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In non-fire prone ecosystems, like some subtropical humid forests, fire produces habitat destruction and intensifies land degradation by inducing changes in native species composition, soil properties and erosive processes. Bryophytes are key components of the Macaronesian laurel forests playing an important role in regulating water cycling and microclimate. Ecological and taxonomical bryophytes groups have distinct ecological and physiological requirements and may respond in a different way to the same fire events. Therefore, analysing post fire recovery of bryophyte communities represents a key step towards a better understanding of forest fire drivers and post fire management. We investigated how species richness and composition of different ecological and taxonomical bryophyte groups varied in 1158 samples within a fire chronosequence from 5 to 57 years in the best-preserved laurel forest from Canary Islands (Garajonay National Park) analysing communities in terms of differences with comparable surrounding old growth unburnt stands. Epiphyte, terricolous and saxicolous bryophytes were sampled at each plot and the influence of the time since fire was analyzed together with environmental variables (temperature, precipitation, mist precipitation and elevation) and forest structure variables. Our results indicate that there is no general pattern of post fire recolonization, as recolonization varies depending on the ecological and phylogenetic groups considered. Climate and forest structure play an important role in post-fire recolonization, such that time since fire is not the most important variable influencing richness and composition. The results increase the understanding of the processes that shape compositional patterns in groups with high dispersal capacities and high microclimate dependence, such as mosses and liverworts., We are especially grateful to Julio Leal Pérez, for his help and assistance during all the fieldwork. We thank to Ángel Fernández López, from Garajonay National Park for their help in the fieldwork and for providing authorization and support people: especially Israel Rodríguez Reverón, Genaro Barrera and Luis Gómez. Many thanks also to Jonay Cubas, Ángel Mallorquín and Jairo Patiño, for providing help during the field work. Víctor Bello Rodríguez provided cartography data of La Gomera and relevant information on environmental variables. We also thank the funding of this research project titled “Cuantificando la respuesta a los incendios forestales de las comunidades de plantas y artrópodos de los bosques de laurisilva del Parque Nacional de Garajonay” by the Spanish Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentación y Pesca and Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales, Grant no. S20141203_002597. First author thanks the financial support from Agencia Canaria de Investigación, Innovación y Sociedad de la Información de la Consejería de Economía, Conocimiento y Empleo cofunded in a 85 % by the European Social Fund (ESF) to develop his PhD degree.

Nature-Based Solutions for Integrated Water Resources Management (NbS-IWRM) involve natural, or nature-mimicking, processes used to improve water availability in quantity and quality sustainably, reduce the risks of water-related disasters, enhance adaptation to climate change and increase both biodiversity and the social-ecological system’s resilience. United Nations and the European Commission promote their research as a cornerstone in the changeover to the Ecological Transition. In the Sierra Nevada range (Spain) and the Andean Cordillera, there is a paradigmatic and ancestral example of NbS-IWRM known as “careo channels” and “amunas”, respectively. They recharge slope aquifers in mountain areas and consist of an extensive network of channels that infiltrate the runoff water generated during the snow-thawing and rainy season into the upper parts of the slopes. The passage of water through the aquifers in the slope is used to regulate the water resources of the mountain areas and thus ensure the duration of water availability for the downstream local population and generate multiple ecosystem services. This form of water management is known asWater Sowing and Harvesting (WS&H). As shown in this work, it is a living example of a resilience and climate change adaptation tool that can be qualified as a nature-based solution., Organismo Autonomo Parques Nacionales from the Ministerio para la Transicion Ecologica y el Reto Demografico SPIP202102741 2768/2021, Ibero-American Science and Technology for Development Programme (CYTED) 419RT0577, "Severo Ochoa" extraordinary grants for excellence IGME-CSIC AECEX2021

23 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables.-- This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, The great pipefish Syngnathus acus is one of the most representative European syngnathids, being highly associated with seagrass and macroalgal beds. Surprisingly, the ecology of this large ovoviviparous marine fish has received scanty attention. The population inhabiting three sites on Cíes Archipelago (Atlantic Islands National Park, NW Spain) was monitored in 2017–2018 for spatial and temporal changes in abundances, reproduction traits, trophic niche occupancy, and dietary regimes across reproduction states, through an isotopic (δ13C and δ15N) approach. Abundances were highly variable across seasons and sites, decreasing significantly from mid-autumn. The population consisted almost exclusively of large adults that migrate by the end of the breeding season, which extended from mid-spring to summer. Operational sex ratios suggest that the species is sex-role reversed. S. acus is a secondary consumer (Trophic position = 3.36 ± 0.05), preferring amphipods but displaying annual and seasonal dietary plasticity. Mature fish were less selective than immatures (especially females), with a higher preference for amphipods (36–68%) in the former. The second most-preferred prey were carideans, copepods, or isopods, depending on the year and the reproduction state. Overall, the wider trophic niches in females and immature specimens compared to males and mature fish would indicate a higher variability in both the use of prey resources and/or their origin. The present study highlights the trophic plasticity and unique features of S. acus population in the Cíes Archipelago, especially regarding the outstanding size of the fish and the exceptional occurrence of breeders, This study was financially supported by Proyecto Hippoparques (1541S/2015; Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales de España, Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica, Spain). Support of the publication fee by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI) is also acknowledged

The intensity of a pathogen infection plays a key role in determining how the host responds to infection. Hosts with high infections are more likely to transmit infection to others, and are may be more likely to experience progression from infection to disease symptoms, to being physiologically compromised by disease. Understanding how and why hosts exhibit variation in infection intensity therefore plays a major part in developing and implementing measures aimed at controlling infection spread, its effects, and its chance of persisting and circulating within a population of hosts. To track the relative importance of a number of variables in determining the level of infection intensity, we ran field-surveys at two breeding sites over a 12 month period using marked larvae of the common midwife toad (Alyes obstetricans) and their levels of infection with the amphibian pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). At each sampling occasion we measured the density of larvae, the temperature of the water in the 48 h prior to sampling, the period of time the sampled individual had been in the water body, the developmental (Gosner) stage and the intensity of Bd infection of the individual. Overall our data suggest that the temperature and the duration of time spent in the water play a major role in determining the intensity of Bd infection within an individual host. However, although the duration of time spent in the water was clearly associated with infection intensity, the relationship was negative: larvae that had spent less than 3–6 months in the water had significantly higher infection intensities than those that had spent over 12 months, although this infection intensity peaked between 9 and 12 months. This could be due to animals with heavier infections developing more quickly, suffering increased mortality or, more likely, losing their mouthparts (the only part of anuran larvae that can be infected with Bd). Overall, our results identify drivers of infection intensity, and potentially transmissibility and spread, and we attribute these differences to both host and pathogen biology., This study was funded by the Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales of Spain (No. 2399/2017).

Wildlife trapping and handling entails multi-level consequences on captured individuals. These impacts may be expressed at the physiological and behavioural levels, starting at capture and potentially waning post-release over a variable period. We investigated the impact of trapping and handling on the physiological parameters of 6 species of southwestern European mesocarnivores from the families Canidae, Felidae, Mustelidae, Herpestidae, and Viverridae. These parameters were quantified in real time during the handling procedures, after the induction of chemical immobilization. Using a time-step approach, we further assessed the impact of trapping on the movement behaviour of a subsample of the mesocarnivores. A total of 195 mesocarnivores were captured with cage traps or neck snares, and aspects of their haematology, and blood chemistry parameters quantified in a subset of the cage-trapped animals. These biomarkers suggested mild dehydration, tissue damage, exertion, and activation of the immune response as consequences of live trapping. Eight European wildcats (Felis silvestris), 4 red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), and 4 stone martens (Martes foina) were also fitted with GPS-VHF radio-collars, and their movements tracked by conventional ground-based VHF and GPS telemetry. Movement behaviour was assessed as the mean distance to trapping sites over each week of monitoring and compared with the value under normal use of their home ranges (set as >13 wks post-capture). Our results showed evidence of reduced movements for up to 5 wks post-capture. Selected haematology, serum chemistry, anaesthesia monitoring, and movement behaviour parameters should become standard biomarkers of the reactive homeostatic response to live trapping, offering a finer comparison of live-capture techniques and protocols., This work was supported by Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha [project PREG-05-23], Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and European Union-FEDER funds [project CGL2009-10741]; Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales [project OAPN352/2011]; Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia [grants SFRH/BPD/116596/2016 to N.S. and UID/BIA/50027/2021 UID/BIA/50027/2019 to P.M., with funding from FCT/MCTES through national funds]; F. D. R. was supported by a postdoctoral contract financed by the University of Málaga through the grants program “Ayudas para la Incorporación de Doctores del I Plan Propio de Investigación de la Universidad de Málaga (Call 2019); the European Union H2020 [project H2020 VACDIVA 862874 to J.A.B.]; and Pygargus Lda. I. Martins and I. Bravo performed part of the field and laboratory work.

14 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables.-- This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, Stable isotopes can be used to reconstruct diet in fishes, an approach that is particularly useful in threatened or endangered species where lethal sampling needs to be avoided To apply this method stable isotopes need to be measured both in the consumers and dietary sources As turnover rates may largely differ across tissues, the reconstruction should consider the uncertainty associated with sampling timing for both consumers and dietary sources. The present study investigated for the first time the application of a time lag for the estimation of the trophic position and the dietary regime in the greater pipefish Syngnathus acus (Family Syngnathidae). For that, two isotopic (δ13C and δ15N) data sets from dorsal fin-clipped tissues were used, including values in potential sources sampled (a) concomitantly with consumers (Unshifted approach) or (b) in the season sampled preceding consumer sampling (Shifted approach). The results attained indicate that the trophic position of the species was not affected (< 0.6% change) by shifting when analyzed for the annual dataset (global assessment). However, the trophic level estimated in the shifted treatment was ca. 6% higher than in the unshifted approach when the analysis was performed using a seasonal dataset (seasonal assessment including exclusively specimens collected in summer). Regarding the reconstruction of the dietary regime and in comparison to the unshifted approach, the results attained with shifted sampling revealed a higher preference for amphipods (43.7%), isopods (19.5%) and mysidaceans (12.1%), and a reduction in the reconstructed abundance for harpacticoid copepods (5.1%). These findings were similar to those attained for specimens and food web components collected in the same sampling period (seasonal dataset), both in females and males. This study demonstrates (1) the variability of estimates in the reconstruction of diet regimes depending on the data time shifting applied, and (2) the importance of considering adequate time lags in the assessment for syngnathid fishes, This study was financially supported by Proyecto Hippoparques (1541S/2015; Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales de España, Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica, Spain). Support of the publication fee by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI) is also acknowledged

