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Introduction
Skills and Expertise
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January 2001 - July 2017
Publications
Publications (125)
Understanding predator-prey interactions is important to determine the inter-relationships between species. Optimal foraging theory states that predators balance out energy expended with the energy gained from their prey. In the Iberian Peninsula, the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is a key prey species for endangered Bonelli’s eagle (Aqui...
Small mammal populations fluctuate significantly in abundance over time, affecting the entire food web. However, changes in their occupancy across a landscape receive less attention. While habitat features are relevant for some predators, diet specialization and prey distribution and abundance might play an important role in shaping predator popula...
The recognition of individual variation has fundamental implications for ecological, evolutionary and biodiversity conservation. There is increasing theoretical interest in how spatial and temporal variation in the environment can create differences in the demographic contribution of individuals over space and time. However, empirical information a...
Mammal species globally exhibit distribution patterns conditioned by environmental conditions and human impact. The Mediterranean basin provides an ideal system to study these effects due to its diverse climate, and habitat conditions. In this work, we aim to assess the impact of landscape heterogeneity and anthropization degree on terrestrial mamm...
Modern humans widely shaped present ecosystems through intentional and unintentional geographical redistribution of wildlife, both in historical and pre‐historical times. However, the patterns of ancient human‐mediated indirect changes in wildlife range are largely unknown, and the mechanisms behind them remain obscure.
We used a multidisciplinary...
Human-induced direct mortality affects huge numbers of birds each year, threatening hundreds of species worldwide. Tracking technologies can be an important tool to investigate temporal and spatial patterns of bird mortality as well as their drivers. We compiled 1704 mortality records from tracking studies across the African-Eurasian flyway for 45...
Population viability analysis (PVA) is a central tool for conservation decision-making. To ensure the reliability of PVA projections, it is important to identify factors that can introduce biases. This study addresses two general but overlooked related issues in PVAs that can significantly affect the reliability of their projections. First, we exam...
Food availability shapes demographic parameters and population dynamics. Certain
species have adapted to predictable anthropogenic food resources like landfills. However, abrupt shifts in food availability can negatively impact such populations.
While changes in survival are expected, the age-related effects remain poorly understood, particularly...
Seed production and survival are critical steps in the life cycle of plants, and could become bottlenecks for plant regeneration in case of failure. During regeneration many factors, both abiotic and biotic, intervene and interact with each other. After dispersal, environmental variation affects the success of the plant population, so seedling recr...
Conservation science aims to identify the factors influencing the distribution of threatened species, thereby permitting the implementation of effective management strategies. This is key for long-lived species that require long-term monitoring such as the worldwide endangered Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus). We studied temporal and spatia...
Robust and reliable estimates of demographic parameters are essential to understand population dynamics. Natal dispersal is a common process in monitored populations and can cause underestimations of survival and dispersal due to permanent emigration. Here, we present a multistate Bayesian capture-mark-recapture approach based on a joint estimation...
Background
Changes in human-induced resource availability can alter the behaviour of free-living species and affect their foraging strategies. The future European Landfill Waste Directive and Circular Economy Action Plan will reduce the number of predictable anthropogenic food subsidies (PAFS), above all, by closing landfills to preclude negative e...
Aquest document correspon a la memòria 2022 del Centre de Monitoratge de la Biodiversitat de Muntanyes Mediterrànies (CMBMM) entre la Diputació de Barcelona i la Universitat de Barcelona. Per a la qual es presenten les tasques realitzades per l’EBC-UB durant l’any 2022, els seus resultats del treball de camp i la seva interpretació a la Xarxa de Pa...
Los buitres son uno de los grupos de aves más amenazados a nivel mundial. Las poblaciones de buitres europeos se benefician de varias fuentes de alimentos antropogénicos como los vertederos. Las directivas de la Unión Europea tienen como objetivo disminuir la cantidad de materia orgánica en vertederos, reduciendo esta importante fuente de alimento....
Salvage logging treatments, a type of logging to economic returns after natural disturbance, are often applied in the aftermath of wildfires. Specialist or dependent species of open-habitat usually increase their populations in the short-term after wildfires and post-fire salvage logging. However, the long-term effects on threatened open-habitat sp...
Globally, vultures are one of the most threatened of all groups of birds. European vulture populations are benefited by several anthropogenic food sources such as landfills. Current European Union directives aim to decrease the amount of organic matter dumped in landfills, reducing this important food source for some vulture species. In this contex...
An unexpected human-wildlife conflict between vultures and livestock has emerged in Europe during the last two decades. Farmers attributed changes in vulture behavior, due to food shortages caused by sanitary regulations, to increasing livestock interactions ('vulture attacks'). To disentangle this conflict, we analyzed 683 farmer complaints betwee...
The selection of the many biological indicators described in scientific literature is rarely based on systematic or clear-cut processes, and often takes into account only a single or very few taxa, or even disregards the complex interactions that exist between the components of biodiversity. In certain cases, the particular context of a site–for ex...
