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Seed dispersal by frugivorous bird species involves a fine temporal tuning between fruiting plants and birds. However, this interaction may be severely threatened by anthropogenic climate and land-use change, which may result in phenological mismatches and pervasive ecological consequences for avian communities. In this study, we evaluate changes at long (~40 years) and short-time (seasonal) spans in an avian frugivore community using a snapshot resampling. Particularly, we focus on changes in composition, abundance, migratory timing (i.e., phenology), and physical condition in relation to variations in fruit supply. We used bird and fruit data collected during 1981-1983 and 2019-2021 in a Mediterranean scrubland site in Doñana Natural Area, SW Spain. Our findings indicate a profound transformation of species composition, bird phenology, and body condition: in ~40 years, the avian community showed a 66% and 13% decrease of the wintering and seed-disperser species, respectively. Seasonal abundance peaks were advanced for at least one month in 9 out of 11 frugivorous bird species included in the analyses. Avian body condition during the migratory passage has worsened, with fewer individuals showing a high-fat percentage now than in the past. Finally, we report a fruit production decrease of almost half in 2019-2021 compared to 1981-1983, probably linked to habitat encroachment by pine trees and replacement of fleshy-fruited shrubs. Vegetation encroachment and climate change are the most plausible explanations for the observed changes in the avian community, but the relative importance of these factors is yet unknown. Our results at a local scale mirror the dramatic consequences of global change affecting the diversity, phenology, and physical condition of frugivorous bird species reported in multiple studies across the globe. The loss of frugivores may trigger feedback mechanisms in which seed dispersal is disrupted, leading to impaired recruitment of fruiting plants

Seed dispersal by frugivorous bird species involves a fine temporal tuning between fruiting plants and birds. However, this interaction may be severely threatened by anthropogenic climate and land-use change, which may result in phenological mismatches and pervasive ecological consequences for avian communities. In this study, we evaluate changes at long (~40 years) and short-time (seasonal) spans in an avian frugivore community using a snapshot resampling. Particularly, we focus on changes in composition, abundance, migratory timing (i.e. phenology) and physical condition in relation to variations in fruit supply. We used bird and fruit data collected during 1981–1983 and 2019–2021 in a Mediterranean scrubland site in Doñana Natural Area, SW Spain. Our findings indicate a profound transformation of species composition, bird phenology and body condition: in ~40 years, the avian community showed a 66% and 18.4% decrease of the abundance of wintering and seed-disperser species, respectively. Seasonal abundance peaks were advanced for at least one month in the 9 out of 11 frugivorous bird species included in the analyses. Avian body condition during the migratory passage has worsened, with fewer individuals showing a high-fat percentage now than in the past. Finally, we report a fruit production decrease of almost half in 2019–2021 compared to 1981–1983, probably linked to habitat encroachment by pine trees and replacement of fleshy-fruited shrubs. Vegetation encroachment and climate change are the most plausible explanations for the observed changes in the avian community, but the relative importance of these factors is yet unknown. Our results at a local scale mirror the dramatic consequences of global change affecting the diversity, phenology and physical condition of frugivorous bird species reported in multiple studies across the globe. The loss of frugivores may trigger feedback mechanisms in which seed dispersal is disrupted, leading to impaired recruitment of f

The COVID-19 pandemic has likely affected natural systems around the world; the curtailment of human activity has also affected the collection of data needed to identify the indirect effects of this pandemic on natural systems. We describe how the outbreak of COVID-19 disease, and associated stay-at-home orders in four political regions, have affected the quantity and quality of data collected by participants in one volunteer-based bird monitoring project, eBird. The four regions were selected both for their early and prolonged periods of mandated changes to human activity, and because of the high densities of observations collected. We compared the months of April 2020 with April in previous years. The most notable change was in the landscapes in which observations were made: in all but one region human-dominated landscapes were proportionally more common in the data in April 2020, and observations made near the rarer wetland habitat were less prevalent. We also found subtler changes in quantity of data collected, as well as in observer effort within observation periods. Finally, we found that these effects of COVID-19 disease varied across the political units, and thus we conclude that any analyses of eBird data will require region-specific examination of whether there have been any changes to the data collection process during the COVID-19 pandemic that would need to be taken into account.

