Dolors Vinyoles

Dolors Vinyoles
University of Barcelona | UB · Department of Animal Biology

Associate Professor

About

86
Publications
22,598
Reads
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1,018
Citations
Introduction
My research activity focuses on the behavior of freshwater fish and their applications in conservation. I am currently running part of my research to the study of animal welfare in captivity.
Additional affiliations
January 1990 - present
University of Barcelona
Position
  • Lecturer Senior

Publications

Publications (86)
Article
Full-text available
Amphibians, the most threatened vertebrates globally, face risks due to climate change, habitat loss, and fragmentation. Their sensitivity to environmental changes highlights their importance as ecological indicators. Temporary rivers, influenced by geological, climatic, and anthropogenic factors, play a critical role in shaping biodiversity and co...
Article
Full-text available
Freshwater salinization is an escalating global environmental issue that threatens freshwater biodiversity, including fish populations. This study aims to uncover the molecular basis of salinity physiological responses in a non-native minnow species (Phoxinus septimaniae x P. dragarum) exposed to saline effluents from potash mines in the Llobregat...
Article
Outdoor educational activities provide unique opportunities to observe and understand wild animals, to enhance curiosity and to cope with misconceptions regarding the natural environment. The present work, addressed to 3–12 years-old children, focuses on three aims. First, we assessed whether a scientific fishing activity involving live animals, le...
Article
Full-text available
In Mediterranean climate regions, intermittent rivers (IRs) harbor highly dynamic communities with species and trait composition changing over time and space. Simultaneously considering multiple biodiversity facets and a spatiotemporal perspective is, therefore, key to developing effective conservation strategies for these ecosystems. We studied th...
Article
Full-text available
Temporary rivers (TRs) have been largely overlooked in conservation assessments. Because TRs are such dynamic ecosystems, spatial and temporal aspects of their hydrology and ecology need to be taken into account when designing conservation plans. The aim of this paper is to propose a set of recommendations that could be useful for managers to do th...
Article
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Los ríos temporales (RTs) son ecosistemas fluviales en los que los efectos de las perturbaciones antrópicas se mezclan con los de la propia perturbación natural que impone la temporalidad del flujo. A pesar de los avances en el conocimiento de los RTs, todavía persisten muchas lagunas de conocimiento que limitan el desarrollo de metodologías adecua...
Article
Full-text available
Los cuentos ambientales, aparte de beneficiarse de los aspectos positivos asociados a las narraciones como pueden ser facilitar el aprendizaje y conectar con las emociones, permiten transmitir contenidos y fomentar valores y actitudes de respeto hacia el medio natural. Con el fin de dar a conocer el ciclo de vida de la anguila y hablar de las princ...
Preprint
Full-text available
Freshwater salinization poses a growing global environmental concern, introducing complex chemical cocktails and jeopardizing freshwater biodiversity, particularly fish populations. This research aimed to elucidate the molecular foundations of salinity adaptation in a non-native minnow species (Phoxinus septimaniae x P. dragarum) exposed to saline...
Article
Full-text available
Maintaining biologically functional and compatible social groups is a primary welfare concern for curators of captive animals. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of a yearling's presence on the daily activity, use of space and inter-individual distance on its parental pair of Iberian wolves (Canis lupus signatus) housed at the Barcel...
Article
Full-text available
The aim of this study was to compare two different types of feeding enrichment (vegetarian vs. carnivore) through the daily activity patterns, space use, and inter-individual distances in a captive Iberian wolf (Canis lupus signatus) pack housed at the Barcelona Zoo. Multifocal sampling methods were used for data collection and instantaneous scans...
Preprint
Full-text available
In Mediterranean climate regions, intermittent rivers (IRs) harbor highly dynamic communities with species and trait composition changing over time and space. Considering simultaneously multiple biodiversity facets and a spatiotemporal perspective is, therefore, key to develop effective conservation strategies for these ecosystems. We studied the s...
Presentation
European freshwater ecosystems face multiple stressors (MS), which can significantly impact their fish fauna. Freshwater salinization (FS) is an emergent stressor that poses a significant risk to freshwater-adapted species. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of this adaptation are not well understood, and it can be challenging to discern...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction Birds are involved natural cycle of a number of vector-borne viruses in both rural and urban areas. Toscana (TOSV) and Sicilian (SFSV) phleboviruses are sandfly-borne viruses in the genus Phlebovirus that can cause diseases in human. However, there is limited information on the role of the birds in sandfly-borne phleboviruses natural c...
Article
Full-text available
Lionfish was studied in the mesophotic environment. 237 specimens were observed, most in the upper mesophotic zone. Males were larger than females and differences between sexes in growth models were found. Sixteen prey items were identified, the most important being the teleost families Acanthuridae and Monacanthidae, and the crustacean Penaeidae....