Hybridisation between domestic and wild taxa can pose severe threats to wildlife conservation, and human-induced hybridisation, often linked to species' introductions and habitat degradation, may promote reproductive opportunities between species for which natural interbreeding would be highly unlikely. Using a biome-specific approach, we examine the effects of a suite of ecological drivers on the European wildcat's genetic integrity, while assessing the role played by protected areas in this process. We used genotype data from 1217 putative European wildcat samples from 13 European countries to assess the effects of landcover, disturbance and legal landscape protection on the European wildcat's genetic integrity across European biomes, through generalised linear models within a Bayesian framework. Overall, we found European wildcats to have genetic integrity levels above the wildcat-hybrid threshold (ca. 83%; threshold = 80%). However, Mediterranean and Temperate Insular biomes (i.e., Scotland) revealed lower levels, with 74% and 46% expected genetic integrity, respectively. We found that different drivers shape the level of genetic introgression across biomes, although forest integrity seems to be a common factor promoting European wildcat genetic integrity. Wildcat genetic integrity remains high, regardless of landscape legal protection, in biomes where populations appear to be healthy and show recent local range expansions. However, in biomes more susceptible to hybridisation, even protected areas show limited effectiveness in mitigating this threat. In the face of the detected patterns, we recommend that species conservation and management plans should be biome- and landscape-context-specific to ensure effective wildcat conservation, especially in the Mediterranean and Temperate Insular biomes., Thanks are due to FCT/MCTES for the financial support to cE3c (UIDB/00329/2020), through national funds, and the co-funding by the FEDER, within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement and Compete 2020. PM was supported by UID/BIA/50027/2021 with funding from FCT/MCTES through national funds. FDR was supported by a postdoctoral contract from the University of Málaga (I Plan Propio de Investigación y Transferencia, call 2020). This study was partly funded by research projects CGL2009-10741, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and EU-FEDER, and OAPN 352/2011, funded by the Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales (Spain). Luxembourg sample collection has been co-funded by the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development of Luxembourg. We would like to thank the Bavarian Forest National Park Administration for the approval and support in collecting samples.

This study compares the Medieval (ca. 400–1500 CE; Common Era) dynamics of forests from low-mountain (Montcortès; ca. 1000 m a.s.l.) and high-mountain (Sant Maurici; 1900 m a.s.l.) areas of the Iberian Pyrenees, both of which experienced similar climatic forcing but different anthropogenic pressures. The main aim is to identify forest changes over time and associate them with the corresponding climatic and anthropogenic drivers (or synergies among them) to test how different forests at different elevations respond to external forcings. This can be useful to evaluate the hypothesis of general Pyrenean deforestation during the Middle Ages leading to present-day landscapes and to improve the background for forest conservation. The study uses the palynological analysis of lake sediments, historical documents and paleoecological reconstructions based on pollen-independent proxies. The two sites studied showed different forest trajectories. The Montcortès area was subjected to intense human pressure during regional deforestation up to a maximum of ca. 1000 CE. Further forest recovery took place until the end of the Middle Ages due to a change in forest management, including the abandonment of slash-and-burn practices. Climatic shifts indirectly influenced forest trends by regulating human migrations and the resulting shifts in the type and intensity of forest exploitation. The highland Sant Maurici forests exhibited a remarkably long-standing constancy and an exceptional resilience to climatic shifts, which were unable to affect forest extension and composition, and to local human pressure, from which they rapidly recovered. The Montcortès and Sant Maurici records did not follow the rule of an irreversible forest clearing during the Middle Ages leading to present-day landscapes. The present Montcortès landscape was shaped after a Medieval forest recovery, new Modern-Age deforestation and further forest recovery during the last centuries. The Sant Maurici forests remained apparently untouched since the Bronze Age and were never cleared during the Middle Ages. The relevance of these findings for forest conservation is briefly addressed, and the need for the development of more high-resolution studies on Pyrenean forest dynamics is highlighted., Lake Montcortès studies were funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, projects REN2003-09130-C02-02 and CGL2016-7215-R and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, projects CGL2012-3665 and CGL2017-85682-R. Research on Lake Sant Maurici was funded by the Autonomous Organism of National Parks, projects OAPN-387/2011 and OAPN-24505/2017.

Understanding those processes in which snow dynamics has a significant influence requires long-term and high spatio-temporal resolution observations. While new optical space-borne sensors overcome many previous snow cover monitoring limitations, their short temporal length limits their application in climatological studies. This work describes and evaluates a probabilistic spatial downscaling of MODIS snow cover observations in mountain areas. The approach takes advantage of the already available high spatial resolution Sentinel-2 snow observations to obtain a snow probability occurrence, which is then used to determine the snow-covered areas inside partially snow-covered MODIS pixels. The methodology is supported by one main hypothesis: the snow distribution is strongly controlled by the topographic characteristics and this control has a high interannual persistence. Two approaches are proposed to increase the 500 m resolution MODIS snow cover observations to the 20 m grid resolution of Sentinel-2. The first of these computes the probability inside partially snow-covered MODIS pixels by determining the snow occurrence frequency for the 20 m Sentinel-2 pixels when clear-sky conditions occurred for both platforms. The second approach determines the snow probability occurrence for each Sentinel-2 pixel by computing the number of days in which snow was observed on each grid cell and then dividing it by the total number of clear-sky days per grid cell. The methodology was evaluated in three mountain areas in the Iberian Peninsula from 2015 to 2021. The 20 m resolution snow cover maps derived from the two probabilistic methods provide better results than those obtained with MODIS images downscaled to 20 m with a nearest-neighbor method in the three test sites, but the first provides superior performance. The evaluation showed that mean kappa values were at least 10% better for the two probabilistic methods, improving the scores in one of these sites by 25%. In addition, as the Sentinel-2 dataset becomes longer in time, the probabilistic approaches will become more robust, especially in areas where frequent cloud cover resulted in lower accuracy estimates., This research was funded by HIDROIBERNIEVE: CGL2017-82216-R, the Grant Juan de la Cierva Incorporación IJC2018-036260-I of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the ANR TOP project, grant ANR-20-CE32-0002 of the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche. This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness project “HIDROIBERNIEVE: CGL2017-82216-R”, and the “Organismo autónomo de Parques Nacionales” with the project “Cartografía de alta resolución especial del manto de nieve y su variabilidad reciente en los PPNN de montaña y los impactos del cambio climático para el horizonte 2050”. J. Revuelto is supported by the Grant IJC2018-036260-I. S. Gascoin is supported by the ANR TOP project.

Pigeons are considered to play key ecological roles in frugivory and seed dispersal. They have colonised numerous oceanic islands and diversified into several species in sympatry. How these species coexist in similar niches is poorly understood although dietary separation is among the mechanisms suggested to avoid trophic overlap. We investigated the trophic ecology of the two endemic Columba species co-occurring in the laurel forest and thermosclerophyllous relicts of two of the Canary Islands. This study includes diet description in spatiotemporal terms, its relationship with fruit availability and seed treatment in 10 study areas established on La Palma and La Gomera. We used non-invasive DNA analysis to identify the faeces of the two con-generic species and microhistological methods to examine their diets. The degree of trophic overlap was evaluated by niche similarity and breadth indices. Molecular faecal sampling determined the spatiotemporal distribution of both pigeons to identify their areas of coexistence. These frugivorous pigeons’ diets did not differ concerning the main plant species, but they diverged quantitatively in the proportions and parts of plants consumed. Lauraceae fruits were their staple foods although Rhamnaceae and some Fabaceae and Solanaceae were also important. Both pigeons showed selective preferences for some fruits. Significant spatiotemporal variations in their diets were observed along with a general tendency to increase fruit intake at its ripening times. Our results suggest that different trophic strategies facilitate the coexistence of these frugivorous columbids. These pigeons act as seed dispersers and/or predators depend ing on seed features (size and hardness), and this may have valuable implications for their conservation., This study was partially funded by the Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales (80/2005), Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Medio Rural y Marino of Spain. PM received grant support from Proyectos Intramurales Especiales (2004 3 0E 169) of the Spanish National Scientific Research Council. The manuscript was edited by Guido Jones, currently funded by the Cabildo de Tenerife, under the TFinnova programme supported by MEDI and FDCAN funds.

Humans have transformed most landscapes across the globe, forcing other species to adapt in order to persist in increasingly anthropogenic landscapes. Wide-ranging solitary species, such as wild felids, struggle particularly in such landscapes. Conservation planning and management for their long-term persistence critically depends on understanding what determine survival and what are the main mortality risks. We carried out the first study on annual survival and cause-specific mortality of the European wildcat with a large and unique dataset of 211 tracked individuals from 22 study areas across Europe. Furthermore, we tested the effect of environmental and human disturbance variables on the survival probability. Our results show that mortalities were mainly human-caused, with roadkill and poaching representing 57% and 22% of the total annual mortality, respectively. The annual survival probability of wildcat was 0.92 (95% CI = 0.87–0.98) for females and 0.84 (95% CI = 0.75–0.94) for males. Road density strongly impacted wildcat annual survival, whereby an increase in the road density of motorways and primary roads by 1 km/km2 in wildcat home-ranges increased mortality risk ninefold. Low-traffic roads, such as secondary and tertiary roads, did not significantly affect wildcat's annual survival. Our results deliver key input parameters for population viability analyses, provide planning-relevant information to maintain subcritical road densities in key wildcat habitats, and identify conditions under which wildcat-proof fences and wildlife crossing structures should be installed to decrease wildcat mortality., This research was funded by: the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) as part of the mFund project “WilDa—Dynamic Wildlife–Vehicle Collision warning, using heterogeneous traffic, accident and environmental data as well as big data concepts” grant number 19F2014B; the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) Research Grants, Short-Term Grants, 2020 (57507441); the Deutsche Wildtier Stiftung (DeWiSt). The data from Cabañeros National Park were collected in the frame of the project OAPN 352/2011 funded by Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales. MM was supported by a research contract Ramón y Cajal from the MINECO (RYC-2015-19231). FDR was supported by a postdoctoral contract funded by the University of Málaga through the grants program “Ayudas para la Incorporación de Doctores del I Plan Propio de Investigación de la Universidad de Málaga (Call 2019)”. PM was supported by UIDB/50027/2020 with funding from FCT/MCTES through national funds.