Under current global change context, climate change is driving substantial phenological mismatches between plant species and the organisms that rely on them. Given that frugivorous birds are fundamental for forest regeneration, and most of them are migrant species, identifying the effect of global change over them must be a priority. In this study we have analysed changes in the composition, morphometry, and physical condition in an avian community at long- (40 years) and short time (seasonal) spans. Our findings indicate a profound transformation at practically every level of analysis. In 40 years, the avian community shows a 66% and 13% decrease of the wintering and seed-disperser species, respectively. Seasonal abundance peaks were advanced in 13 out of 15 species. In addition, we have found a significant 1.5% increase in the morphometric measurements of certain species, supporting findings in previous studies, and also a remarkable general decrease of body condition. Our results point towards land use changes and climate change as the main causes. If this influence continues to rise, biodiversity will likely be irreversibly altered, damaging crucial ecosystem functions such as animal-mediated seed dispersal and forest regeneration in particular.

Understanding the breeding cycle of wildlife is essential to afford conservation strategies. This is especially important for barely studied species and urgent for those at serious risk of extinction. The Andalusian Buttonquail is an endangered endemic of the Western Mediterranean, confined to a cultivated strip in the Moroccan Atlantic coast. We performed 2 302 sampling events to determine the presence-absence and breeding of the species. The breeding season lasted for eight months, from February to October. Present in 17 different crops, breeding occurred in all but cucumber and artichoke. However, a strong preference for breeding crops was found for alfalfa, pumpkin and maize fields. Nests were 82 mm × 71.4 mm grass-lined structures built on a ground scrape. Eggs had 26.14 mm mean maximum length, 20.24 mean diameter and weighed 5.9 g. All complete clutches had four eggs and the hatching rate was 3.42. All but one of the monitored nests successfully reared at least one chick. Clutch size and hatching rate matched other Buttonquail populations and species, so causes of the decline must be found in other stages of the reproductive cycle. In this sense, additional studies are needed to reveal chick and juvenile survival.

Rise of agriculture and livestock growing during the Mesolithic‐Neolithic transition gave birth to a new biotope, the farmland, which in a few thousand years reached a planetary scale at the expense of natural ecosystems. This widespread land use change implied a demise of many avian species as its natural habitats were replaced by crops and grazing lands. However, it became into a new habitat for some steppe, grassland and savannah birds who were able to shift from its natural habitats to human‐made environments. Some avian species of many bird families found there a land of opportunity, among them a few buttonquail (Turnicidae) species. However, the recent farmland intensification is leading to a general decline of these species. In this PhD we use the Andalusian Buttonquail (Turnix sylvaticus sylvaticus) as a case study of a taxon, at least in part, able to cope with traditional farming, which until recently had a wide distribution in the western Mediterranean countries, and currently is in the verge of extinction. Starting from a global and historical scale approach, contextualizing the taxon at biogeographic and taxonomic levels, we will arrive at the "in situ" study of the only population that still survives. Firstly, we will try to establish the historical evolution of the extinction process in Europe and North Africa, to model and evaluate the historical distribution area based on environmental variables and to establish the phylogeographic relationships of the historical populations of this subspecies and their relationship with the rest of the species of the family. Secondly, the study of the population present in Morocco is carried out in order to determine the size of the population at different times, to evaluate the population trend and to describe habitat selection and reproductive biology.

The last populations of threatened taxa usually survive in low-impacted areas, whose protection and management is critical for its conservation. However, they can also be located in humanized and highly dynamic areas, whose management can be extremely challenging. The Andalusian buttonquail (Turnix sylvaticus sylvaticus) is the critically endangered nominal subspecies of the common buttonquail, a largely unknown species due to its secretive habits. Here, we show how the last Andalusian buttonquail population is restricted to a small, intensively used agricultural area (4,675 ha) in the Atlantic coast of Morocco, where the birds adapt their life cycle to a fast crop rotation. Buttonquails occupy crops in the flowering and fruiting stages, thus changing the preferred crop types along the year, although Alfalfa fields were occupied in all seasons. We used estimated occupancy rates in different crops to obtain seasonal (2017) and year-to-year population estimates (2011, 2014 and 2017). Numbers showed wide seasonal fluctuations between the lowest in winter and the maximum in summer (112e719 individuals). Year-to-year summer estimates also showed wide variations and large uncertainties, ranging between a maximum 1,890 estimated in 2011 and a minimum in 2014 with 492 individuals. The last population estimate available was 596 in 2017. The area is suffering a rapid shift from traditional irrigation farming towards practices more akin to commercial industrial agriculture. The conservation of this critically endangered taxon is highly dependent on the maintenance of traditional farming practices and a rational on-site agricultural modernization