Morphometric methods of sex differentiation may be cheap, simple, quick, and reliable alternatives to molecular approaches. However, there are still important uncertainties regarding the use of morphometric methods in birds, particularly regarding their applicability to different populations and environmental conditions. Between 2004 and 2019, we s...
Reintroductions are becoming a popular tool to prevent extinctions, although their overall success rate is low. Assessing the efficiency and cost‐effectiveness of different reintroduction strategies may help identify and promote efficient practices. Captive‐breeding is widely used in animal reintroductions, although concerns have been raised about...
Forestry practices based on fire prevention and biomass acquisition for energetic purposes may have negative effects on biodiversity. To ensure that forest management is compatible with biodiversity conservation, the identification and use of surrogate species such as forest-dwelling raptors is known to be effective. In this study, we analyse nest...
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a global priority. To meet this goal, the Spanish government is planning 89 GW of wind and solar photovoltaic energy in the draft of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) for 2021–2030 (1). Despite the Spanish government's efforts to prevent a speculative bubble in the secondary market, there a...
Understanding the environmental drivers of demographic processes is a prerequisite for providing the evidence-based conservation guidance and management actions required to address management goals at population level. Human activities, to which most species are not adapted, are having an ever-increasing impact on the environment. Most policies and...
Non-natural mortality is a major threat to animal conservation worldwide. Its origins are extremely diverse and include infrastructures that cause animal casualties. Its effects are widely felt and so prioritization criteria are necessary when implementing mitigation actions. Most of the threats causing non-natural mortality have in common the fact...
We monitor pollutant accumulation and investigate associated changes at the physiological level within the population of an obligate avian scavenger, the Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus), from Catalonia (NE Spain). This population is expanding its range, presumably because of the use of human waste disposal sites as food resource. We hypoth...
En present document hi trobem tot allò referent a les metodologies, les escales de seguiment i els protocols de seguiment específics dels indicadors de la biodiversitat. Cal destacar que aquests són les metodologies i protocols a data de 15 de març i, per tant, poden estar sotmesos a canvis donat que alguns encara no s'han implementat i/o que un co...
Farmland birds have suffered notable declines in Europe in recent decades, mainly due to agricultural intensification and climate change. Organic farming, which has been shown to enhance biodiversity, is increasingly being put into practice in European vineyards. Nevertheless, no previous studies have reported significant positive responses in avia...
The pilot Biodiversity Monitoring Centre of Mediterranean Mountains was set up in Sant Llorenç del Munt Nature Park by Barcelona Provincial Council and the University of Barcelona in 2016. Its purpose is to foster long-term biodiversity monitoring using species, habitat and ecological process indicators against a backdrop of local and global change...
Some domestic waste disposal sites (DWDS) accumulate enormous amounts of food that humans discard. This food resource is exploited by different species whose population dynamics have as a result been altered. The effects of feeding on human waste on individual health parameters such as body condition are still unknown. Traditionally, body condition...
Natal or prebreeding dispersal is a key driver of the functioning, dynamics, and evolution of populations. Conditions experienced by individuals during development, that is, rearing conditions, may have serious consequences for the multiple components that shape natal dispersal processes. Rearing conditions vary as a result of differences in parent...
Human activities cause changes to occur in the environment that affect resource availability for wildlife. The increase in the human population of cities has led to a rise in the amount of waste deposited in landfills, installations that have become a new food resource for both pest and threatened species such as vultures. In this study we used sta...
Percentage of the contribution of livestock in the diet of Egyptian Vulture nestlings estimated with Bayesian mixing models (SIMMR).
Data of each territorial pair but different year is represented with the same number.
(TIF)
Mean ± SD ‰ values of δ13C and δ15N obtained for the Egyptian Vulture nestlings included in Bayesian mixing models.
It is specified the number of territory and the number of years that each territory was sampled (n).
(DOCX)
Contribution of different food components to the diet of Egyptian Vulture nestlings obtained with conventional diet analysis.
(DOCX)
Les àrees d’implementació al Parc Natural de Sant Llorenç del Munt i serra de l’Obac. El Centre de Monitoratge de la Biodiversitat en Muntanyes Mediterrànies
In 2016, the Pilot Centre for the Monitoring of the Biodiversity of Mediterranean Mountains was created in the Natural Park of Sant Llorenç del Munt, promoted by the Diputació de Barcelona and the University of Barcelona. The objective is the promotion of long-term monitoring of biodiversity through indicators of species, habitats and ecological pr...
Human activities provide food resources for animals that are predictable in space and/or time. These resources, sometimes referred to as predictable anthropogenic food subsidies (PAFS), can be either the result of human-generated waste or provided intentionally, sometimes as a conservation measure. Some PAFS, including landfills, are used by common...