Amphibians are the most highly threatened vertebrates, and emerging pathogens are a serious threat to their conservation. Amphibian chytrid fungi and the viruses of the Ranavirus genus are causing disease outbreaks worldwide, including in protected areas such as National Parks. However, we lack information about their effect over amphibian populations in the long-term, and sometimes these mortality episodes are considered as transient events without serious consequences over longer time-spans. Here, we relate the occurrence of both pathogens with the population trends of 24 amphibian populations at 15 sites across a national Park in northern Spain over a 14-year period. Just one out 24 populations presents a positive population trend being free of both pathogens, while seven populations exposed to one or two pathogens experienced strong declines during the study period. The rest of the study populations (16) remain stable, and these tend to be of species that are not susceptible to the pathogen present or are free of pathogens. Our study is consistent with infectious diseases playing an important role in dictating amphibian population trends and emphasizes the need to adopt measures to control these pathogens in nature. We highlight that sites housing species carrying Ranavirus seems to have experienced more severe population-level effects compared to those with the amphibian chytrid fungus, and that ranaviruses could be just as, or more important, other more high-profile amphibian emerging pathogens., This study was funded by the Spanish Ministry for Science, Innovation and Universities (CGL2015-70070-R, PI: JBo and RTI2018-095023-B-I00, PI: Luz Boyero) and by Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales of Spain (2399/2017, PI: JBo).We acknowledge support of the publication fee by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI).

2 .pdf files: 1) Article (18 Pags.- 2 Tabls.- 10 Figs.); 2) Supplement (20 Pags.- 19 Figs.). © Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)., Assessing the probability of occurrence of drought is important for improving current drought assessment, management and mitigation measures, and strategies across Spain. This study employed two well-established drought indices, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), to characterize drought duration and magnitude at different timescales over Spain. In order to map the drought hazard probability, we applied the extreme value theory and tested different thresholds to generate peak-over-threshold (POT) drought duration and magnitude series. Our results demonstrate that the generalized Pareto (GP) distribution performs well in estimating the frequencies of drought magnitude and duration. Specifically, we found a good agreement between the observed and modelled data when using upper percentiles to generate the POT series. Spatially, our estimations suggest a higher probability of extreme drought events in southern and central Spain compared to the northern and eastern regions. Also, our study found spatial differences in drought probability estimations as a function of the selected drought index (i.e. SPI vs. SPEI) and timescale (i.e. 1, 3, 6, and 12 months). Drought hazard probability maps can contribute to the better management of different sectors (e.g. agriculture, water resources management, urban water supply, and tourism) at national, regional, and even local scale in Spain., This work was supported by the following research projects: CGL2014-52135-C03-01 and PCIN-2015-220 financed by the Spanish Commission of Science and Technology and FEDER, 1560/2015; Herramientas de monitorización de la vegetación mediante modelización ecohidrológica en parques continentales financed by the Red de Parques Nacionales; IM-DROFLOOD financed by Water Works 2014; a co-funded call of the European Commission and INDECIS, which is part of ERA4CS; and an ERA-NET initiated by JPI Climate, funded by MINECO with co-funding by the European Union (grant 690462). Marina Peña-Gallardo was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Miquel Tomas-Burguera was supported by a doctoral grant by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, and Ahmed El Kenawy was supported by a postdoctoral Juan de la Cierva contract.

The reproductive biology of two species of pipefish, Syngnathus typhle and S. abaster, was investigated in western Mediterranean coastal waters, through determination of sex-ratio and maturity state, and histological assessment of gonads, brood pouch and embryos of these little-known syngnathid species. A total of 22 S. typhle and 13 S. abaster individuals were collected by towing-net on shallow seagrass meadows (Posidonia oceanica and Cymodocea nodosa) at Balearic Islands (Spain). Overall sex-ratio (male : female) was 1.0 : 1.2 for S. typhle and 1.0 : 2.7 for S. abaster. Regarding maturity, all stages of females were sampled while only immature or brooding males were collected. Males with embryos in the pouch were found in summer for both species, and mature females of S. typhle were found in summer whereas mature females of S. abaster were found in winter and summer, suggesting that each species might have a different reproductive cycle. This study contributes to the knowledge on the reproductive biology of the two most abundant pipefish species in W-Mediterranean coastal waters, which might help for further restocking and conservation management strategies., This study was partly funded by Proyecto Hippoparques (1541S/2015 and 1580S/2015; Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente, Spain).

Pipefish are a vulnerable and diverse group of ichthyofauna tightly associated with seagrass meadows, key habitats in shallow marine areas. Despite their charismatic role, the main ecological features, habitat, and diet of this group remain largely unknown. This study focuses on assessing pipefish habitat and feeding preferences, including different hosting seagrasses such as Posidonia oceanica and Cymodocea nodosa from the Balearic Islands, western Mediterranean. Four species (Syngnathus typhle, S. abaster, Nerophis ophidion, and N. maculatus) were found associated to different seagrasses. S. typhle and N. maculatus were more frequent in P. oceanica meadows, while S. abaster and N. ophidion in C. nodosa. Individuals of all species captured in P. oceanica were larger than those living in C. nodosa, suggesting a size-dependent habitat preference. Feeding preferences, however, were driven by prey availability and fish features, e.g., head/snout morphology. For the first time in the western Mediterranean, a thorough description of the diet and potential prey of this group was carried out. Epifaunal assemblages (potential prey) were dominated in both habitats by harpacticoid copepods and gammarid amphipods, and they were also the primary prey according to stomach contents of all species. These results can contribute to future pipefish conservation and management actions, such as targeting crucial habitat identification and designing culture and reintroduction protocols., This study was funded by the research Project “Singnátidos de los Parques Nacionales de las Islas Atlánticas y del Archipiélago de Cabrera (541S/2015)” awarded to CSIC by Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales (Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente, Programa Estatal de I+D+i Orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad, Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2013-2016). Additional support was provided by the joint Associated Unit IMEDEA-LIMIA (Laboratorio de Investigaciones Marinas y Acuicultura, Dirección General de Pesca y Medio Marino, Govern Illes Balears).

The arthropod fauna associated with seven endemic dendroid Euphorbia was sampled and studied in the Canary and Madeira archipelagos. The stem-diameter of the plants was considered, along with their genetic affinity, habitat and number of localities and islands where present. The arthropod assemblages and richness found on each Euphorbia species were statistically analysed, to determine which variables influenced the survey results. A total of 179 arthropod species were found, identified, and classified into characteristic or accompanying fauna, according to their relationship with the plants and their types of diet. Faunal assemblages and arthropod species richness differed among the Euphorbia species, each thus showing a strong and almost unique host relationship. Species richness increased with the architectural complexity of the host-plant species and number of localities and islands where present. The similarity of faunal assemblages was mainly related to stem diameter. Among diet types, a great number of exclusive and/or endemic taxa associated with this plant genus were xylophages. Our survey revealed that rich arthropod communities are associated with the genus Euphorbia, especially on its rare endangered species, and highlights the need to protect their host plants. This in turn will contribute to the conservation of their arthropod communities and their ecosystem functions., This study was financed by a Spanish MMA Grant (Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales, 025/2007), and partially by a Spanish MCINN Grant (CGL2009-08256) and a Netbiome Project (ISLAND-BIODIV) of the European Fund for Regional Development and the Canary Agency for Research. David Hernández-Teixidor held a PhD grant awarded by the Canary Government, 85% financed from the European Social Fund, and then a Spanish FPU fellowship. DHT is currently funded by the Cabildo de Tenerife, under the TFinnova Programme supported by MEDI and FDCAN funds. The manuscript was edited by Guido Jones, also funded by the Cabildo de Tenerife under the same programme.

© 2020 by the authors., Phylogenetic relatedness is a key diversity measure for the analysis and understanding of how species and communities evolve across time and space. Understanding the nonrandom loss of species with respect to phylogeny is also essential for better-informed conservation decisions. However, several factors are known to influence phylogenetic reconstruction and, ultimately, phylogenetic diversity metrics. In this study, we empirically tested how some of these factors (topological constraint, taxon sampling, genetic markers and calibration) affect phylogenetic resolution and uncertainty. We built a densely sampled, species-level phylogenetic tree for spiders, combining Sanger sequencing of species from local communities of two biogeographical regions (Iberian Peninsula and Macaronesia) with a taxon-rich backbone matrix of Genbank sequences and a topological constraint derived from recent phylogenomic studies. The resulting tree constitutes the most complete spider phylogeny to date, both in terms of terminals and background information, and may serve as a standard reference for the analysis of phylogenetic diversity patterns at the community level. We then used this tree to investigate how partial data affect phylogenetic reconstruction, phylogenetic diversity estimates and their rankings, and, ultimately, the ecological processes inferred for each community. We found that the incorporation of a single slowly evolving marker (28S) to the DNA barcode sequences from local communities, had the highest impact on tree topology, closely followed by the use of a backbone matrix. The increase in missing data resulting from combining partial sequences from local communities only had a moderate impact on the resulting trees, similar to the difference observed when using topological constraints. Our study further revealed substantial differences in both the phylogenetic structure and diversity rankings of the analyzed communities estimated from the different phylogenetic treatments, especially when using non-ultrametric trees (phylograms) instead of time-stamped trees (chronograms). Finally, we provide some recommendations on reconstructing phylogenetic trees to infer phylogenetic diversity within ecological studies., This study was supported by the project BIODIV ISLAND-CONT (Biodiversity drivers on islands and continents–706482) funded by Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2015) to the first author N.M.-H. The research was additionally funded by four other projects that provided the material collected: 1. ERA-Net Net-Biome research framework, financed through Portuguese FCT-NETBIOME grant 0003/2011 (P.A.V.B.). 2. ERA-Net Net-Biome financed through Canary Islands Government ACIISI grants SE-12/02, SE-12/03, SE-12/04 (B.C.E.), co-financed by FEDER. 3. FCT MACDIV–FCT-PTDC/BIABIC/0054/2014 (P.A.V.B.,B.C.E., P.C., I.R.A., F.R., O.S.P., A.V.). 4. Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales Spain (OAPN #485/2012) (M.A.A.). Additional support was provided by grant 2017SGR83 from the Catalan Government to M.A.A. M.D. was supported by an APIF PhD fellowship from the University of Barcelona. J.L.-F. was supported by a Juan de la Cierva Fellowship (FJCI-2015-23723). I.R.A. was funded by Portuguese funds through FCT–Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the Norma Transitória–DL57/2016/CP1375/CT0003. Open access funding provided by University of Helsinki.