Article
Full-text available
River networks are among Earth’s most threatened hot-spots of biodiversity and provide key ecosystem services (e.g., supply drinking water and food, climate regulation) essential to sustaining human well-being. Climate change and increased human water use are causing more rivers and streams to dry, with devastating impacts on biodiversity and ecosy...
Article
Full-text available
Ammonia is a pollutant frequently found in aquatic ecosystems. In fish, ammonia can cause physical damage, alter its behaviour, and even cause death. Exposure to ammonia also increases fish physiological stress, which can be measured through biomarkers. In this study, we analysed the effect of sublethal ammonia concentrations on the behaviour and t...
Article
The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) mandates to incorporate the participation of stakeholders and the general public in the development and updating of the river basin management plans. So far, the WFD implementation has been mainly focused on perennial rivers without considering temporary rivers properly, neither in biomonitoring programs...
Article
Wetlands such as rice paddies are important ecosystems that provide habitat for a numerous range of species but are considered as a major source of mercury in the most toxic form of methylmercury. An in situ mesocosm experiment was conducted during the rice cultivation season of 2018 in rice paddies from the Ebro Delta (NE, Spain) to investigate th...
Article
Full-text available
This research focused on different aspects of play behavior including ethogram, ontogeny, and individual differences, in one male and one female captive bottlenose dolphin calves (Tursiops truncatus) from November 2003 to June 2004. We presented the first peer-reviewed hierarchical description of a play ethogram in bottlenose dolphin calves which b...
Article
Specimens of two endemic cyprinids, Squalius laietanus (Catalan chub) and Barbus meridionalis (Mediterranean barbel), were sampled from a reference site in a small stream of the Ripoll River (NW Mediterranean) outside of their reproductive season. Biomarkers involved in xenobiotic-mediated responses were individually contrasted in fish of both spec...
Article
Full-text available
Citation: Peñuelas, J.; Germain, J.; Álvarez, E.; Aparicio, E.; Arús, P.; Basnou, C.; Blanché, C.; Bonada, N.; Canals, P.; Capodiferro, M.; et al.
Preprint
Full-text available
Ammonia is a pollutant frequently found in aquatic ecosystems. In fish, ammonia can cause physical damage, alter its behaviour and even cause death. Exposure to ammonia also increases fish physiological stress, which can be measured through biomarkers. In this study, we analysed the effect of sublethal ammonia concentrations on the behaviour and th...
Article
Full-text available
Temporary rivers are characterized by shifting habitats between flowing, isolated pools, and dry phases. Despite the fact that temporary rivers are currently receiving increasing attention by researchers and managers, the isolated pools phase has been largely disregarded. However, isolated pools in temporary rivers are transitional habitats of majo...
Article
There is a tendency for the wolves of a pack to stay together assuming that there is a social bond between the pack members. A rough estimate of the strength of this bond can be obtained by measuring the distances between pack members. The aim of this study was to determine the inter-individual distance by calculating the Euclidian distance to dete...
Article
How the morphology of captive-reared fish is affected by structural enrichment in their rearing tanks is not well understood. Some studies have suggested that deficiencies in rearing environments could produce inappropriate body shape in salmonids (Vehanen and Huusko 2011). Garduño-Paz et al. (2010) have found significant differences in body and he...
Article
Full-text available
Mediterranean rivers are severely affected by pollutants from industry, agriculture and urban activities. In this study, we examined how industrial pollutants, many of them known to act as endocrine disruptors (EDCs), could disturb the reproduction of the Catalan chub (Squalius laietanus). The survey was conducted throughout the reproductive period...
Article
Full-text available
Ecosystems experience natural disturbances and anthropogenic impacts that affect biological communities and ecological processes. When natural disturbance modifies anthropogenic impacts, current widely used bioassessment metrics can prevent accurate assessment of biological quality. Our aim was to assess the ability of biomonitoring metrics to dete...
Article
Full-text available
Cortisol levels in fish skin mucus have shown to be good stress indicators in farm fish exposed to different stressors. Its applicability in free-ranging animals subject to long-term environmental stressors though remains to be explored. The present study was therefore designed to examine whether skin mucus cortisol levels from a wild freshwater fi...
Chapter
In the last forty years, continental vertebrates have suffered a sharp decline in Catalonia. Many autochthonous species are threatened due to habitat loss and fragmentation, environmental pollution, and interaction with invasive alien species. A hybridization between autochthonous species and exotic or domestic species is occurring. The number of e...
Article
We studied the behavioral responses of three brown bears (Ursus arctos) to different types of enrichment devices to assess the predominant pattern of animal–enrichment interaction (PAI) to each type of enrichment. We assessed the bears' responses to feeding, sensory, and occupational enrichments over nine sessions. Using Pearson's correlation (r) a...
