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212
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Introduction
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May 2010 - present
September 2005 - September 2008
Publications
Publications (212)
Dead stranded sea turtles were recovered and examined to determine the impact of anthropogenic debris and fishery activities on sea turtles on the coast of Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. Esophagus/stomach contents of 38 juvenile green Chelonia mydas, 10 adults and sub-adults loggerhead Caretta caretta, and two leatherback Dermochelys coriacea tur...
Seabird species within a community are expected to have distinct trophic niches according to foraging methods and body size, but some seabirds exploit fishery waste which can be quite distinct from natural foods. Even in the presence of fishery discards we hypothesize that a pelagic seabird community is structured according to body size, feeding me...
Skewed adult sex ratio (ASR) has been proposed as a common pattern in birds, frequently biased towards males and with larger
biases in globally threatened species. In albatrosses and petrels, it has been suggested that differential mortality of one
gender in fisheries is caused either by sexual size dimorphism giving males a competitive advantage,...
Satellite transmitters were used to determine the marine habitat utilization and fishery overlap of wintering spectacled petrels Procellaria conspicillata in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean in 2006 and 2007. Kernel density analysis of tracked birds demonstrated intense use of waters in the Brazilian Exclusive Economic Zone, from 26 to 31 degrees S,...
Organisms tend to exhibit phenotypes that can be shaped by climate, commonly demonstrating clinal variations along latitudinal gradients. In vertebrates, air temperature plays a major role in shaping body size in both ectothermic and endothermic animals. However, additional small-scale environmental factors can also act as selection pressures in th...
Dispersal patterns of zoonotic pathogens can be strongly influenced by mobility and contact among hosts. Toxoplasma gondii infection has been documented in many avian species, however, there is little information regarding free-living seabird populations. Leptospira can infect domestic and wild animals, with birds being potential carriers of the ba...
Aim
Environmental features can act as selection pressures and barriers to gene flow between populations. The genetic structuring of highly mobile but philopatric seabirds creates a paradox, and the role of oceanographic and geographic variables is still poorly understood. In this study, we investigate the influence of environmental and geographic v...
Anthropogenic pollution poses a threat to marine conservation by causing chronic toxic effects. Seabirds have contact throughout their lives with pollutants like plastic, metals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and organochlorine pesticides such as hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs). We assessed 155 Manx shearwaters (Puffinus puffinus) stranded along...
Genotype and phenotype in mobile organisms can be defined by various factors such as environmental, biological and geographical. Brown noddies Anous stolidus are pan-tropical seabirds breeding at different times, with migratory and resident populations in six islands throughout 20° of latitude in the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean. If environmental he...
Population abundance and trend estimates are crucial to science, management, and conservation. Shorebirds, which are abundant in many coastal habitats and play important roles in coastal ecosystems, are facing some of the most dramatic population declines of any group of birds globally. However, accurate and up-to-date population estimates are lack...
Knowledge about biodiversity changes during transitions from glacial landscape to lake formation is limited to contemporary studies. Here, we combined analyses of lithology, chronology and geochemistry with sedimentary ancient DNA metabarcoding to assess such transition in maritime Antarctica. We inferred three paleoenvironmental stages covering th...
Monitoring of contaminant levels in wildlife over time is a tool for assessing the presence and persistence of environmental impacts at ecosystem, community and population levels. Tropical seabirds breeding in the Abrolhos Archipelago, 70 km off the Brazilian coast, forage in areas under the influence of the Doce River discharge. In 2015, the Fundã...
Dispersal patterns of zoonotic pathogens can be strongly influenced by mobility and contact among hosts. Toxoplasmosis has been documented in many avian species, however, there is few information regarding free-living seabird populations. Leptospira can infect domestic and wild animals, with birds being potential carriers of the bacteria. The conti...
Genotype and phenotype in mobile organisms can be defined by various factors such as environmental, biological and geographical. Brown noddies Anous stolidus are pan-tropical seabirds breeding at different times, with migratory and resident populations in six islands throughout 20° of latitude in the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean. If environmental he...