Background There is an increasing demand for databases including species trait information for biodiversity and community ecology studies. The existence of trait databases is useful for comparative studies within taxa or geographical regions, but there is low availability of databases for certain organisms. Here we present an open access functional trait database for spiders from Macaronesia and the Iberian Peninsula, recording several morphological and ecological traits related to the species life histories, microhabitat and trophic preferences. New information We present a database that includes 12 biological traits for 506 spider species present in natural forests of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain) and three Macaronesian archipelagoes (Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands). The functional trait database consists of two sections: individual-level data for six morphological traits (total body size, prosoma length, prosoma width, prosoma height, tibia I length and fang length), based on direct measurements of 2844 specimens of all spider species; and species-level aggregate data for 12 traits (same 6 morphological traits as in the previous section plus dispersal ability, vertical stratification, circadian activity, foraging strategy, trophic specialization and colonization status), based on either the average of the direct measurements or bibliographic searches. This functional trait database will serve as a data standard for currently ongoing analyses that require trait and functional diversity statistics., This study was supported by the project BIODIV ISLAND-CONT (Biodiversity drivers on islands and continents – 706482) funded by Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2015) to the first author NMH. Additional support was provided by grant 2017SGR83 from the Catalan Government to MA. PB and PC are supported by AZORESBIOPORTAL–PORBIOTA (ACORES-01-0145-FEDER-000072) for the development of Functional Traits for Azorean arthropods. MD is supported by an APIF PhD fellowship from the University of Barcelona. We also thank Rutger Vos and Martin Ramirez for their valuable comments that greatly helped to improve the quality of this paper.

The physiological significance of biometric body condition indices (bBCI) is poorly understood. We hypothesized that bBCI are composite metrics of nutritional physiology, physical fitness and health. To test this hypothesis, we first compared the performance of eight bBCI, using 434 Southern European carnivores from six species as a model system; and then identified, by non-destructive methods, the hematology and serum biochemistry correlates of three selected bBCI. Fulton’s K Index, Major Axis Regression Residuals and Scaled Mass Index were the only bBCI insensitive to the effect of sex and age. The most informative physiological parameters in explaining the variation of these bBCI were the albumin (Effect Size (ES) = − 1.66 to − 1.76), urea (ES = 1.61 to 1.85) and total bilirubin (ES = − 1.62 to − 1.79). Hemoglobin and globulins (positive) and cholesterol (negative) were moderately informative (0.9, This work was supported by Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha [Project PREG-05-23], Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and European Union-FEDER funds [Project CGL2009-10741]; Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales [Project OAPN352/2011]; Empreendimentos Eólicos do Vale do Minho S.A. and Associação para a Conservação do Habitat do Lobo Ibérico (ACHLI); Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia [grants SFRH/BPD/116596/2016 to N.S. and SFRH/BD/144087/2019 to M.N. and UID/BIA/50027/2019 to P.M.]; FCT/MCTES, through national funds, and the co-funding by the FEDER, within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement and Compete 2020 [cE3c—UIDB/00329/2020]; Juan de la Cierva research contracts from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Funder Id: 10.13039/501100004837 from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness [FJCI-2015-24949 to F.D.R.]; and the European Union H2020 [Project H2020 VACDIVA 862874 to J.A.B.].

Competition is a widespread interaction among carnivores, ultimately manifested through one or more dimensions of the species' ecological niche. One of the most explicit manifestations of competitive interactions regards spatial displacement. Its interpretation under a theoretical context provides an important tool to deepen our understanding of biological systems and communities, but also for wildlife management and conservation. We used Bayesian multispecies occupancy models on camera‐trapping data from multiple sites in Southwestern Europe (SWE) to investigate competitive interactions within a carnivore guild, and to evaluate how species' ecological traits are shaping coexistence patterns. Seventeen out of 26 pairwise interactions departed from a hypothesis of independent occurrence, with spatial association being twice as frequent as avoidance. Association behaviors were only detected among mesocarnivores, while avoidance mainly involved mesocarnivores avoiding the apex predator (n = 4) and mesocarnivore‐only interactions (n = 2). Body mass ratios, defined as the dominant over the subordinate species body mass, revealed an important negative effect ( βˆ=−0.38;CI95=−0.81𝑡𝑜−0.06 ) on co‐occurrence probability, and support that spatially explicit competitive interactions are mostly expressed by larger species able to dominate over smaller ones, with a threshold in body mass ratios of ~4, above which local‐scale intraguild coexistence is unlikely. We found a weak relationship between pairwise trophic niche overlap and the probability of coexistence ( βˆ=−0.19;CI95=−0.58𝑡𝑜0.21 ), suggesting that competition for feeding resources may not be a key driver of competition, at least at the scale of our analysis. Despite local‐scale avoidance, regional‐scale coexistence appears to be maintained by the spatial structuring of the competitive environment. We provide evidence that SWE ecosystems consist of spatially structured competitive environments, and propose that coexistence among near‐sized species is likely achieved through the interplay of “facultative” and “behavioral” character displacements. Factors influencing carnivore coexistence likely include context‐dependent density and trait‐mediated effects, which should be carefully considered for a sound understanding of the mechanisms regulating these communities., This study was funded by research projects CGL2009‐10741, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and EU‐FEDER, and OAPN 352/2011, funded by the Spanish Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales. P. Monterroso enjoyed a Ph.D. grant from the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) (ref: SFRH/BD/37795/2007) and a postdoctoral fellowship by EU‐FEDER funds through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors—COMPETE and by National Funds through FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology (ref: UID/BIA/50027/2013, POCI‐01‐0145‐FEDER‐006821). F. Díaz‐Ruiz enjoyed a research contract “Juan de la Cierva” (ref: FJCI‐2015‐24949) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness.

21 Pags.- 5 Figs.- 1 Appendix. - Suppl. Data., This study links tree-ring growth and gross primary production for a variety of forest types under different environmental conditions across Spain. NOAA-AVHRR satellite imagery data were combined with dendrochronological records and climate data at a fine spatial resolution (1.21 km2) to analyze the interannual variability of tree-ring growth and vegetation activity for different forest biomes from 1981 to 2015. Specifically, we assessed the links between tree-ring width indices (TRWi), the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and a variety of environmental conditions, represented by climatic variables (air temperature, precipitation, evapotranspiration and water balance) and elevation. The impact of these variables on tree growth was assessed by means of the Predictive Discriminant Analysis (PDA). Results reveal a general positive and significant relationship between inter-annual variability of the NDVI at a high spatial resolution (1.21 km2) and tree-ring growth. Maximum correlations between NDVI and tree-ring growth were recorded when cumulative NDVI values were considered, in some cases covering long time periods (6–10 months), suggesting that tree growth is mainly related to Gross Primary Production (GPP) at annual scale. The relationship between tree-ring growth and inter-annual variability of the NDVI, however, strongly varies between forest types and environmental conditions., This work was supported by the research projects CGL2014-52135-C03-01, CGL2015-69186-C2-1-R, CGL2015-69985-R, CGL2013-48843-C2-1-R, AGL2014-53822-C2-1-R, (BFU2010-21451), PCIN-2015-220, CGL2016-81706-REDT and CGL2017-82216-R financed by the Spanish Commission of Science and Technology and FEDER, 1560/2015: Herramientas de monitorización de la vegetación mediante modelización ecohidrológica en parques continentales financed by the Red de Parques Nacionales, IMDROFLOOD financed by the Water Works 2014 co-funded call of the European Commission, CROSSDRO financed by the AXIS (Assessment of Cross(X) – sectorial climate Impacts and pathways for Sustainable transformation) JPI-Climate co-funded call of the European Commission and INDECIS, which is part of ERA4CS, an ERA-NET initiated by JPI Climate, and funded by FORMAS (SE), DLR (DE), BMWFW (AT), IFD (DK), MINECO (ES), ANR (FR) with co-funding by the European Union (Grant 690462). Financed by the Spanish Commission of Science and Technology and FEDER, and INDECIS, which is part of ERA4CS, an ERA-NET initiated by JPI Climate, and funded by FORMAS (SE), DLR (DE), BMWFW (AT), IFD (DK), MINECO (ES), ANR (FR) with co-funding by the European Union (Grant 690462). Natalia Martin-Hernandez was supported by a doctoral grant by the Aragon Regional Government, Marina Peña-Gallardo was granted by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and Miquel Tomas-Burguera was supported by a doctoral grant by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. Raúl Sánchez-Salguero, Antonio Gazol and Gabriel Sangüesa-Barreda were supported by Postdoctoral grants (IJCI-2015-25845, MINECO-FPDI 2013-16600 and FJCI 2016-30121, respectively; FEDER funds). This work also benefited from funding from Xunta de Galicia (PGIDIT06PXIB502262PR, GRC GI-1809, ROCLIGAL-10MDS291009PR), INIA (RTA2006-00117), and Interreg V-A POCTEFA (CANOPEE, 2014-2020-FEDER funds) projects.

The encroachment of shrubs into grasslands is common in terrestrial ecosystems dominated by grass. Land abandonment and favourable climatic trends in recent decades have favoured the expansion of shrubs into subalpine grasslands in many mountainous regions across Europe. The advance of the succession from grassland to shrubland is expected to have a major impact on ecosystem functioning. We used DNA metabarcoding to assess whether the structure of soil fungal communities varied along the succession from subalpine grassland to shrubland in the Pyrenees, and investigated whether shrub encroachment was associated with changes in soil properties. The expansion of shrubs increased the soil C:N ratio and/or reduced the N, P or K contents. Plant-driven changes in soil properties were strongly associated with the compositional turnover of fungi, including arbuscular mycorrhizal, ectomycorrhizal, ericoid, root endophytic, saprotrophic, lichenised and pathogenic fungi. Total richness and the richness of most functional groups were correlated with soil P, N and the C:N or N:P ratios. We show that the interplay between abiotic factors (changes in soil properties) and biotic factors (occurrence and identity of shrubs) played a key role in the structure and uniqueness of soil fungal communities along the succession., This research was supported by the Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales [786–2012, ARBALMONT], the Spanish Government [CGL2016–79835-P], the Catalan government [SGR2017–1005] and the ERC Synergy grant [SyG-2013–610028, IMBALANCE-P].

