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Bait collection is a multibillion dollar worldwide activity that is often managed ineffectively. For managers to understand the impacts on protected inter-tidal mudflats and waders at appropriate spatial scales macrofaunal surveys combined with video recordings of birds and bait collectors were undertaken at two UK sites. Dug sediment constituted approximately 8% of the surveyed area at both sites and is less muddy (lower organic content) than undug sediment. This may have significant implications for turbidity. Differences in the macrofaunal community between dug and undug areas if the same shore height is compared as well as changes in the dispersion of the community occurred at one site. Collection also induces a 'temporary loss of habitat' for some birds as bait collector numbers negatively correlate with wader and gull abundance. Bait collection changes the coherence and ecological structure of inter-tidal mudflats as well as directly affecting wading birds. However, as β diversity increased we suggest that management at appropriate hectare/site scales could maximise biodiversity/function whilst still supporting collection., (Crown Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is a cornerstone in the study of adaptive genetic diversity. Intriguingly, highly polymorphic MHC sequences are often not more similar within species than between closely related species. Divergent selection of gene duplicates, balancing selection maintaining trans-species polymorphism (TSP) that predate speciation and parallel evolution of species sharing similar selection pressures can all lead to higher sequence similarity between species. In contrast, high rates of concerted evolution increase sequence similarity of duplicated loci within species. Assessing these evolutionary models remains difficult as relatedness and ecological similarities are often confounded. As sympatric species of flamingos are more distantly related than allopatric species, flamingos represent an ideal model to disentangle these evolutionary models. We characterized MHC Class I exon 3, Class IIB exon 2 and exon 3 of the six extant flamingo species. We found up to six MHC Class I loci and two MHC Class IIB loci. As all six species shared the same number of MHC Class IIB loci, duplication appears to predate flamingo speciation. However, the high rate of concerted evolution has prevented the divergence of duplicated loci. We found high sequence similarity between all species regardless of codon position. The latter is consistent with balancing selection maintaining TSP, as under this mechanism amino acid sites under pathogen-mediated selection should be characterized by fewer synonymous codons (due to their common ancestry) than under parallel evolution. Overall, balancing selection maintaining TSP appears to result in high MHC similarity between species regardless of species relatedness and geographical distribution., (© 2015 European Society For Evolutionary Biology. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2015 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.)