Jacob González-Solís

University of Barcelona | UB · Department of Animal Biology

Climate change has repeatedly been shown to impact the demography and survival of marine top predators. However, most evidence comes from single populations of widely distributed species, limited mainly to polar and subpolar environments. Here, we aimed to evaluate the influence of environmental conditions on the survival of a tropical and migrator...

Three feather mite species of the genus Brephosceles Hull, 1934 (Alloptidae: Alloptinae) were found on the European storm petrel, Hydrobates pelagicus (Procellariiformes: Hydrobatidae), in the Mediterranean Sea and North-east Atlantic Ocean. Brephosceles holoplax sp. n. is described as a new species; B. pelagicus (Vitzthum, 1921) and B. longirostri...

The Balearic shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus) is the most threatened seabird in Europe and member of the most speciose group of pelagic seabirds, the order Procellariiformes, which exhibit extreme adaptations to a pelagic lifestyle. The fossil record suggests that human colonization of the Balearic Islands resulted in a sharp decrease of the Bale...

Background Understanding the evolution of migration requires knowledge of the patterns, sources, and consequences of variation in migratory behaviour, a need exacerbated by the fact that many migratory species show rapid population declines and require knowledge-based conservation measures. We therefore need detailed knowledge on the spatial and te...

O ilhéu de Cima é considerado um importante hotspot de biodiversidade em Cabo Verde para espécies de aves marinhas. Contudo, a riqueza, distribuição e utilização do habitat de aves terrestres, costeiras, limícolas e de rapina têm sido largamente negligenciadas até agora. Realizámos o primeiro levantamento detalhado da avifauna não marinha do ilhéu...

The Balearic shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus) is the most threatened seabird in Europe. The fossil record suggests that human colonisation of the Balearic Islands resulted in a sharp decrease of the population size. Currently, populations continue to be decimated mainly due to predation by introduced mammals and bycatch in longline fisheries, and...

Aim Palaeoceanographic changes can act as drivers of diversification and speciation, even in highly mobile marine organisms. Shearwaters are a group of globally distributed and highly mobile pelagic seabirds. Despite a recent well-resolved phylogeny, shearwaters have controversial species limits, and show periods of both slow and rapid diversificat...

Every year, billions of birds undertake extensive migrations between breeding and non-breeding areas, facing challenges that require behavioural adjustments, particularly to flight timing and duration. Such adjustments in daily activity patterns and the influence of extrinsic factors (e.g., environmental conditions, moonlight) have received much mo...

In colonial seabirds, ecological divergence may occur in the absence of physical barriers, driven by the isolation of populations due to distance, or the adaptation to local environment. In migratory seabirds, the geographic segregation among breeding populations can persist year round (i.e., strong migratory connectivity) when populations breeding...

Seabirds, particularly Procellariiformes, are highly mobile organisms with a great capacity for long dispersal, though simultaneously showing high philopatry, two conflicting life-history traits that may lead to contrasted patterns of genetic population structure. Landmasses were suggested to explain differentiation patterns observed in seabirds, b...

Light‐level geolocators are popular bio‐logging tools, with advantageous sizes, longevity, and affordability. Biologists tracking seabirds often presume geolocator spatial accuracies between 186‐202 km from previously‐innovative, yet taxonomically, spatially, and computationally limited, studies. Using recently developed methods, we investigated wh...

Biological production in the oceanic zone (i.e. waters beyond the continental shelves) is typically spatially patchy and strongly seasonal. In response, seabirds have adapted to move rapidly within and between ocean basins, making them important pelagic consumers. Studies in the Pacific, Southern and Indian Oceans have shown that seabirds are relat...

Substitution rate variation among branches can lead to inaccurate reconstructions of evolutionary relationships and obscure the true phylogeny of affected clades. Body mass is often assumed to have a major influence on substitution rate, though other factors such as population size, life history traits, and flight demands are also thought to have a...