Convective hydrothermal systems have been extensively studied using electrical and electromagnetic methods given the strong correlation between low conductivity anomalies associated with hydrothermal brines and high temperature areas. However, studies addressing the application of similar geophysical methods to hot dry rock geothermal systems are very limited in the literature. The Timanfaya volcanic area, located on Lanzarote Island (Canary Islands), comprises one of these hot dry rock systems, where ground temperatures ranging from 250 to 605 °C have been recorded in pyroclastic deposits at shallow (, This research was funded the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities [CGL2015-63799-P] and the National Parks Autonomous Agency [320/2011]. The acquisition of the Overhauser magnetometer (GSM-19W) used in this study has been co-funded by FEDER through the Scientific-Technological Infrastructure Projects Subprogram [IGME10-3E-1261], We acknowledge support by the CSIC Open Access Publication Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI)

Producción Científica, Drought is one of the key natural hazards impacting net primary production and tree growth in forest ecosystems. Nonetheless, tree species show different responses to drought events, which make it difficult to adopt fixed tools for monitoring drought impacts under contrasting environmental and climatic conditions. In this study, we assess the response of forest growth and a satellite proxy of the net primary production (NPP) to drought in peninsular Spain and the Balearic Islands, a region characterized by complex climatological, topographical, and environmental characteristics. Herein, we employed three different indicators based on in situ measurements and satellite image-derived vegetation information (i.e., tree-ring width, maximum annual greenness, and an indicator of NPP). We used seven different climate drought indices to assess drought impacts on the tree variables analyzed. The selected drought indices include four versions of the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI, Palmer Hydrological Drought Index (PHDI), Z-index, and Palmer Modified Drought Index (PMDI)) and three multi-scalar indices (Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), and Standardized Precipitation Drought Index (SPDI)). Our results suggest that—irrespective of drought index and tree species—tree-ring width shows a stronger response to interannual variability of drought, compared to the greenness and the NPP. In comparison to other drought indices (e.g., PDSI), and our results demonstrate that multi-scalar drought indices (e.g., SPI, SPEI) are more advantageous in monitoring drought impacts on tree-ring growth, maximum greenness, and NPP. This finding suggests that multi-scalar indices are more appropriate for monitoring and modelling forest drought in peninsular Spain and the Balearic Islands., Ministerio de Economía projects: (CGL2015-69186-C2-1-R (Fundiver)), (CGL2015-69985-R (CLIMED)),( CGL2013-48843-C2-1-R (CoMo-ReAdapt)),( AGL2014-53822-C2-1-R (SATIVA)),( XIRONO (BFU2010-21451)),( CGL2014-52135-C03-01), (PCIN-2015-220), and (CGL2016-81706-REDT (Ecometas Network)), (1560/2015 (ECOHIPRO)), Xunta de Galicia, projects:(PGIDIT06PXIB502262PR, GRC GI-1809, ROCLIGAL-10MDS291009PR), INIA (RTA200600117) e Interreg V-A POCTEFA (CANOPEE, 2014-2020-fondos FEDER), Ministerio de Economía y Empresa, postdoctoral grants (MINECO-FPDI 2013-16600; fondos FEDER), Postdoctoral grants (IJCI-2015-25845)

We report on a detailed geodetic continuous monitoring in Timanfaya volcanic area (TVA), where the most intense geothermal anomalies of Lanzarote Island are located. We analyze about three years of GNSS data collected on a small network of five permanent stations, one of which at TVA, deployed on the island, and nearly 20 years of tiltmeter and strainmeter records acquired at Los Camelleros site settled in the facilities of the Geodynamics Laboratory of Lanzarote within TVA. This study is intended to contribute to understanding the active tectonics on Lanzarote Island and its origin, mainly in TVA. After characterizing and filtering out the seasonal periodicities related to “non-tectonic” sources from the geodetic records, a tentative ground deformation field is reconstructed through the analysis of both tilt, strain records and the time evolution of the baselines ranging the GNSS stations. The joint interpretation of the collected geodetic data show that the area of the strongest geothermal anomaly in TVA is currently undergoing a SE trending relative displacement at a rate of about 3 mm/year. This area even experiences a significant subsidence with a maximum rate of about 6 mm/year. Moreover, we examine the possible relation between the observed deformations and atmospheric effects by modelling the response functions of temperature and rain recorded in the laboratory. Finally, from the retrieval of the deformation patterns and the joint analysis of geodetic and environmental observations, we propose a qualitative model of the interplaying role between the hydrological systems and the geothermal anomalies. Namely, we explain the detected time correlation between rainfall and ground deformation because of the enhancement of the thermal transfer from the underground heat source driven by the infiltration of meteoric water., Projects CGL2015-63799-P of Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, and 320/2011 of National Parks Autonomous Agency have supported this research.

Sedimentological, geochemical and magnetic data in a ~ 7-m sequence from Marboré Lake (2612 m asl, central Pyrenees) provide information about environmental variability since the last glacier retreat (14.6 cal ka BP) in high-altitude Pyrenean environments. The sediment sequence is composed of millimeter- to centimeter-thick rhythmites made of finer greyish laminae and coarser-grain, carbonate-bearing laminae arranged in varied patterns throughout the sequence. Finer laminae are interpreted as deposition during periods of predominantly ice-covered conditions, whereas coarser, carbonate-bearing sediments reflect periods of higher runoff. The age model, based on 13 14C dates and a reservoir effect assessed with 210Pb and 137Cs, is coherent with known synchronous vegetation changes across the Pyrenees. Warmer intervals such as GI-1 (14.6–12.8 cal ka BP, Bølling/Allerød period), 10.4–8.2 cal ka BP in the Early Holocene, 7.5–5.2 cal ka BP in the Mid Holocene and the Medieval Climate Anomaly (AD 900–1300), are characterized by peaks in productivity and higher carbonate preservation. Deposition during colder periods such as GS-1 (12.8–11.7 cal ka BP), the Neoglacial (ca. 5.2–3.5 cal ka BP) and the Little Ice Age (last 400 years) show an increase in finer laminae. The presence of magnetite throughout the whole section suggests that Marboré Lake maintained predominantly oxic conditions since its formation. Changes in magnetic properties and the increase in magnetite from 3.5 cal ka BP to present, however, indicate a more oxic environment at the lake bottom during the last few millennia. The occurrence of Pb concentration peaks in sediments of Roman and modern age demonstrates the global distribution of heavy metal deposition, even into high-mountain lakes., Departamento de Geología y Geoquímica, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, España, Departamento de Procesos Geoambientales y Cambio Global, Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología, España, Departamento de Procesos Geoambientales y Cambio Global, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, España, Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Reino Unido, Departamento de Investigación en Recursos Geológicos, Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, España

The evaluation of protected area networks on their capacity to preserve species distributions is a key topic in conservation biology. There are different types of protected areas, with National Parks those with highest level of protection. National Parks can be declared attending to many ecological features that include the presence of certain animal species. Here, we selected 37 vertebrate species that were highlighted as having relevant natural value for at least one of the 10 National Parks of mainland Spain. We modelled species distributions with the favourability function, and applied the Insecurity Index to detect the degree of protection of favourable areas for each species. Two metrics of Insecurity Index were defined for each species: the Insecurity Index in each of the cells, and the Overall Insecurity Index of a species. The former allows the identification of insecure areas for each species that can be used to establish spatial conservation priorities. The latter gives a value of Insecurity for each species, which we used to calculate the Representativeness of favourable areas for the species in the network. As expected, due to the limited extension of the National Park network, all species have high values of Insecurity; i.e., just a narrow proportion of their favourable areas are covered by a National Park. However, the majority of species favourable areas are well represented in the network, i.e., the percentage of favourable areas covered by the National Park network is higher than the percentage of mainland Spain covered by the network (result also supported by a randomization approach). Even if a reserve network only covers a low percentage of a country, the Overall Insecurity Index allows an objective assessment of its capacity to represent species. Beyond the results presented here, the Insecurity Index has the potential to be extrapolated to other areas and to cover a wide range of species., This study was funded by Organismo Autonomo Parques Nacionales of Spain (http:// www.mapama.gob.es/es/parques-nacionalesoapn/) through the project 1098/2014 (AE and RR).

Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, España, Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología, España, Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional

Altitude significantly affects vegetation growth and distribution, including the developmental stages of a forest. We used shotgun Illumina sequencing to analyze microbial community composition and functional potential in melojo-oak (Quercus pyrenaica Willd.) rhizospheric soil for three different development stages along an altitudinal gradient: (a) a low altitude, non-optimal site for forest maintenance; (b) an intermediate altitude, optimal site for a forest; and (c) a high altitude, expansion site with isolated trees but without a real forest canopy. We observed that, at each altitude, the same microbial taxa appear both in the taxonomic analysis of the whole metagenome and in the functional analysis of the methane, sulfur and nitrogen metabolisms. Although there were no major differences at the functional level, there were significant differences in the abundance of each taxon at the phylogenetic level between the rhizospheres of the forest (low and intermediate altitudes) and the expansion site. Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria were the most differentially abundant phyla in forest soils compared to the expansion site rhizosphere. Moreover, Verrucomicrobia, Bacteroidetes and Nitrospirae phyla were more highly represented in the non-forest rhizosphere. Our study suggests that rhizospheric microbial communities of the same tree species may be affected by development stage and forest canopy cover via changes in soil pH and the C/N ratio., This work was supported by research grants including ERDF (European Regional Development Funds): P08-CVI-03549 from Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa from Junta de Andalucía, OAPN 021/2007 from Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales (Spanish Ministry of Environment) and 20134R069-RECUPERA 2020 from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and CSIC. We would like to thank the authorities of the Sierra Nevada National Park for the access, facilities and soil sampling, and also Edward Kirton (JGI, California) for technical assistance with bioinformatics. JFCD was awarded a postdoctoral contract from Junta de Andalucía, and AJFG was awarded a postdoctoral contract from RECUPERA 2020. The work of the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, a DOE Office of Science User Facility, is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