Stable isotope analysis is an approach that allows inferring feeding ecology and trophic structure of populations, especially for species that are difficult to observe in natural habitats, such as marine turtles. This study investigated the niche breadth of adult and juvenile green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) through δ ¹⁵N and δ ¹³C values in cara...
Plastic pollution is distributed patchily around the world’s oceans. Likewise, marine organisms that are vulnerable to plastic ingestion or entanglement have uneven distributions. Understanding where wildlife encounters plastic is crucial for targeting research and mitigation. Oceanic seabirds, particularly petrels, frequently ingest plastic, are h...
Parasitic nasal mites have been surveyed in a range of vertebrate hosts, but only two species of Rhinonyssidae have been described from procellariiform seabirds. We here describe Rhinonyssus nenecoi sp. nov., from Cape petrels, Daption capense (Procellariidae), collected in Rio Grande do Sul State, southern Brazil. The new species is morphologicall...
Spatiotemporal variations in food availability represent a challenge to the persistence of specialist species. The American oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus) is a shorebird regarded as a bivalve specialist, although foraging habitats and prey species may vary along its distribution. Here, we studied American oystercatcher breeding in sites with...
Information about population sizes, trends, and habitat use is key for species conservation and management. The Buff-breasted Sandpiper Calidris subruficollis (BBSA) is a long-distance migratory shorebird that breeds in the Arctic and migrates to south-eastern South America, wintering in the grasslands of southern Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. Mo...
Birds are excellent vectors of allochthonous matter and energy due to their high mobility, with more intense flow when waterbirds congregate in breeding colonies, feeding in surrounding aquatic and terrestrial areas, and promoting nutritional pulses to nutrient-poor environments. In southern Brazil, a swamp forest on an estuarine island is used by...
Microplastics (1-5mm) and macroplastics were detected in the esophagus-proventriculus-ventriculus of 11% of the seabirds analyzed in our study. 55% were males and all were juveniles.-Best-fitting generalized additive models (GAM) found associations between the transcript levels of AhR and UGT1 genes responding to bird age class, sex, mass, and plas...
Olive ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) can use a vast number of different habitats and food sources throughout their life cycle. This species is one such organism that changes both the environment and diet during different life stages. Based on stable isotope analysis (δ 13 C and δ 15 N) of the components of fresh eggs (yolk, albumen, and...
Information about migratory strategies and routes is central to avian ecology and conservation, but frequently lacking for Austral breeding species. Terrestrial Austral migrants wintering in southern Brazil are largely thought to breed in Patagonia and migrate to the region in late winter/spring. Here, we present satellite tracking data from 3 adul...
The Santos Basin in eastern Brazil is adjacent to the largest human populations in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean, with several potential threats to marine vertebrates. In this study, we provided a systematic bibliographic review and integrated unpublished primary datasets to provide an overview on species, research topics and gaps, and threats to...
As aves marinhas compõem 3,5% das aves existentes, com adaptações altamente especializadas para a vida nos oceanos. Aproximadamente um terço dessas espécies ocorre no Brasil, devido à vasta extensão de costa, com 7000 km ao longo de 40° de latitude, além de ilhas costeiras e oceânicas. Apesar de sua longa e peculiar história evolutiva, as aves mari...
A major barrier to advancing ornithology is the systemic exclusion of professionals from the Global South. A recent special feature, Advances in Neotropical Ornithology, and a shortfalls analysis therein, unintentionally followed a long-standing pattern of highlighting individuals, knowledge, and views from the Global North, while largely omitting...
Global-scope scientific journals have played an important role in upholding a colonial legacy of north-south inequities in ornithology, and they now have a key role to play in increasing equity in scientific publishing. We explore common barriers faced by ornithologists in the Neotropics (Latin America and the Caribbean) and suggest priority action...
Seed dispersal by vertebrates is fundamental for the persistence of plant species, forming networks of interactions that are often nested and modular. Networks involving angiosperms and frugivorous birds are relatively well‐studied in the Neotropical region, but there are no previous studies of networks involving waterbirds. Here, we describe the s...