The conservation of migratory marine species, including pelagic seabirds, is challenging because their movements span vast distances frequently beyond national jurisdictions. Here, we aim to identify important aggregations of seabirds in the North Atlantic to inform ongoing regional conservation efforts. Using tracking, phenology, and population da...

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03473-8.

Costs of reproduction on survival have captured the attention of researchers since life history theory was formulated. Adults of long-lived species may increase survival by reducing their breeding effort or even skipping reproduction. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the costs of current reproduction on survival and whether skipping reproduction...

Migratory marine species cross political borders and enter the high seas, where the lack of an effective global management framework for biodiversity leaves them vulnerable to threats. Here, we combine 10,108 tracks from 5775 individual birds at 87 sites with data on breeding population sizes to estimate the relative year-round importance of nation...

Sexual segregation in foraging strategies has been little studied in marine species with slight Sexual Size Dimorphism (SSD), particularly regarding the role of environmental conditions and fishery activities. Sexual differences in fishery attendance are of particular concern because uneven mortality associated with bycatch may exacerbate impacts i...

The diversification of modern birds has been shaped by a number of radiations. Rapid diversification events make reconstructing the evolutionary relationships among taxa challenging due to the convoluted effects of incomplete lineage sorting (ILS) and introgression. Phylogenomic datasets have the potential to detect patterns of phylogenetic incongr...

Whole-genome sequencing projects are increasingly populating the tree of life and characterizing biodiversity1,2,3,4. Sparse taxon sampling has previously been proposed to confound phylogenetic inference5, and captures only a fraction of the genomic diversity. Here we report a substantial step towards the dense representation of avian phylogenetic...

Las actividades pesqueras y acuícolas representan uno de los mayores impactos antropogénicos sobre los ecosistemas marinos. En España, durante la pasada década, se creó una amplia Red de Áreas Marinas Protegidas (RAMPE) para minimizar dicho impacto; sin embargo, su eficacia todavía está por determinar. Aquí evaluamos el papel de la actual RAMPE en...

Campylobacter spp. and Salmonella spp. are the two most frequent zoonotic bacteria involved in human enteric infections in the European Union. Both enteropathogens have been isolated from a diversity of wild birds in Northern Europe, but there is limited information about gulls as potential reservoirs in Southern Europe. A broad sampling of fledgli...

Pelagic seabird populations have declined strongly worldwide. In the North Atlantic there was a huge reduction in seabird populations following the European colonization of the Azores, Madeira and Canary archipelagos but information on seabird status and distribution for the subtropical region of Cabo Verde is scarce, unavailable or dispersed in gr...

Seabirds inhabiting vast water masses provide numerous examples where opposing phenomena, such as natal and breeding philopatry vs. vagility have dug cryptic taxonomic boundaries among closely related taxa. The taxonomy of little shearwaters of the North Atlantic Ocean (Little–Audubon’s shearwater complex, Puffinus assimilis–lherminieri) still rema...

The identification of geographic areas where the densities of animals are highest across their annual cycles is a crucial step in conservation planning. In marine environments, however, it can be particularly difficult to map the distribution of species, and the methods used are usually biased towards adults, neglecting the distribution of other li...

Despite its importance for ecology and conservation, we are still far from understanding how environmental variability interacts with intrinsic factors and individual specialization to determine trophic strategies of long-lived taxa, mostly due to difficulties in studying the same animals over extended periods. Here, by yearly consistently sampling...

Food is a main limiting factor for most populations. As a consequence, knowledge about the diet of invasive alien species determines the design of control measures. The Monk and Rose-ringed parakeets are two typical species of successful invasive parrots that are highly appreciated by people. Although some observations suggest that Monk parakeets r...

To evaluate how avian influenza virus (AIV) circulates among the avifauna of the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands, we surveyed 14 species of birds from Marion, Livingston and Gough islands. A competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was carried out on the sera of 147 birds. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was us...

Stable isotope analyses (SIAs) have been widely used in recent years to infer the diet of many species. This isotopic approach requires using diet to tissue discrimination factors (DTDFs) for each prey type and predator tissue, i.e., to determine the difference between the isotopic composition of the predator tissues and the different prey that con...

