of offspring size variation across plants, invertebrates and vertebrates. We find that offspring size shows clear latitudinal patterns amo ...
aerial photography; agricultural land; biodiversity conservation; birds; cultural landscape; data collection; ecosystem services; green belt (land management); habitats; issues and policy; land cover; land use change; landscape ecology; livestock; metropolitan areas; planning; remote sensing; species diversity; urbanization; Colorado; Great Plains region
Abstract:
... For better or worse, in those parts of the world with a widespread farming, livestock rising, and urban expansion, the maintenance of species richness and ecosystem services cannot depend only upon protected natural sites. Can they rely on a network of cultural landscapes endowed with their own associated biodiversity? We analyze the effects of land-cover change on landscape ecological patterns an ...
... Why do some individuals gamble more than others? Existing theories, based on how close animals are to starvation, have been only weakly supported by evidence. We found that faster ageing birds were less likely to gamble while foraging. We measured biological ageing in starlings from the shortening of DNA sequences called telomeres. Birds’ whose telomeres shortened more had stronger preferences for ...
Aonyx capensis; Bivalvia; Isopoda; Ruppia; algae; birds; estuaries; fish; fish kills; food availability; foraging; littoral zone; macrophytes; piscivores; rivers; trapping; vegetation; watersheds; South Africa
Abstract:
... On 15 November 2017 the mouth of the West Kleinemonde Estuary breached following heavy catchment rains and increased river flow. The water level in the estuary following mouth opening decreased by 1.65 m within 24 h, resulting in an almost complete draining of the littoral zone where large beds of the aquatic macrophyte Ruppia cirrhosa and mats of the associated filamentous algae were present. As ...
... Coastal ecosystems are influenced by a suite of drivers and interactions, resulting in complex dynamics not captured by single species, single driver approaches. Kelp forest ecosystems of the California Current region are subject to extreme environmental variability as well as a suite of fishing pressures which remove organisms throughout the food web. Here, we present a food-web model to assess e ...
... The Wryneck Jynx torquilla has undergone one of the largest bird species’ declines in Europe as a consequence of agricultural intensification; however, in some regions it still occurs in intensively managed permanent crops (e.g. vineyards). Considering the conservation status of the Wryneck and the increasing extent and intensification of permanent crops over Europe, investigating the habitat sele ...
Tyto alba; birds; body size; color; feathers; females; geographical variation; life history; males; melanin; phenotype; prediction; sexual selection; temperate zones; tropics
Abstract:
... Life history traits differ between organisms living in the tropics, Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and sexual selection is thought to be stronger close to the equator than in temperate regions. Although birds are often supposed to be more brightly coloured in the tropics, the current evidence of geographic variation in the intensity of sexual selection and sex‐specific natural selection is equ ...
... Urbanization is one of the most important global trends which causes habitat reduction and alteration which are, in turn, the main reasons for the reduced structural and functional diversity in urbanized environments. Predation is one of the most important ecological functions because of its community-structuring effects. According to previous studies effects of urbanization on predation rates app ...
... The codling moth Cydia pomonella L. (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) is a major economic pest in organic apple orchards. Observational methods, prey removal experiments and correlative experiments with exclosures or nest boxes have demonstrated that birds contribute to the removal of this insect pest. However, the majority of research conducted in the last several decades has taken place outside of the ...
Paola Montoya; Mailyn A. Gonzalez; Elkin A. Tenorio; Juan Pablo López‐Ordóñez; Alejandro Pinto Gómez; Diego Cueva; Aldemar A. Acevedo Rincón; Camilo Angarita Yanes; Héctor Manuel Arango Martínez; Orlando Armesto; Jefry S. Betancur; Angela Caguazango Castro; Jhon Jairo Calderon Leyton; Edna Viviana Calpa‐Anaguano; Ghislaine Cárdenas‐Posada; Michael Castaño Díaz; Sergio Chaparro‐Herrera; Nicolás Diago‐Muñoz; Laura Franco Espinosa; Luis Germán Gómez Bernal; Fanny L. Gonzalez‐Zapata; Eduardo Aquiles Gutiérrez Zamora; Ana M. Gutiérrez‐Zuluaga; Robinson Stivel Lizcano Jiménez; Andrea Lopera‐Salazar; Dariel Martínez Alvarado; Ana María Maya Girón; Wilderson Medina; Carolina Montealegre‐Talero; Juan L. Parra; Sebastián Pérez‐Peña; Francis Ramírez Ramírez; Julián Reyes; Héctor Fabio Rivera‐Gutiérrez; Yuri Rosero Mora; Carlos M. Trujillo‐Torres; Cristian Camilo Vidal‐Maldonado; Beatriz Salgado‐Negret
... Colombia is the country with the highest bird diversity in the world. Despite active research in ornithology, compelling morphological information of most bird species is still sparse. However, morphological information is the baseline to understand how species respond to environmental variation and how ecosystems respond to species loss. As part of a national initiative, the Instituto Alexander v ...
... Since 2009 the apple snail Pomacea maculata has become a new invader of Oryza sativa (rice) fields and wetlands in Europe, only invading the Ebro Delta (north‐eastern Spain) thus far. It is considered a highly invasive and damaging species, resulting in large economic losses worldwide. Despite the severe impact of the invasive apple snail on both cultivated and natural wetlands, it has become an a ...