Species ranges often change in relation to multiple environmental and demographic factors. Innovative behaviours may affect these changes by facilitating the use of novel habitats, though this idea has been little explored. Here we investigate the importance of behaviour during range change, using a 25-year population expansion of Bonelli’s eagle i...
Animal body condition refers to the health and physiological state of individuals, and multiple parameters have been proposed to quantify this key concept. Food intake is one of the main determinants of individual body condition and much debate has been generated on how diet relates to body condition. We investigated this relationship in free-livin...
Identifying the priority habitats of endangered species is crucial to implementing effective conservation actions. We characterise the key habitats used by Bonelli's Eagle Aquila fasciata, an umbrella and flagship species that is endangered in Mediterranean countries. We radio-tracked 17 breeding individuals (10 males and 7 females) in Catalonia (N...
1. Mortality caused by power lines is a conservation problem for many vulnerable bird species. Many large species are especially threatened by electrocution as they frequently perch on pylons leading to electrocution that typically causes death. Electrocution mitigation measures have been implemented to protect several species; however, a resulting...
Detailed faunistic study of Collserola natural parc in 1986. Write in catalan
Understanding the mechanisms that shape animal population dynamics is of fundamental interest in ecology, evolution and conservation biology. Food supply is an important limiting factor in most animal populations and may have demographic consequences. Optimal foraging theory predicts greater consumption of preferred prey and less diet diversity whe...
The Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus is a threatened species throughout its worldwide range. The Iberian Peninsula holds 50% of its global population, which has declined by 25% over the last 20 years. Despite this negative global trend, an increase in the number of individuals over the last 25 years has been observed in Catalonia, where it ha...
Inter-individual diet variation within populations is likely to have important ecological and evolutionary implications. The diet-fitness relationships at the individual level and the emerging population processes are, however, poorly understood for most avian predators inhabiting complex terrestrial ecosystems. In this study, we use an isotopic ap...
Diet analyses are central to the study of avian trophic ecology, and stable isotope analyses have made an increasing contribution in the last two decades. Few isotopic studies have assessed the diet of raptor species, which are more frequently analysed by conventional diet methods such as pellet analysis. In this study, we compare prey consumption...
Population viability analysis (PVA) has become a basic tool of current conservation practice. However, if not accounted for properly, the uncertainties inherent to PVA predictions can decrease the reliability of this type of analysis. In the present study, we performed a PVA of the whole western European population (France, Portugal and Spain) of t...
Beech forests. Habitats Management Handbooks.
In the framework of a cooperation agreement between the "Diputació de Barcelona" and the "Obra Social de la Caixa" has been carried out the preparation of a management of forest habitats handbooks . The manuals compile information about numerous aspects that affect the current status and dynamics of hab...
Pinus pinea forests. Habitats Management Handbooks.
In the framework of a cooperation agreement between the "Diputació de Barcelona" and the "Obra Social de la Caixa" has been carried out the preparation of the management of forest habitats handbooks. The manuals compile information about numerous aspects that affect the current status and dynamics...
Population viability analysis (PVA) has become a basic tool of current conservation practice. However, if not accounted for properly, the uncertainties inherent to PVA predictions can decrease the reliability of this type of analysis. In the present study, we performed a PVA of the whole western European population (France, Portugal and Spain) of t...
1. A long-standing question in ecology is how natural populations respond to a changing environment. Emergent optimal foraging theory-based models for individual variation go beyond the population level and predict how its individuals would respond to disturbances that produce changes in resource availability.
2. Evaluating variations in resource u...
Pinus uncinata forests. Habitats Management Handbooks.
In the framework of a cooperation agreement between the "Diputació de Barcelona" and the "Obra Social de la Caixa" has been carried out the preparation of the management of forest habitats handbooks. The manuals compile information about numerous aspects that affect the current status and dynam...
Bonelli's Eagle (Aquila fasciata) is one of the most endangered raptor species in Europe due to high adult and subadult mortality rates, habitat loss, and a decrease in populations of its most important prey, European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and Red-legged Partridges (Alectoris rufa). During the breeding season of 2008, we studied the diet...
Scots pine forests. Habitats Management Handbooks.
In the framework of a cooperation agreement between the "Diputació de Barcelona" and the "Obra Social de la Caixa" has been carried out the preparation of the management of forest habitats handbooks. The manuals compile information about numerous aspects that affect the current status and dynamics...
Survival typically contributes most to population trends in long-lived birds and its accurate estimation is therefore vital for population management and conservation. We evaluated the effects of age, territoriality and reproduction on survival in Bonelli’s Eagle Aquila fasciata through multistate capture-mark-recapture analyses on a long-term data...
Survival is a key life-history trait in animals. However, most methods of survival estimation require substantial human and economic investment in the long term, particularly in species occurring in low densities, the case of most endangered species. An alternative to traditional recapture (CR) methods is estimation of adult survival based indirect...