Ecologists have traditionally focused on herbivore carcasses as study models in scavenging research. However, some observations of scavengers avoiding feeding on carnivore carrion suggest that different types of carrion may lead to differential pressures. Untested assumptions about carrion produced at different trophic levels could therefore lead ecologists to overlook important evolutionary processes and their ecological consequences. Our general goal was to investigate the use of mammalian carnivore carrion by vertebrate scavengers. In particular, we aimed to test the hypothesis that carnivore carcasses are avoided by other carnivores, especially at the intraspecific level, most likely to reduce exposure to parasitism. We take a three-pronged approach to study this principle by: (i) providing data from field experiments, (ii) carrying out evolutionary simulations of carnivore scavenging strategies under risks of parasitic infection, and (iii) conducting a literature-review to test two predictions regarding parasite life-history strategies. First, our field experiments showed that the mean number of species observed feeding at carcasses and the percentage of consumed carrion biomass were substantially higher at herbivore carcasses than at carnivore carcasses. This occurred even though the number of scavenger species visiting carcasses and the time needed by scavengers to detect carcasses were similar between both types of carcasses. In addition, we did not observe cannibalism. Second, our evolutionary simulations demonstrated that a risk of parasite transmission leads to the evolution of scavengers with generally low cannibalistic tendencies, and that the emergence of cannibalism-avoidance behaviour depends strongly on assumptions about parasite-based mortality rates. Third, our literature review indicated that parasite species potentially able to follow a carnivore–carnivore indirect cycle, as well as those transmitted via meat consumption, are rare in our study system. Our findings support the existence of a novel coevolutionary relation between carnivores and their parasites, and suggest that carnivore and herbivore carcasses play very different roles in food webs and ecosystems., Dirección General del Medio Natural (Murcia Region), Sierra Espuña Regional Park and Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas Natural Park provided with logistics, permissions and financial support. M.M. acknowledges financial support through the Severo Ochoa Program for Centres of Excellence in R+D+I (SEV‐2012‐0262) and by a research contract Ramón y Cajal from the MINECO (RYC‐2015‐19231). This study was partly funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and EU ERDF funds through projects CGL2006‐10689/BOS, CGL2009‐12753‐C02‐02, CGL2012‐40013‐C02‐01/02 and CGL2015‐66966‐C2‐1‐2‐R. A. Kane and one anonymous reviewer improved the first version of the manuscript.

20 páginas, 1 figura, 3 tablas., Recent studies have reported an unusually high frequency of nonamplifying alleles at microsatellite loci in bivalves. Null alleles have been associated with heterozygous deficits in many studies. While several studies have tested for its presence using different analytical tools, few have empirically tested for its consequences in estimating population structure and differentiation. We characterised 16 newly developed microsatellite loci and show that null alleles are ubiquitous in the wedge clam, Donax trunculus. We carried out several tests to demonstrate that the large heterozygous deficits observed in the newly characterised loci were most likely due to null alleles.Wetested the robustness of microsatellite genotyping for population assignment by showing that well-recognised biogeographic regions of the south Atlantic and south Mediterranean coast of Spain harbour genetically different populations., CR was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education (Grant no PR2010-0601) and the Spanish Scientific Research Council (CSIC). This research was financially supported by Organismo Autonomo de Parque Nacionales Grant OAPN122_2010 to CR, EM, JAC and PD. ADM was supported by the Strategic Research Themes of the University of the South Pacific.

Understanding how different ecological and evolutionary processes influence the distribution of pathogens within the environment is important from many perspectives including wildlife epidemiology, evolutionary ecology and conservation. The simultaneous use of ecological and evolutionary frameworks can enhance our conceptual understanding of host-parasite interactions, however such studies are rare in the wild. Using samples from 12 bird species caught across all habitats existing on an oceanic island, we evaluated how environmental variables, parasite host specificity and parasite phylogenetic relationships determine the distribution and prevalence of haemosporidians (Haemoproteus, Plasmodium and Leucocytozoon) in the wild living avifauna. Differences were found in the prevalence of Plasmodium, but not Leucocytozoon, strains between habitats. The warmest temperature best predicted Plasmodium prevalence in the low altitude habitats, which had the highest incidence of Plasmodium. The prevalence of Leucocytozoon lineages was associated with natural factors, i.e. rainfall, temperature and habitat, but the two most important predictors (from model averaging) for models of Leucocytozoon were anthropogenic: poultry farms and distance to a water reservoir. We found no relationship between local (Tenerife, Canary Islands) versus global host range indices (which assess the diversity of hosts that a parasite is observed to infect), thus global generalist lineages do not behave in the same way on Tenerife (i.e. they infected less avian hosts than was expected). Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the most abundant haemosporidians on Tenerife grouped with lineages found in African host species. Our data indicate that climatic and anthropogenic factors, plus proximity to the African mainland, are the main factors influencing the presence and distribution of avian haemosporidians on Tenerife. Future climate projections for the archipelago foresee significant temperature increases which would, given our results, increase rates of Plasmodium infection in bird species in all habitats. Such patterns could be of concern if those increase mortality rates in the unique avifauna of these islands., DPP was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship (based at the University of East Anglia (UEA), UK) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. CGQ was funded by a PhD grant from Colciencias, Colombia and by the School of Biological Sciences at UEA. JCI was supported by the Spanish Administration of National Parks, Spanish Minister of Agriculture, Food and Environment (grant ref.: 375/2011).

Obtaining fundamental biodiversity metrics such as alpha, beta and gamma diversity for arthropods is often complicated by a lack of prior taxonomic information and/or taxonomic expertise, which can result in unreliable morphologically based estimates. We provide a set of standardized ecological and molecular sampling protocols that can be employed by researchers whose taxonomic skills may be limited, and where there may be a lack of robust a priori information regarding the regional pool of species. These protocols combine mass sampling of arthropods, classification of samples into parataxonomic units (PUs) and selective sampling of individuals for mtDNA sequencing to infer biological species. We sampled ten lowland rainforest plots located on the volcanic oceanic island of Réunion (Mascarene archipelago) for spiders, a group with limited taxonomic and distributional data for this region. We classified adults and juveniles into PUs and then demonstrated the reconciliation of these units with presumed biological species using mtDNA sequence data, ecological data and distributional data. Because our species assignment protocol is not reliant upon prior taxonomic information, or taxonomic expertise, it minimizes the problem of the Linnean shortfall to yield diversity estimates that can be directly compared across independent studies. Field sampling can be extended to other arthropod groups and habitats by adapting our field sampling protocol accordingly., This research was supported by the ERA‐Net Net‐Biome research framework, financed through Canary Island Government ACIISI grants SE‐12/02 (PO) and SE‐12/04 (BE), cofinanced by FEDER; Portuguese FCT‐NETBIOME grant 0003/2011 (PB); French ANR‐NETBIOME grant n°11‐EBIM‐001‐01 (CT); Région Réunion council for research activities (DS); Université de La Réunion contract DGADD/PE/20120585 (DS). BCE was also supported by Spanish MINECO grant CGL2013‐42589‐P, cofinanced by FEDER, and Spanish MAGRAMA grant S20141203_002597 from the Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales.

Using a series of standardized sampling plots within forest ecosystems in remote oceanic islands, we reveal fundamental differences between the structuring of aboveground and belowground arthropod biodiversity that are likely due to large-scale species introductions by humans. Species of beetle and spider were sampled almost exclusively from single islands, while soil-dwelling Collembola exhibited more than tenfold higher species sharing among islands. Comparison of Collembola mitochondrial metagenomic data to a database of more than 80 000 Collembola barcode sequences revealed almost 30% of sampled island species are genetically identical, or near identical, to individuals sampled from often very distant geographic regions of the world. Patterns of mtDNA relatedness among Collembola implicate human-mediated species introductions, with minimum estimates for the proportion of introduced species on the sampled islands ranging from 45% to 88%. Our results call for more attention to soil mesofauna to understand the global extent and ecological consequences of species introductions., This research was supported by the ERA‐Net Net‐Biome research framework, financed through: Canary Island Government ACIISI grants SE‐12/02 (PO), SE‐12/03 (JCC), SE‐12/04 (BE), cofinanced by FEDER; Portuguese FCT‐NETBIOME grant 0003/2011 (PB); French ANR‐NETBIOME grant no 11‐EBIM‐001‐01 (CT); Région Réunion council for research activities (DS), Université de La Réunion contract DGADD/PE/20120585 (DS). B.C.E. was also supported by Spanish MINECO grant CGL2013‐42589‐P, co‐financed by FEDER, and Spanish MAGRAMA grant S20141203_002597 from the Organismo Autonomo Parques Nacionales.

© The Authors 2017, Summit areas of oceanic islands constitute some of the most isolated ecosystems on earth, highly vulnerable to climate change and introduced species. Within the unique high-elevation communities of Tenerife (Canary Islands), reproductive success and thus the long-term survival of the species may depend on environmental suitability as well as threat by introduced herbivores. By experimentally modifying the endemic and vulnerable species Viola cheiranthifolia along its entire altitudinal occurrence range, we studied plant performance, autofertility, pollen limitation and visitation rate and the interactive effect of grazing by non-native rabbits on them. We assessed the grazing effects by recording (i) the proportion of consumed plants and flowers along the gradient, (ii) comparing fitness traits of herbivore-excluded plants along the gradient, and (iii) comparing fitness traits, autofertility and pollen limitation between plants excluded from herbivores with unexcluded plants at the same locality. Our results showed that V. cheiranthifolia performance is mainly affected by inter-annual and microhabitat variability along the gradient, especially in the lowest edge. Despite the increasingly adverse environmental conditions, the plant showed no pollen limitation with elevation, which is attributed to the increase in autofertility levels (≥ 50% of reproductive output) and decrease in competition for pollinators at higher elevations. Plant fitness is, however, extremely reduced owing to the presence of non-native rabbits in the area (consuming more than 75% of the individuals in some localities), which in turn change plant trait-environment interactions along the gradient. Taken together, these findings indicate that the elevational variation found on plant performance results from the combined action of non-native rabbits with the microhabitat variability, exerting intricate ecological influences that threaten the survival of this violet species., Our work was funded by a project of the “Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales” (785/2012). Jaume Seguí was supported by the Graduate Fellowship Program co-funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Government of the Balearic Islands (Conselleria d'Educació, Cultura i Universitats), and Marta López-Darias by a JAE Doc programme of the Spanish National Research Council.

10 páginas, 2 figuras, 5 tablas., In a resource management perspective, the understanding of the relative influence of the physical factors on species connectivity remains a major challenge and is also of great ecological and conservation biology interest. Despite the overfishing threat on the wedge clam Donax trunculus in Europe, relatively little information is known about its population genetic structure and connectivity and their consequences on conservation policies. We employed 16 microsatellite loci to characterise the genetic diversity and population structure of D. trunculus. A total of 514 samples from seven different localities along the Atlantic-Mediterranean transition, from the Atlantic (Gulf of Cádiz) to the north-western Mediterranean were genotyped. The analysis of the population genetic structure displayed a clear distinction along the Atlantic-Mediterranean transition with different clusters in the Atlantic Ocean, the Alboran Sea and the northwestern Mediterranean. Consequently, we recommend that these three areas should be considered as different management units. We showed that all populations seem to be at high long-term risk of extinction with the exception of the protected Doñana National Park population which still seems to have evolutionary potential. Therefore, our results emphasized the necessity of protection of this economic resource and the validity of molecular tools to evaluate the population dynamics., This research was financially supported by Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales Grant OAPN122_2010 to C.R., E.M., J.A.C. and P.D.