Capsule: There are significant biometric differences between Pied Flycatchers from Iberian and north African populations which are consistent with proposals to classify the two forms into separate species. Aims: To determine the similarities and differences in the main biometrical and plumage sex traits between populations of the Iberian Pied Flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca iberiae and the Atlas Flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca speculigera. Methods: Biometric and plumage traits of 193 breeding individuals of Iberian Pied Flycatchers and 43 Atlas Flycatchers were measured in 2014 with standardized protocols. Results: Both sexes of Atlas Flycatchers were larger than Iberian Pied Flycatchers in skeletal (tarsus) and wing size and also differed in bill morphology, which was wider but shallower in speculigera than iberiae, with females (but not males) having shorter bills than iberiae females. Males differed in mantle colour and forehead patch size, with speculigera males being darker and displaying larger forehead patches than iberiae males. As in populations of iberiae, some speculigera females also expressed a white forehead patch. Conclusion: We demonstrate significant phenotypic differences between Iberian Pied Flycatchers and Atlas Flycatchers with respect to size and traits of ecological and evolutionary relevance, supporting the recently proposed scenarios on their independent evolution.

© Inter-Research 2015. Interpopulation mixing of migratory species at particular stopover and wintering hotspots increases their vulnerability to anthropogenic impacts. Animal associations with human activities at this time of the annual cycle should, therefore, inform management policies. The Gulf of Cadiz, Spain is a key non-breeding area for the Near-Threatened Audouin's gull Ichthyaetus audouinii and the over-abundant lesser black-backed gull Larus fuscus, both of which heavily depend on human fisheries. Here, we used long-term (1990-2013) data on coastal censuses, along with spatially-explicit information on fish landings (2000-2014) and on-board surveys of fishing vessels (2012-2013), to unravel the association of these gulls with human fisheries and evaluate its role in shaping their distribution at this important non-breeding hotspot. Fishing discards from trawlers were extensively used by lesser black-backed gulls, whereas Audouin's gulls apparently benefited from fish aggregations that occurred where purse seines were retrieved. Fishing influence was identified as an important driver of the non-breeding distribution of these gulls, particularly for the lesser black-backed gull, which congregated near main fishing ports. Within this scenario, we speculate that changes in fishing practices, such as those proposed by the upcoming EU Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy that includes a ban on fishing discards, will almost certainly impact the lesser black-backed gull. In contrast, the impact on the Audouin's gull remains unclear and will likely depend on how the proposed ban is implemented.

Marine debris has been found in marine animals since the early 20th century, but little is known about the impacts of the ingestion of debris in large marine mammals. In this study we describe a case of mor- tality of a sperm whale related to the ingestion of large amounts of marine debris in the Mediterranean Sea (4th published case worldwide to our knowledge), and discuss it within the context of the spatial dis- tribution of the species and the presence of anthropogenic activities in the area that could be the source of the plastic debris found inside the sperm whale. The spatial distribution modelled for the species in the region shows that these animals can be seen in two distinct areas: near the waters of Almería, Granada and Murcia and in waters near the Strait of Gibraltar. The results shows how these animals feed in waters near an area completely flooded by the greenhouse industry, making them vulnerable to its waste prod- ucts if adequate treatment of this industry’s debris is not in place. Most types of these plastic materials have been found in the individual examined and cause of death was presumed to be gastric rupture fol- lowing impaction with debris, which added to a previous problem of starvation. The problem of plastics arising from greenhouse agriculture should have a relevant section in the conservation plans and should be a recommendation from ACCOBAMS due to these plastics’ and sperm whales’ high mobility in the Mediterranean Sea.

Although the Near Threatened Eurasian otter Lutra lutra has been recovering in Europe since the 1980s nothing is known about population trends of the species in northern Africa. Ninety sites was searched for signs of otters in northern and western Morocco in 1983 and we repeated this survey in 2011. At each site we searched for otter spraints (faeces) or clear footprints along a maximum of 600 m of river bank, ending the search when the first sign was found. Overall results were strikingly similar in 1983 and 2011, with 36 positive sites and the same general distribution pattern of the species. Healthy otter populations appear to remain in the foothills of the Middle and High Atlas but the trend of populations disappearing from the relatively flat Atlantic slope has increased. The results are in clear contrast with the recovery of otter populations in Europe, probably because of differences in the implementation of environmental policies, especially regarding water pollution