The diet of widely distributed species is influenced by the availability of food resources, which can vary according to local conditions. Thus, heterogeneity in diet patterns can help understand population structure and illustrate biogeographic boundaries. In this study, published and unpublished datasets of regurgitated material and stable isotope...
During ontogenetic development, several types of marine vertebrates commonly switch their habitats and resources used. Stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen in bone collagen in lines of arrested growth in humeri of adult olive ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) were analysed to detect habitat use and dietary shifts over time. Adult turtles...
Plastic pollution is an increasing global problem, especially in aquatic environments. From invertebrates to vertebrates, many aquatic species have been affected by plastic pollution worldwide. Waterbirds also interact with plastics, mainly by ingesting them or using them as nest material. Brazil has one of the largest aquatic environment areas, in...
Invasive predators on islands impact organisms they consume and lead to cascading effects that disrupt ecosystem functioning. Black rats (Rattus rattus) are a prevalent threat on tropical islands. Here, we used stable isotopes to reveal patterns in the foraging ecology of black rats (n = 43) on two tropical islands in the Abrolhos archipelago, sout...
The increasing number of offshore wind farms (OWFs) proposed off the Brazilian coast is a biodiversity management challenge that needs to be addressed with strategic and targeted environmental impact assessments. The effects of OWFs on birds are much better studied in the northern than southern hemisphere. Knowledge of species distributions is key...
Allochthonous resource fluxes mediated by organisms crossing ecosystem boundaries may be essential for supporting the structure and function of resource‐limited environments, such as tropical islands and surrounding coral reefs. However, invasive species, such as black rats, thrive on tropical islands and disrupt the natural pathways of nutrient su...
Aim: Urbanization leads to rapid changes in ecosystem structure and function. Wetlands on university campuses under urbanization pressure could be used as case studies of multidisciplinary aquatic research and good environmental practices promoting sustainability. Methods: A paleolimnological study was undertaken in a semi-artificial lake on a univ...
Highly mobile organisms can transport nutrients and energy among distinct ecosystems, such as between oceanic foraging areas and terrestrial breeding sites. Seabirds are great nutrient carriers and potentially play a key role in the maintenance of trophic webs on islands. In this study, we assessed three dimensions of marine nutrient dissipation—ho...
A major barrier to advancing ornithology is the systemic exclusion of professionals from the Global South. A recent special dossier, Advances in Neotropical Ornithology, and a shortfalls analysis therein, unintentionally followed a long-standing pattern of highlighting individuals, knowledge, and views from the Global North, while largely omitting...
Due to their high mobility, large vertebrates are efficient carriers of allochthonous matter and energy. Waterbirds congregate in breeding colonies, while feed in surrounding aquatic and terrestrial areas, promoting nutritional pulses to nutrient-poor environments. In southern Brazil, a swamp forest on an estuarine island is used by waterbirds for...
Moult is an energetically demanding period, during which flight may be impaired and foraging ranges may become constrained. During the non‐breeding period, Great Ardenna gravis and Sooty A. grisea Shearwaters migrate from South Atlantic breeding colonies to aggregate at North Atlantic feeding grounds. We investigated whether both shearwater species...
Food availability and oceanographic conditions drive the distribution and movement of marine vertebrates. Tracking efforts towards seabirds usually focus on their breeding period, tagging adults in colonies. In this study, we tracked four juvenile and one adult Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) with satellite transmitters. These individu...
Human-induced rapid environmental changes can disrupt habitat quality in the short term. A decrease in quality of habitats associated with preference for these over other available higher quality is referred as ecological trap. In 2015, the Fundão dam containing iron mining tailings, eastern Brazil, collapsed and released about 50 million cubic met...
Urbanization is a major form of landscape transformation that often results in habitat degradation and loss for birds. However, effects on avian populations are trait- and context-dependent, and persistence at urban patches is likely to be a function of habitat availability at the landscape scale. Here, we aimed to assess the breeding performance a...
Nasal mites of the family Rhinonyssidae are parasites living in the respiratory system of birds. To date there were no record of these mites from representatives of the order Procellariiformes, a numerous grouping of exclusively marine birds that includes albatrosses, petrels, storm-petrels and shearwaters. The paper describes two new species of th...