Trabajo presentado en el 4th International Congress on Ichnology - ICHNIA 2016: Ichnology for the 21st century: (Palaeo) Biological Traces towards Sustainable Development, celebrado en Idanha-a-Nova (Portugal), del 6 al 9 de mayo de 2016, Outstanding trace fossils preserved in Cambrian and Ordovician sandstones constitute part of the geological heritage of Cabañeros National Park (CastillaLa Mancha Region, Central Spain) which has thousands of visitors each year. The lower Cambrian record is represented by the ichnogenus Astropolichnus, occurring as convex hyporeliefs, even preserving the central cylinder, or as concave epireliefs on rippled surfaces of the Azorejo Formation (GutiérrezMarco et al., 2015). Overlaying the Toledanian angular unconformity, the lower Floian “Intermediate Beds” bear unique large burrows, measuring up to 1160 cm long and 20 cm wide, preserved as full-reliefs at the top of several quartzite beds and sometimes forming prominent loops. Further up in the section, the Armorican Quartzite yield abundant traces of the Cruziana and Skolithos ichnofacies. Among them stands out a large bedding plane covered by “rusophyciform”-like Cruziana hyporeliefs, which may reflect a massmating event by their producers. Finally, the same beds yielded a very large burrow (45 cm wide) of a still unknown trace (Gutiérrez-Marco et al., 2010). In order to preserve and study these astonishing bedding planes, we made two large casts measuring up to 13.4 m2 . The concentration of a very wide Cruziana required the use of thixotropic agents on the moulding silicone and on the polyester shells prepared on-site. The resulting casts were made of epoxy resins, strengthened with woven and non-woven fibreglass fabrics and epoxy rebars, and coloured with mineral pigments (Baeza et al., 2013). The replica of Cruziana is the second largest single-piece cast in the world in the field of invertebrate paleoichnology, and is housed in the main Interpretation Centre in Cabañeros National Park as a permanent exhibition., This research is a contribution to the projects CGL2012-39471 of the Spanish MINECO and 727/2012 of the Spanish National Parks Network.

Trabajo presentado en el 4th International Congress on Ichnology - ICHNIA 2016: Ichnology for the 21st century: (Palaeo) Biological Traces towards Sustainable Development, celebrado en Idanha-a-Nova (Portugal), del 6 al 9 de mayo de 2016, Uppermost Armorican Quartzite strata in the synclines of Almadén and Porzuna comprise thick-bedded sandstones with an outstanding ichnofossil record. A locality near Ermita de San Blas (Agudo, Ciudad Real) exposed a large top surface of a quartzite bed yielding numerous Cruziana furcifera and weathered “Catenichnus” isp. in a concave epirelief preservation. The second locality lies 1km southwest of Ermita La Cruz de Mayo, near Porzuna, also in the province of Ciudad Real. The Skolithos and Cruziana ichnofacies alternate in successive thick sandstone beds. The first one stands out by the “pipe-rock” concentrations of Skolithos that vertically grades in large concentrations of wide Daedalus visible in cross-sections. The Cruziana ichnofacies is represented by large exposures showing circling behaviour of cruzianids, preserved as concave epireliefs. These outcrops were erroneously interpreted by locals and cultural officers as archeological rather than paleontological sites. The existence of these large ichnological surfaces may contribute in the future to allow a detailed study on the behaviour of trace markers in the shallow epicratonic South Gondwana shelf., This research is a contribution to the projects CGL2012-39471 of the Spanish MINECO, IGCP-591 (IUGSUNESCO).

We modelled the distribution of two vulnerable steppe birds, Otis tarda and Tetrax tetrax, in the Western Palearctic and projected their suitability up to the year 2080. We performed two types of models for each species: one that included environmental and geographic variables (space-included model) and a second one that only included environmental variables (space-excluded model). Our assumption was that ignoring geographic variables in the modelling procedure may result in inaccurate forecasting of species distributions. On the other hand, the inclusion of geographic variables may generate an artificial constraint on future projections. Our results show that space-included models performed better than space-excluded models. While distribution of suitable areas for T. tetrax in the future was approximately the same as at present in the space-included model, the space-excluded model predicted a pronounced geographic change of suitable areas for this species. In the case of O. tarda, the space-included model showed that many areas of current presence shifted to low or medium suitability in the future, whereas a northward expansion of intermediate suitable areas was predicted by the space-excluded one. According to the best models, current distribution of these species can restrict future distribution, probably due to dispersal constraints and site fidelity. Species ranges would be expected to shift gradually over the studied time period and, therefore, we consider it unlikely that most of the current distribution of these species in southern Europe will disappear in less than one hundred years. Therefore, populations currently occupying suitable areas should be a priority for conservation policies. Our results also show that climate-only models may have low explanatory power, and could benefit from adjustments using information on other environmental variables and biological traits; if the latter are not available, including the geographic predictor may improve the reliability of predicted results., AE has a contract funded by the project 1098/2014 (Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales, Spain). This paper is a contribution to CGL2009-13029/BOS of the Spanish Ministry of Science, as well as to the REMEDINAL 3 (S2013/MAE-2719) network of the CAM. This work was partly supported by the Project CGL2009/11316/BOS (Spanish Ministry of Science and FEDER).

The geological record is a suitable tool for the study of eruptive activity in volcanoes. The hydromagmatic explosive eruptions can generate deformation in sediments, which were deposited on the volcanic cone. The ydromagmatic sediments can be liquefied when the energy released by the explosion exceeds seismic magnitudes of 5-5.5 (sand sediment size) or 7.5 (gravel sediment size). Using these thresholds to liquefaction we propose a new Hydromagmatic Explosivity Index (HEI)., Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, España, Unidad de Canarias, Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, España, Departamento de Geografía, Universidad de La Laguna, España

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., This study was funded annually (2010–2013) by the Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales of Spain (http://www.magrama.gob.es/es/parques-nacionales-oapn/programa-investigacion/) through the research project 079/2009. Financial support for the fieldwork in Azores, Madeira, Selvagens and Berlengas was provided by the EU project LIFE04NAT/PT/000213, coordinated by SPEA (Sociedade Portuguesa para o Estudo das Aves), the BirdLife International partner in Portugal. HP acknowledges the support given by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portugal, SFRH/BD/21557/2005 and SFRH/BPD/85024/2012). Financial support for the fieldwork in Cima Islet was provided by the EU project LIFE09NAT/PT/000041

We test the use of hyperspectral sensors for the early detection of the invasive dense-flowered cordgrass (Spartina densiflora Brongn.) in the Guadalquivir River marshes, Southwestern Spain. We flew in tandem a CASI-1500 (368–1052 nm) and an AHS (430–13,000 nm) airborne sensors in an area with presence of S. densiflora. We simplified the processing of hyperspectral data (no atmospheric correction and no data-reduction techniques) to test if these treatments were necessary for accurate S. densiflora detection in the area. We tested several statistical signal detection algorithms implemented in ENVI software as spectral target detection techniques (matched filtering, constrained energy minimization, orthogonal subspace projection, target-constrained interference minimized filter, and adaptive coherence estimator) and compared them to the well-known spectral angle mapper, using spectra extracted from ground-truth locations in the images. The target S. densiflora was easy to detect in the marshes by all algorithms in images of both sensors. The best methods (adaptive coherence estimator and target-constrained interference minimized filter) on the best sensor (AHS) produced 100% discrimination (Kappa = 1, AUC = 1) at the study site and only some decline in performance when extrapolated to a new nearby area. AHS outperformed CASI in spite of having a coarser spatial resolution (4-m vs. 1-m) and lower spectral resolution in the visible and near-infrared range, but had a better signal to noise ratio. The larger spectral range of AHS in the short-wave and thermal infrared was of no particular advantage. Our conclusions are that it is possible to use hyperspectral sensors to map the early spread S. densiflora in the Guadalquivir River marshes. AHS is the most suitable airborne hyperspectral sensor for this task and the signal processing techniques target-constrained interference minimized filter (TCIMF) and adaptive coherence estimator (ACE) are the best performing target detection techniques that can be employed operationally with a simplified processing of hyperspectral images., This study has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the research projects HYDRA (No. CGL2006-02247/BOS) and HYDRA2 (CGL2009-09801/BOS), by the National Parks Authority (Organismo Autonomo de Parques Nacionales) of the Spanish Ministry of Environment to project OAPN 042/2007, and by funding from the European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 641762 to ECOPOTENTIAL project. The Espacio Natural de Doñana provided permits for field work in protected areas with restricted access. We are grateful to the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA), Spain, for performing the airborne campaign and the geometric correction of the images. J.B. has to acknowledge a sabbatical stay at Pye Laboratory of the Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization (CSIRO) Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Australia, and at the Climate Change Cluster (C3) of the University of Technology Sydney, Australia, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education, during data analysis and writing of this paper. This publication is a contribution from CEIMAR and also a contribution from CEICAMBIO. We acknowledge support by the CSIC Open Access Publication Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI)

There has been a worldwide increase in the number and geographical spread of wild boar populations in recent decades leading to an increase in both the circulation of disease agents and greater contact with domestic animals and humans. Diseases affect the population dynamics of wildlife but the effects of most viral diseases on the European wild boar are largely unknown. Many viral diseases present in domestic pig populations are also present in wild boars where they can provide a disease reservoir, as is clearly the case with classical swine fever, but little is known about other viral diseases such as porcine circovirus diseases or hepatitis E. This review considers the current scientific knowledge of the effects of viral diseases on wild boar populations and their rôle as potential disease reservoirs. The focus is on those viral diseases of domestic swine and wild boars that are included as notifiable by the Office International des Epizooties (OIE)., This is a contribution to the agreement between MAPA (SDGSA), OAPN and IREC.