Article
A significant body of literature suggests that aquatic pollutants can interfere with the physiological function of the fish hypothalamic-pituitary-interrenal (HPI) axis, and eventually impair the ability to cope with subsequent stressors. For this reason, development of accurate techniques to assess fish stress responses have become of growing inte...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Els rius temporals mediterranis presenten una ictiofauna autòctona adaptada a la variabilitat hidrològica d'aquests sistemes. Tot i això, degut al canvi climàtic, a l'activitat humana i a la introducció d'espècies al-lòctones, la seva persistència es troba amenaçada. L'estudi, elaborat a quatre rieres del Parc Natural de Sant Llorenç del Munt i l'O...
Article
Full-text available
This study evaluates a feeding, occupational and sensorial environmental-enrichment programme in a pride of eight [2.6 (♂.♀)] Southwest African lions (Panthera leo bleyenberghi) housed at Barcelona Zoo. The evaluation was short-term due to the data was collected at the time in which the enrichment programme was introduced. In both study phases (bas...
Article
Full-text available
Sexual selection is considered the major cause of sexual dimorphism, but recent observations suggest that natural selection may play a more important role in the evolution of sex differentiation than previously recognized. Therefore, studying the trade-offs between natural selection and sexual selection is crucial to a better understanding of the e...
Article
In fish the response to stress is usually assessed by quantification of short-term changes in blood cortisol levels (Baker, Gobush, & Vyne, 2013), the main glucocorticoid (GC) in most teleosts (Mommsen, Vijayan, & Moon, 1999). Blood provides only a snapshot of the hormonal profile at one point in time. An alternative source for cortisol measurement...
Poster
In Europe, the implementation of the Water Framework Directive has been unable to provide a solution to determine the ecological status of Intermittent Rivers and Ephemeral Streams (IRES). A lack of adequate methods (developed exclusively for perennial streams), hydrological data, and limited recognition in environmental policies have posed a major...
Article
Full-text available
Abnormal behaviours are common in captive environments that not supply the physical and psychological needs of animals. There are animals, like brown bears, more susceptible to develop abnormal behaviours due to their seasonal biology related to food, hibernation or reproduction. The two brown bear Ursus arctos females from Barcelona Zoo, Spain, sh...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Resum Els cursos d'aigua de la Serralada Litoral Catalana difícilment flueixen de manera permanent ja que les conques de drenatge són relativament petites i la major part d'anys s'hi dóna dèficit hídric. Aquest fet dificulta l'avaluació de l'estat ecològic d'aquests rius i rieres temporals, ja que els indicadors biològics utilitzats han estat disse...
Research
Full-text available
Dissemination article on temporary rivers. LIFE+ TRivers project www.lifetrivers.eu
Book
Full-text available
Peixos continentals de Catalunya (Inland fish of Catalunya) is the first book exclusively dedicated to the fish of the fluvial systems of Catalunya, and is the result of many years of enthusiastic dedication to learning about the country’s inland fish and the ecology of the habitats in which they live. The main part of the book is concerned with th...
Article
Full-text available
Improving the welfare of nonhuman animals in captivity and maintaining behavioral competence for future conservation purposes is of the highest priority for zoos. The behavior of an aggressive male drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus poensis) was assessed in Barcelona Zoo. The 2-year study presented in this article examined the effects of introducing cha...
Article
This study investigated the effect of hydrological stress (streamflow reduction) on the reproductive and nesting behaviour of freshwater blenny (Salaria fluviatilis) males in a Mediterranean-type stream in NE Spain (a tributary of the Ebro River). The investigation included two study periods: (i) before stream flow reduction (sampling in 2004) and...
Article
Full-text available
For more information about the methodology, see: https://youtu.be/dz0OMqHA1VY Abstract: The influence of pulsed discharges associated with hydroelectric power generation (i.e. hydropeaking) on feeding activity and diet composition of adult brown trout (Salmo trutta) was studied during the summer by comparing two sites: upstream (control site) and...
Article
Full-text available
The evaluation of enrichment programs is important to determine their effect on nonhuman animal welfare. The daily activity pattern and use of space of 3 brown bears (Ursus arctos) were used for long-term macroevaluation of enrichment to compare the baseline and enrichment phases. Focal sampling methods were used for data collection, and instantane...
Article
Full-text available
In fishes, the parents’ presence generally improves embryos’ survival through parental care, but it is also associated with some disadvantages such as clutch cannibalism and loss of male physical condition. Captive breeding of the river blenny Salaria fluviatilis might improve if these disadvantages were avoided by artificially replacing parental c...
