New Publication on early-life conditions !

Payo-Payo, A. Sanz-Aguuilar, A. and Oro, D. 2022. Long-lasting effects of harsh early-life conditions on adult survival of a long-lived vertebrate. Oikos e09371, https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.09371

Summary: Early life conditions, especially in long-lived organisms, can have both immediate and long-lasting effects in vital traits generating demographic structure across cohorts. Multiple non-exclusive hypotheses have been proposed to explore this question. For instance, the silver spoon, the viability selection or the predictive adaptive response hypothesis, predict that long lasting effects resulting from harsh early conditions could be negative, positive or vary with current environmental conditions, respectively. We use an 18-year capture–mark–recapture dataset on adult Audouin's gulls Ichthyaetus audouinii to test for these different hypotheses while accounting for age, breeding experience and large-scale dispersal. Audouin's gull cohorts experiencing harsh conditions during early life (i.e. nestling period and first winter) are known to experience lower first year survival. Here, we show that early life conditions also explained a large proportion (54%) of adult survival variation among cohorts. However, adulthood cohorts experiencing poor early life conditions had higher adult survival, in accordance with the viability selection hypothesis. Our results also show that apparent inexperienced breeders showed lower survival than experienced ones. Moreover, adult survival decreased with age. These results could suggest an increased cost of reproduction for deferred breeders, individual quality differences or survival senescence in this population. Overall, our study highlights the importance of early development, age and breeding experience as potential factors generating heterogeneity of survival between cohorts. Understanding the mechanisms driving responses to early life conditions at different life stages is fundamental to understanding the long-term dynamics of wild populations.

CMR Workshop ended!

The 2022 Workshop on capture-mark-recapture and- recovery data applied to conservation of animal populations ended today! It has been an interesting and stimulating workshop. This year we had datasets on vultures, trouts, dolphins, sharks, gulls ... We always learn new systems, new challenges, new studies and more important new persons. 

Thanks to all for coming!

 

"La Caixa" Foundation Fellowships. Apply and join the GEDA!

Incoming call for  INPhINIT Doctoral Fellowship ("LA CAIXA" Foundation) !! 

 

Are you interested in obtaining a Ph.D. on seabirds ecology ? The La Caixa Foundation grants 65 fellowships for talented early-stage researchers of any nationality to pursue their PhD studies in Spain or Portugal.  Apply at   https://fundacionlacaixa.org/en/inphinit-doctoral-fellowships-call and select our project. Find our project on seabirds (here) and join the GEDAi

Research Project / Research Group Description

Seabirds are in rapid decline worldwide, but the relative importance of the multiple threats to their populations is not always clear, nor the birds’ response to current global changes.  As top-predators their behavior, dynamics and life-history strategy reflect ocean state and condition and their decline is showing that the marine ecosystems is changing. 

Photo: Victor Paris

The research project aims to investigate the life-history strategy of seabirds under the current chemo-physical changes of the ocean. The project will take advantage of the long term monitoring databases collected by the team and the data collected by GPS and GLS devices to follow birds during their foraging movements and migratory routes. It will focus on two species of conservation interest, belonging to the order of Procellariformes, the European storm petrel Hydrobates pelagicus and the Scopoli’s shearwater Calonectris diomedea. Birds will be studied in the Balearic archipelago and Alicante region (Eastern Spain). The deployment of tracking devices will allow to investigate the individual and the species-specific movements in order to detect the important foraging and overwinter areas to help policy makers to reduce the threats to their populations.

 If you need more information on the project: g.tavecchia-at-uib.es

Apply here!!

New Publication on Sea Turtles range expansion!

Santidrián Tomillo, P., Tomás, J., Marcos, A., Panagopoulou,A. and Tavecchia,G. 2022 Enviornmental changes in the Mediterranean Sea could facilitate the western expansion of loggerhead turtles. MEPS DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps14149

ABSTRACT: Climate change may affect life on Earth in multiple ways. Whereas some populations may encounter detrimental conditions that cause extirpations, those occupying cooler thermal limits of a range may benefit by expanding. For sea turtles, egg maturation in the female oviduct and nest incubation are temperature-dependent and vulnerable to climate change. 

Mediterranean loggerhead turtles Caretta caretta nest in the eastern basin although sporadic nesting occurs on the western side. To assess the likelihood of a climate-related expansion, we compared historical air and sea surface (SST) temperatures between locations near established eastern nesting areas and western areas where sporadic nesting is increasing (Palinuro, Italy) or just started (Balearic Islands, Spain). Our results suggest that summer air and water temperatures in western sites were suitable for nesting over the last 40-50 yr, at least in July-August, having (1) SSTs above suboptimal threshold temperature (22°C) and (2) similar air temperatures to those of Greece, but among the lowest in the Mediterranean. There was a decreasing east-to-west gradient in SST. However, SSTs were similar around beaches of Zakynthos (Greece), Palinuro and Ibiza (Balearic Islands), where SST was above 22°C for at least 60 d, potentially allowing turtles to lay multiple clutches. A warming trend was detected in air temperature and SST since the 1970s-1980s. Although conditions in the western Mediterranean currently seem suitable for nesting, lower air temperatures in May-June and higher precipitation in September could shrink the nesting window. If warming continues, conditions in the western basin could progressively become more favorable for nesting. 

New Publication on Synchrony !

Payo-Payo, A., Igual,J.-M., Sanz-Aguilar, A., Real, E., Genovart, M., Oro, D., Tavecchia, G., 2022 Interspecific synchrony on breeding performance and the role of anthropogenic food subsidies. PLoS One, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275569 

Abstract. Synchrony can have important consequences for long-term metapopulations persistence, community dynamics and ecosystems functioning. While the causes and consequences of intra-specific synchrony on population size and demographic rates have received considerable attention only a few factors that may affect inter-specific synchrony have been described. We formulate the hypothesis that food subsidies can buffer the influence of environmental stochasticity on community dynamics, disrupting and masking originally synchronized systems.

 To illustrate this hypothesis, we assessed the consequences of European policies implementation affecting subsidy availability on the temporal synchrony of egg volume as a proxy of breeding investment in two sympatric marine top predators with differential subsidy use. We show how 7-year synchrony appears on egg volume fluctuations after subsidy cessation suggesting that food subsidies could disrupt interspecific synchrony. Moreover, cross correlation increased after subsidy cessation and environmental buffering seems to act during synchronization period. We emphasize that subsidies dynamics and waste management provide novel insights on the emergence of synchrony in natural populations.