We studied the potential of red deer as bluetongue maintenance hosts and sentinels. Deer maintained detectable bluetongue virus (BTV) serotype 4 RNA for 1 year after the virus was cleared from livestock. However, the virus was not transmitted to yearlings. BTV serotype 1 RNA was detected in red deer immediately after its first detection in cattle., This study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Natural, Rural and Marine Environment (RASVE 274/2007, and an agreement between Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales (OAPN), Dirección General de Recursos Agricolas y Ganaderos (DGRAG), and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC). F.R.-F. is supported by a postdoctoral contract of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III of the Spanish government.

Programa Doutoral em Biodiversidade, Genética e Evolução Departamento de Biologia-Universidade do Porto., [EN]: In predator communities, mesopredator biomass typically exceeds that of apex predators. Consequently, the energetic requirements of mesocarnivores (as a community) suggest that their impact on lower trophic levels should be significant. Several cases of ecosystem disruptions have been described as a result of changes in predator communities (e.g. irruptions of prey species released from top-down regulation, or over-suppression of prey via a predator-pit effect). However, the structure of mesocarnivore communities is complex, and results from a multidimensional web of interactions with several trophic levels, upheld through top-down and bottom-up effects, intraguild interactions and habitat quality. Therefore, understanding the factors that act together in structuring such systems is crucial for adequate planning and management of conservation policies. The ecological and behavioral traits of carnivores deem them particularly difficult to study. Additionally, community-wide or multiple species research studies are particularly difficult to implement. Yet, non-invasive techniques have become commoner and technological advances, namely in the field of molecular genetics, have made for such studies more accessible. In this research we aimed to address two fundamental questions: to assess the reliability and improve current sampling methods for ecological studies of mesocarnivores in Southwestern Europe; and to evaluate the strategies used by mesocarnivores that facilitate their coexistence in SW European communities../.., [PO]: Em comunidades de predadores, a biomassa dos mesopredadores excede a dos predadores de topo. Consequentemente, os requisitos energéticos dos mesocarnívoros (como comunidade) sugerem que o seu impacto sobre os níveis tróficos inferiores são significativos. Vários casos de desregulação nos ecossistemas têm sido descritos como resultado de alterações nas comunidades de mesocarnívoros (e.g. a explosão demográfica de espécies presa após a supressão da predação, ou imposição de um efeito de poço de predação imposto por predadores em espécies presa). No entanto, a estrutura das comunidades de mesocarnívoros é complexa e resulta de uma teia multidimensional de interações entre os diferentes níveis tróficos existentes, através de efeitos de regulação superior e inferior, interações com espécies do mesmo nível trófico ou qualidade do habitat. Assim, a compreensão dos factores que atuam para estruturar estes sistemas revela-se fundamental para uma adequada gestão e planeamento de ações de conservação. As características ecológicas e comportamentais dos mesocarnívoros fazem com que estas espécies sejam particularmente difíceis de estudar. Por outro lado, estudos sobre comunidades ou sobre múltiplas espécies em simultâneo revelam-se especialmente difíceis de implementar. No entanto, os progressos recentes em técnicas não-invasivas têm promovido a sua implementação, tornando-as mais comuns no estudo de mamíferos carnívoros terrestres. Adicionalmente, desenvolvimentos nas tecnologias associadas a estas amostragens, nomeadamente ao nível dos métodos moleculares, têm permitido uma maior acessibilidade a este tipo de aproximações. Na presente dissertação são focadas duas questões fundamentais: a avaliação da adequabilidade e desenvolvimento de metodologias não-invasivas para o estudo de mesocarnívoros e a investigação das estratégias utilizadas pelos mesocarnívoros presentes nas comunidades terrestres que permitem a sua coexistência no Sudoeste (SW) da Europa../.., Agradeço à fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia pela atribuição da bolsa de doutoramento (ref: SFRH/BD/37795/2007). Agradeço ao Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación de Espanha, pelo projeto que financiou grande parte dos trabalhos (de campo e laboratoriais) para esta tese (projeto ref: CGL2009-10741). Ao Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales de Espanha, pelo projeto que financiou grande parte dos trabalhos (de campo e laboratoriais) para esta tese (projeto ref: project ref: OAPN 352/2011).

We report the development of 13 microsatellitemarkers (SSR) for the Canarian endemic juniper, Juniperuscedrus. Evaluated in a set of 28 individuals sampled on theisland of Tenerife, all markers showed polymorphism anddisplayed 56 alleles. The number of alleles ranged from 2to 8, with an average of 4.31 alleles per locus. This set ofSSR markers will be very useful in further studies on thepopulation genetics or phylogeography of this endangeredspecies, leading to more appropriate and successfulmanagement, This work was co-funded by the ‘Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales’ (project 051/2010) and the Spanish ‘Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación’ (CGL2010-18759).

The reintroduction of plants and animals to the wild is an important technique to save endangered species from extinction. To perform post release monitoring is crucial to evaluate reintroduction outcomes. A Mohor gazelle reintroduction programme took place in Senegal in 1984. We attempt to explain why the size of the reintroduced gazelle population has diminished in recent years. We suggest that changes in habitat structure occurred over time and have very likely reduced the amount of suitable habitat for this species., This work has been funded by the Organismo Autónomo Parques Nacionales (belonging to the Spanish Ministry of Environment) under the UNESCO contract No. 4500124567. BI and JB have been supported by project CGL 2008-00562/BOS of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, and by the European Regional Development Fund.

We genetically analysed malaria parasites (Protozoa) in three Mediterranean blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) populations from central Spain. A total of 853 breeding individuals were screened for parasites of the genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus using a very efficient polymerase chain reaction approach that amplifies a partial segment of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene of these parasites. We have found six lineages of Plasmodium (SGS1, GRW11, COLL1, DELURB4, GRW04 and BLUTI10) parasitizing the studied populations but we did not detect any infection by Haemoproteus. One of the detected lineages (BLUTI10) has not been previously described in any bird species and this is the first study recording lineages DELURB4 and GRW04 in blue tits. SGS1 (belonging to the morphospecies Plasmodium relictum) was the most frequent lineage (overall prevalence, 24 %), whereas the other lineages showed a much lower prevalence (, This study was funded by grants 69/2003 (Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales-Ministerio de Medio Ambiente), GCL2007-61395 (Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia), CGL2010-21933-C02-01 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación) and POIC10-0269-7632 (Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha-European Social Fund). ESF was supported by a pre-doctoral fellowship from Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha-European Social Fund and VGN enjoyed a FPI pre-doctoral fellowship from Ministerio de Ciencia e InnovaciónEuropean Social Fund. J.O was supported by a Juan de la Cierva contract (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación).

Background A central aim of island biogeography is to understand the colonization history of insular species using current distributions, fossil records and genetic diversity. Here, we analyze five plastid DNA regions of the endangered Juniperus brevifolia, which is endemic to the Azores archipelago. Methodology/Principal Findings The phylogeny of the section Juniperus and the phylogeographic analyses of J. brevifolia based on the coalescence theory of allele (plastid) diversity suggest that: (1) a single introduction event likely occurred from Europe; (2) genetic diversification and inter-island dispersal postdated the emergence of the oldest island (Santa Maria, 8.12 Ma); (3) the genetic differentiation found in populations on the islands with higher age and smaller distance to the continent is significantly higher than that on the younger, more remote ones; (4) the high number of haplotypes observed (16), and the widespread distribution of the most frequent and ancestral ones across the archipelago, are indicating early diversification, demographic expansion, and recurrent dispersal. In contrast, restriction of six of the seven derived haplotypes to single islands is construed as reflecting significant isolation time prior to colonization. Conclusions/Significance Our phylogeographic reconstruction points to the sequence of island emergence as the key factor to explain the distribution of plastid DNA variation. The reproductive traits of this juniper species (anemophily, ornithochory, multi-seeded cones), together with its broad ecological range, appear to be largely responsible for recurrent inter-island colonization of ancestral haplotypes. In contrast, certain delay in colonization of new haplotypes may reflect intraspecific habitat competition on islands where this juniper was already present., B. Rumeu and J.L. Blanco-Pastor were funded by a Spanish National Research Council grant µ(CSIC: JAE-PRE; http://www.csic.es/web/guest/programa-ja​e). This contribution is framed within the projects CGL2010-18759 and PI2007/053 and financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (http://www.micinn.es), and the Canary Island Government (http://www.gobcan.es), respectively, both of which were partially funded by the European Union. The Organismo Autónomo de Parques Nacionales (http://www.mma.es/secciones/el_ministeri​o/organismos/oapn/) also financed part of this work (project 051/2010). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Electrocution by power lines is one of the main causes of non-natural mortality in birds of prey. In an area in central Spain, we surveyed 6304 pylons from 333 power lines to determine electrocution rates, environmental and design factors that may influence electrocution and the efficacy of mitigation measures used to minimise electrocution cases. A total of 952 electrocuted raptors, representing 14 different species, were observed. Electrocuted raptors were concentrated in certain areas and the environmental factors associated with increased electrocution events were: greater numbers of prey animals; greater vegetation cover; and shorter distance to roads. The structural elements associated with electrocutions were shorter strings of insulators, one or more phases over the crossarm, cross-shaped design and pylon function. Of the 952 carcasses found, 148 were eagles, including golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), Spanish imperial eagle (Aquila adalberti) and Bonelli's eagle (Aquila fasciata). Electrocuted eagles were clustered in smaller areas than other electrocuted raptors. The factors associated with increased eagle electrocution events were: pylons function, shorter strings of insulators, higher slopes surrounding the pylon, and more numerous potential prey animals. Pylons with increased string of insulators had lower raptor electrocution rates than unimproved pylons, although this technique was unsuccessful for eagles. Pylons with cable insulation showed higher electrocution rates than unimproved pylons, both for raptors and eagles, despite this is the most widely used and recommended mitigation measure in several countries. To optimize the application of mitigation measures, our results recommend the substitution of pin-type insulators to suspended ones and elongating the strings of insulators., This study has been developed within the framework of LIFE+07/NAT/E/000743 “Conservacion de especies prioritarias del monte mediterraneo en Castilla-La Mancha”, coordinated by the Organismo Autonomo Espacios Naturales de Castilla-La Mancha and participated in by the Fundacion CBD-Habitat and LIFE03/NAT/E/00050 “Conservacion del Aguila imperial, Buitre negro y Cigüeña negra”, developed by the CBD-Habitat Foundation with the cooperation of the Junta de Castilla-La Mancha and the Spanish Ministry of the Environment. This project is part of the regional recovery plan of Castilla-La Mancha and the National Preservation Strategy for the Spanish imperial eagle. Obra Social Caja Madrid also provided financial and technical support.