Light-level geolocators are increasingly popular devices for tracking migratory birds. However, to ensure that data on migratory behaviour represent natural behaviour that is not affected by potentially harmful effects of carrying such a device, their effects on behaviour and fitness should be assessed. A review of studies that tested for effects o...

ABSTRACT: Insights into the year-round movements and behaviour of seabirds are essential to better understand their ecology and to evaluate possible threats at sea. The Atlantic petrel Pterodroma incerta is an Endangered gadfly petrel endemic to the South Atlantic Ocean, with virtually the entire population breeding on Gough Island (Tristan da Cun...

In the present publication we analyzed the migration and foraging ecology of Bulwer’s petrel (Bulweria bulwerii) in one locality at Canary Islands, based in the results obtained by the University of Barcelona in the framework of different research and conservation seabird projects. This monograph describes the foraging ecology and the year-round...

The distributions of migratory species in the ocean span local, national and international jurisdictions. Across these ecologically interconnected regions, migratory marine species interact with anthropogenic stressors throughout their lives. Migratory connectivity, the geographical linking of individuals and populations throughout their migratory...

Sexual segregation (SS) is widespread among animal taxa, with males and females segregated in distribution, behavior, or feeding ecology but so far, most studies on birds have focused on the breeding period. Outside this period, the relevance of segregation and the potential drivers of its persistence remain elusive, especially in the marine enviro...

Poster presented at the G10K-VGP/EBP 2019. Advancing the missions of the Vertebrate Genomes Project, Earth Biogenome Project, and other genome projects Tuesday - Friday, 27-30 August 2019 The Rockefeller University, Manhattan, NY, USA

Many generalist species are composed of individuals varying in the size of their realized niches within a population. To understand the underlying causes and implications of this phenomenon, repeated samplings on the same individuals subjected to different environmental conditions are needed. Here, we studied individual specialization of feeding st...

In this study, we evaluate the main factors driving the exposure of Southern Ocean seabirds to perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) across a wide geographic range. Five perfluoroalkane sulfonates (PFSAs, C4-12), 10 perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs, C4-13), and perfluorooctane sulfonamide (FOSA) were analyzed in plasma (n = 128) from eight specie...

Using geolocator-immersion loggers, we tracked for the first time the migration of one Cory’s Shearwater Calonectris borealis fledgling, from its breeding colony in the Canary Islands, and along its first year of life. The juvenile bird initially followed the same migratory path as the adults but visited different areas of the Central and the South...

Reporter: Justine Dossa (Alcyon project Manager, BirdLife International) Summary Report The seabirds session organised on issues of seabirds in West Africa by the Alcyon project (now runs by BirdLife International). In collaboration with Barcelona University and the AWA project, the seabirds session brought together around 15 participants, includi...

Non-breeding movement strategies of migratory birds may be expected to be flexibly adjusted to the distribution and quality of habitat, but few studies compare movement strategies among populations using distinct migration routes and wintering areas. In our study, individual movement strategies of red-necked phalaropes (Phalaropus lobatus), a long-...

Marine birds have been hypothesized to be underreported victims of harmful algal blooms (HABs). Toxic blooms of Pseudo-nitzschia spp., the primary amnesic toxin producer microalgae, domoic acid (DA) are known to cause massive mortalities of coastal seabirds and marine mammals around the world. However, these fatalities are only detected when birds...

Efficiently tracking and anticipating the dynamics of infectious agents in wild populations requires the gathering of large numbers of samples, if possible at several locations and points in time, which can be a challenge for some species. Testing for the presence of specific maternal antibodies in egg yolks sampled on the colonies could represent...

Bird migration studies have been given added impetus recently thanks to the minia-turisation of tracking devices. However, tracking methodologies have remained impractical for the smallest pelagic species and so important gaps in knowledge still exist. In the case of the European Storm-petrel Hydrobates pelagicus, while Atlantic populations are tho...