Article
Full-text available
Boldness is defined as the tendency of an individual to take risks when exposed to novel objects or situations. The main aim of this work was to dilucidate if boldness was related to the development of the secondary sexual traits (SSTs) in the male of the river blenny Salaria fluviatilis, a freshwater fish which takes care of eggs. As a second obje...
Article
Full-text available
Alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) driven by environmental factors are common among fish. However, the flexibility of fish to adopt distinct tactics in response to the characteristics of their environment has received little attention. The aim of the present work was to study phenotypic plasticity in the adoption of dominant behaviour (“bourge...
Article
Full-text available
21 La capacitat de captar informació química va ser, probablement, el primer dels sentits que va utilitzar la vida com a sistema de co-municació entre els organismes. El sentit de la percepció química es troba en tots els éssers vius, fins i tot en alguns de tan simples com els bacteris. Existeixen, a aquests efectes, es-tructures adequades que van...
Article
Full-text available
The density of brown trout (Salmo trutta) in some mesohabitat and sites of Flamisell river (Catalan Pyrenees) was studied through electrofishing. The trout population of this river is predominantly composed by fry and juvenile fishes, while the adult population is relatively lower. This lower density indicates that adult trout prefer pools, while n...
Article
Full-text available
One of the unresolved problems of male sexual aggregations is that a small number of males monopolize most matings. The Common Quail (Coturnix coturnix (L., 1758)), is a bird species that has a short life span and a reproductive strategy that involves male aggregations, which females visit for the purpose of mating. Once a mate has been chosen, bir...
Article
Full-text available
The life-history tactics of the stone loach Barbatula barbatula were studied in a Mediterranean-type climate stream (Matarranya River) located in the Ebro River basin (north-east Spain). Maximum observed ages were 2+ years in both sexes (1% of individuals), although only 0+ and 1+ year age groups were well represented. It is the lowest longevity re...
Article
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In 2008, inland waterways in Catalonia (northeast Iberian Peninsula, Spain) experienced one of the worst droughts recorded in this region in recent decades. During this period, an epizootic of Ichthyophthirius multifiliis was detected for the first time in a Mediterranean stream, with 21% prevalence in a population of redtail barbs Barbus haasi. En...
Chapter
Full-text available
The native freshwater fish fauna in the Iberian Peninsula is characterized by high diversification at species level, with the largest number of endemic species in Europe, due to the geologi-cal history of each basin (Doadrio 2001). After habitat destruction, the introduction of exotic species is the second major threat to this region. Over the last...
Article
Full-text available
This study provides a first approach to clarify the taxonomic status of Gadiculus argentus thori. A total of 69 specimens of G. a. argenteus Guichenot, 1850 and 6 specimens of G. a. thori Schmidt, 1914 with a size range of 52.1-133.2 mm TL were examined. According to Schmidt (1914) and Svetovidov (1986), the total number of vertebrae, the meristics...
Article
Full-text available
Since its first record in a tributary of the Ebro basin in 1992, the bleak Alburnus alburnus has spread to almost the whole Iberian Peninsula. In this paper (based on electrofishing surveys in 598 localities), we provide information on the expansion of the bleak. We detail current distribution in the Ebro basin and the rivers of the Eastern Pyrenee...
Article
Full-text available
Natural populations of the common quail Coturnix coturnix may hybridize in the wild with non-native individuals (Japanese quail Coturnix japonica or hybrids) as a result of restocking for hunting purposes. Several laboratory studies suggest that this could lead to a decline in the impulse to migrate in the common quail, and a drop in the frequency...
Article
The life-history characteristics of the river blenny Salaria fluviatilis in a Mediterranean stream in north-east Spain have been studied. The maximum age observed was 4+ years in both sexes, although only age groups 0+ and 1+ years were well represented. For both sexes, growth was rapid between April and June (before the summer drought) and in Octo...
Article
Full-text available
Since its first record in a tributary of the Ebro basin in 1992, the bleak Alburnus alburnus has spread to almost the whole Iberian Peninsula. In this paper (based on elec-trofishing surveys in 598 localities), we provide information on the expansion of the bleak. We detail current distribution in the Ebro basin and the rivers of the Eastern Pyrene...
Article
Full-text available
In complex aquatic ecosystems, intraspecific competition for food can evolve into dietary differences related to body size, gender, capture ability, and habitat use. The diet of the viperine snake, Natrix maura, an aquatic predator which forages on fish and amphibians, has been studied in parallel with food availability in a small locality of the M...
Article
Full-text available
The directional movements of the male European Quail, Coturnix coturnix (L., 1758), during the breeding season and autumn migration were studied using Emlen orientation cages. The characteristics and evolution of the habitat in which males were captured and the sexual behaviour shown at capture indicate that these birds move in search of mating par...