Quercus; Tyrannidae; basidiomata; birds; branches; nesting; new combination; new species; tissues; tropical montane cloud forests; Mexico
Abstract:
... A new species of Gymnopus is described on the basis of collections from the subtropical cloud forest of eastern Mexico. Macro- and micromorphological characters, in combination with ITS sequences obtained from fruit body tissues, were used for its taxonomic circumscription. Basidiomata of this species were found growing scattered on fallen twigs of Quercus and also developing abundant long, black, ...
... A 1-month-old brown wood owlet (Strix leptogrammica) purchased from a wholesaler and housed as a companion bird by an individual owner in Japan showed severe dehydration and anorexia following a week of vomiting and severe diarrhea. A great number of approximately 5 × 4-μm-sized Cryptosporidium oocysts were found in the feces by microscopy. The owlet was administered subcutaneous fluid and intraga ...
... BACKGROUND: Blood parasites of the genus Haemoproteus Kruse, 1890 are cosmopolitan, might be responsible for mortality in non-adapted birds, and often kill blood-sucking insects. However, this group remains insufficiently investigated in the wild. This is particularly true for the parasites of leaf warblers of the Phylloscopidae Alström, Ericson, Olsson & Sundberg the common small Old World passer ...
... AIM: We analyse the latitudinal variation of range shape, testing whether ranges at higher latitudes or of larger size tend to be elongated in an east–west direction, as expected from climatic niche constraints. Additionally, we assess whether poleward range limits are less stochastic than equatorward limits. LOCATION: Global; all terrestrial areas except Antarctica. TIME PERIOD: Contemporaneous. ...
animal models; birds; ecophysiology; egg yolk; humans; liquid chromatography; metabolism; radioimmunoassays; tandem mass spectrometry; thyroid hormones; thyroxine
Abstract:
... This paper describes a novel mass spectrometry based analytical method for analyzing thyroid hormones (THs). Thyroid hormones play a critical role in the regulation of many biological processes such as growth, metabolism and development. Several analytical methods using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC–MS) and tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) have previously been developed to measure ...
Mustela erminea; birds; cameras; field experimentation; fur; indigenous species; mountains; probability; rabbits; New Zealand
Abstract:
... Stoats (Mustela erminea) were introduced to New Zealand to control rabbits in the 1880s and their impact on native birds has been devastating. Stoat control needs to be ongoing if some iconic species are to survive on the mainland. A re-setting toxin device (Spitfire) has been developed that fires a paste containing para-aminopropiophenone (PAPP) on to the belly of stoats as they pass through a tu ...
... BACKGROUND: Anaplasma spp. are Gram-negative obligate intracellular bacteria transmitted by ticks. Even though numerous studies have detected DNA from Anaplasma spp. in the blood of birds, thus far mammals were the only vertebrates demonstrated to serve as competent hosts to these organisms. We report a novel candidate species of Anasplasma that was associated with cytoplasmic inclusions in the er ...
... A novel pH-responsive sandwich-type electrochemiluminescence immunosensor was successfully developed for the detection of avian leukosis virus subgroup J (ALV-J). The immunosensor consisted of graphene oxide functionalized with tannic acid (rGO-TA) and primary antibodies (Ab₁) as the main ALV-J sensing platform. For signal amplification, pH-responsive hollow MnO₂ (hMnO₂) nanospheres encapsulating ...
islands; DNA; data collection; phylogeny; biogeography; mitochondria; species diversity; Todiramphus; exons; introns; birds; New Guinea; Philippines; Africa; Australasian region
Abstract:
... AIM: Kingfishers are the most species‐rich family in the avian order, Coraciiformes. Their modern distribution is largely pantropical; however, global species diversity is unevenly distributed. For example, 19 of the 114 kingfisher species occur in New Guinea, whereas only six species occur in the entire New World. This disparity in diversity suggests regions with high species richness could repre ...
advertising; birds; common names; natural history; prices; Indonesia
Abstract:
... Vol. 5 of The Ibis (1863) contained four loose inserts advertising specimens for sale by the natural history dealer Samuel Stevens. One of these represents the remaining stock of birds obtained by Alfred Russel Wallace during his expedition to the Malay Archipelago in 1854–62. A total of 246 specimens from eight regions were listed, with prices ranging from three to 20 shillings, plus ten specimen ...
... Birds’ eggshells are primarily composed of calcite, an abundant polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). However, the eggshells of some species are coated with spherules of vaterite, a rare and thermodynamically unstable polymorph of CaCO₃, the function of which remains unknown. We experimentally tested the mechanical and physiological effects of the vaterite coating on eggshells of the Greater Ani ...
... Mountain regions are globally important areas for biodiversity but are subject to multiple human‐induced threats, including climate change, which has been more severe at higher elevations. We reviewed evidence for impacts of climate change on Holarctic mountain bird populations in terms of physiology, phenology, trophic interactions, demography and observed and projected distribution shifts, inclu ...
... Infrastructures in natural areas are expanding rapidly worldwide. Consequently, roads, power-lines, and wind-farms cause millions of fatalities across several animal groups. Assessing the population impact of these infrastructures requires sound estimates of the total number of fatalities. These estimates can be heavily biased due to differences in searcher efficiency and carcass persistence rates ...
... Gunabopicobia Skoracki and Hromada, 2013, the only genus of the subfamily Picobiinae Johnston and Kethley, 1973, associated exclusively with birds of the order Columbiformes is reviewed. Five new species are described: G. lathami sp. nov. ex Leucosarcia melanoleuca (Latham) from Australia and ex Caloenas nicobarica (Linnaeus) from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia; G. leptotila sp. nov. ex Leptotila ...