Studying the feeding ecology of seabirds is important not only to understand basic aspects of their ecology and threats but also for the conservation of marine ecosystems. In this regard, tropical seabirds have been relatively neglected, and in particular the trophic ecology of tropicbirds is scarcely known. We combined GPS tracking, environmental...

In predator populations, changes in foraging behaviour in response to spatio-temporal variability of prey are expected. Prey depletion might cause trophic niche widening in generalist species, but not in specialists, which are expected to increase their foraging effort without diet shifts. In sympatric species feeding on similar resources, reduced...

The breeding phenology and nest site distribution of Red-billed Tropicbirds (Phaethon aethereus) was monitored from 6 June 2014 to 18 May 2016 on Parc National des Iles de la Madeleine, Senegal. During this period, this study site was visited every 15 days to record active nests and their contents (eggs or chicks). We found up to 76 nest sites but...

Reports of enteric bacteria in Antarctic wildlife have suggested its spread from people to seabirds and seals, but evidence is scarce and fragmentary. We investigated the occurrence of zoonotic enteric bacteria in seabirds across the Antarctic and subantarctic region; for comparison purposes, in addition to seabirds, poultry in a subantarctic islan...

Knowing the spatial scales at which effective management can be implemented is fundamental for conservation planning. This is especially important for mobile species, which can be exposed to threats across large areas, but the space use requirements of different species can vary to an extent that might render some management approaches inefficient....

Knowing the spatial scales at which effective management can be implemented is fundamental for conservation planning. This is especially important for mobile species, which can be exposed to threats across large areas, but the space use requirements of different species can vary to an extent that might render some management approaches inefficient....

Foraging distributions of colonial central place foragers are shaped not only by environmental factors but also by population parameters: larger colonies will deplete resources around the colony and will therefore have larger foraging areas, but parapatric competition will often cause spatial segregation, leading to little overlap among foraging ar...

Feather mites are useful models for studying speciation due to their high diversity and strong degree of host specialization. However, studies to date have focused on the evolution of higher-level mite taxa while much hidden diversity likely occurs at the level of host genera and species. In this study, we examined the diversity and evolution of fe...

Life history theory states that individual fitness in one stage of life is conditioned by what occurred in previous stages. In migratory species, reproductive effort during breeding has often been found to influence body condition, molt schedule, self‐provisioning and migration of individuals in subsequent seasons (i.e., carryover effects of breedi...

Studying the movements of oceanic migrants has been elusive until the advent of several tracking devices, such as the light-level geolocators. Stable isotope analysis (SIA) offers a complementary approach to infer areas used year-round, but its suitability in oceanic environments remains almost unexplored. To evaluate SIA as a tool for inferring mo...

Total number of GLS loggers deployed and recovered by colony, and number of GLS loggers included in the present study. Only GLS loggers with data for the last non-breeding period before recovering were included in this study, in order to relate the non-breeding areas with the feathers moulted during the non-breeding period and sampled at GLS logger...

Biplots of δ15N and δ13C values for P1 (a), S8 (b) and R6 (c) feathers sampled from tracked individuals of Bulwer’s petrel. In each plot, we show isotopic values and Standard Bayesian Ellipses by non-breeding areas (depicted in triangles and discontinuous contours for birds wintering in the Central Atlantic, and in circles and continuous contours f...

Accepted values of the standard material used in the stable isotopic analysis performed in this study, mean measured (±standard deviation) in the samples of standards materials used, minimum and maximum values for all runs, and number of samples (n). (DOCX)

Boxplots of δ15N (a) and δ13C (b) values for the 1st (P1), 3rd (P3), 5th (P5), 7th (P7) and 10th (P10) primary feathers, the 1st (S1), 12th (S12) and 8th (S8) secondary feathers of Bulwer’s petrels found dead at each colony: Vila (in blue, n = 8), M. Clara (green, n = 8), Raso (orange, n = 9) and Cima (red, n = 4). The 6th rectrix (R6) of corpses a...