Limited work to date has examined plastic ingestion in highly migratory seabirds like Great Shearwaters (Ardenna gravis) across their entire migratory range. We examined 217 Great Shearwaters obtained from 2008–2019 at multiple locations spanning their yearly migration cycle across the Northwest and South Atlantic to assess accumulation of ingested...
The Pterodroma feae complex comprises three cryptically looking gadfly petrels (Cape Verde Pterodroma feae, Desertas Pterodroma deserta, and Zino’s Pterodroma madeira), once regarded as a single species, the Fea’s Petrel, P. feae. Recent research using geolocators to track and understand their movements away from breeding grounds demonstrated that...
Great-winged Petrel Pterodroma macroptera is currently considered
uncommon in the south-west Atlantic Ocean. However, via a compilation of all recent records available, we found evidence of a regular, wider distribution from breeding colonies in Tristan da Cunha and Gough towards South America. We review these records, report a new beach stranding...
Individual variability within a population and the eventual repeatability across time and space may provide stability in a population facing environmental changes, by affecting individuals differently. Thus, the variability and repeatability of behaviours, habitats used, niches and migratory pathways could play an important role. Trindade petrels (...
Considerable progress in our understanding of long-distance migration has been achieved thanks to the use of small geolocator
devices (GLS). The tracking of resident or short-distance migrant animals remains however challenging because geolocation errors are substantial and difficult to estimate. This study aims to examine the sex-specific marine s...
Green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) switch habitats during their development, moving from pelagic to neritic areas and then commuting between nesting and foraging grounds during adulthood. Due to their predominantly coastal habitats, they are under a range of anthropogenic threats. We monitored turtles incidentally captured in fishing weirs in Ceará...
South America is home to the highest diversity of birds on the planet, yet we still understand relatively little about their seasonal movements, or even which species are migratory. During two consecutive years, we used satellite transmitters to study the movement ecology of 10 individual Snail Kites (Rostrhamus sociabilis) captured in southern Bra...
en The central-peripheral hypothesis states that the demographic performance of a species decreases from the centre to the edge of its range. Peripheral populations are often smaller and tend to occur under different and suboptimal conditions from those of core populations. Peripheral populations can also coexist during part of their annual cycle w...
The use of areas by native and non-native herbivores in sympatry has frequently led to conflicts between farmers and native animals. Dietary studies integrating methodologies usually provide a better quantified understanding of resource sharing and dietary overlap. This study aims to evaluate diet and niche overlap among three species that occur in...
Background Considerable progress in our understanding of long-distance migration has been achieved thanks to the use of small lightweight geolocator devices. Such global location sensors (GLS) are particularly suitable for studying non-breeding movement and behaviour due to their small size and low energy consumption allowing multiyear deployment....
Considerable progress in our understanding of long-distance migration has been achieved thanks to the use of small lightweight geolocator devices (GLS). Errors of geolocation are however important, difficult to estimate, have a complex structure leading to poor precision and accuracy. Thus, the study of short-distance migrants or resident birds rem...
Vertebrates introduced in non-native habitats have contributed to several extinctions in the modern era, with direct effects mainly over birds, mammals and reptiles on islands. Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, in tropical Atlantic Ocean, is a World Heritage natural site, holding the most diverse breeding seabird community off Brazil, in addition to...
Large Procellariiformes (albatrosses and petrels) constitute a highly threatened group of birds, for which bycatch in fisheries is the most prevalent threat. At-sea intentional killing and post-capture, handling-related injuries, remain poorly understood menaces. Here, we report fishermen off southern Brazil trying to reduce bait depredation in pol...
As top predators in marine environments, seabirds frequently respond to the presence of their main prey, and both predators and prey are usually associated with specific environmental features. We investigated the variability in the presence and density of flying seabirds (mostly Procellariiformes and Charadriiformes) and Magellanic penguins Spheni...
Investigations of the genetic structure of populations over the entire range of a species yield valuable information about connectivity among populations. Seabirds are an intriguing taxon in this regard because they move extensively when not breeding, facilitating intermixing of populations, but breed consistently on the same isolated islands, rest...