María Victoria Jiménez-Franco

Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche | UMH · Department of Applied Biology

Understanding the effect of landscape configuration on the bird species richness and their functional traits (dietary preferences) is important to link the conservation and restoration plans to the production of the crops. Our aims were: 1) to study the influence of forest types (native, mixed and plantations) on the bird species richness in two ag...

Context Land-use change is one of the main threats to biodiversity on the global scale. Legacy effects of historical land-use changes may affect population dynamics of long-lived species, but they are difficult to evaluate through observational studies alone. We present here an interdisciplinary modelling approach as an alternative to address this...

Natural habitats are being altered and destroyed worldwide due to urbanization, leading to a decrease in species abundance and richness. Nevertheless, some species, including tawny owls, have successfully colonized this novel habitat. Consequences at the population level have not been described; thus, our main objective was to describe the effects...

Chelonians are among the most threatened animal groups because due to life history strategy, they are extremely vulnerable to human pressure. At the ""Mediterranean workshop to develop tortoise conservation strategies"" scientists, conservation associations, environmental managers, IUCN advisers and CITES inspectors met in 2019 in Spain. The aims w...

Ponds are among the world’s most endangered freshwater ecosystems. A comprehensive knowledge of pond biodiversity is urgently required to inform effective pond management and conservation actions. Most studies about pond biodiversity focus on aquatic taxa, while the terrestrial biodiversity, especially of birds, has been little studied. Moreover, t...

Chelonians are among the animal groups with the poorest conservation status. Since tortoises are long‐lived species that need very long time to reach sexual maturity, they are extremely vulnerable to human pressure. Despite their endangered status, there are no common strategies for the devel opment of conservation actions. At the “Mediterranean wo...

Aim Our specific objectives were to (a) estimate detection probabilities of nocturnal bird species, after taking into account survey‐specific covariates, and (b) investigate the influence of site‐specific covariates on owl and nightjar abundance, integrating effects of imperfect detection. Innovation We conceived a survey protocol to estimate prob...

We provide census data on a non-invasive long-term (18 years, 1998-2015) monitoring programme of a booted eagle (Hieraaetus pennatus) population in a Mediterranean forested area located in the Natura 2000 Special Protection Area “Sierras de Burete, Lavia y Cambrón”, south-eastern Spain. The dataset includes information about nest and territorial oc...

We provide field monitoring data of a territorial raptor (the booted eagle, Hieraaetus pennatus), that was intensively monitored over a period of 18 years (1998–2015) in a Mediterranean forested area of south-eastern Spain designated as a Special Protection Area (Natura 2000 Network) for this species. The data set compiles all the relevant informat...

Sexual selection and non-random mating are considered, among others, determinant mechanisms for the maintenance of genetic colour polymorphism in some bird species. We analyse the mechanisms, which, in parallel with Mendelian inheritance, may be acting in the maintenance and evolution of the morph ratio in a two-morph raptor species, using observat...

Abstract Mate searching is a key component of sexual reproduction that can have important implications for population viability, especially for the mate‐finding Allee effect. Interannual sperm storage by females may be an adaptation that potentially attenuates mate limitation, but the demographic consequences of this functional trait have not been...

En el presente trabajo se presentan los resultados preliminares del seguimiento ornitológico integrado en el proyecto Life Ripisilvanatura. Para ello se ha realizado una primera comparación de los resultados obtenidos hasta la fecha, con el fin de evaluar en qué medida el método de censo activo directo mediante transectos lineales y el de trampeo p...

1. Semi-arid and arid landscapes (dry-lands) cover 41% of the Earth’s land surface over five continents. These areas are home to 55% of mammal species. Bats have the second highest species richness among mammals, and, although many species are adapted to arid conditions, they are particularly sensitive in these habitats and require conservation pri...

Seed dispersal is an essential process to maintain the viability of plant populations, and understanding this ecological process allows management strategies to be developed to conserve ecosystems. European Union priority habitat 5220* is defined as "Mediterranean arborescent shrubland with Ziziphus lotus" and it represents a favorable microclimate...

Colour polymorphism occurs in several animal taxa and in around 3.5% of bird species. This phenomenon is disproportionately high in raptors, affecting approximately 30% of species. However, there are only four research studies in wild Accipitridae species and two in Falconidae species on colour plumage polymorphism. Here, we used the data collected...

New monitoring programs are often designed with some form of temporal replication to deal with imperfect detection by means of occupancy models. However, classical bird census data from earlier times often lack temporal replication, precluding detection‐corrected inferences about occupancy. Historical data have a key role in many ecological studies...

Natural nest sites are important breeding resource in terms of population dynamics, especially in forest systems where nest trees limit populations or timber harvesting destroys nests. Nest structures usually have a long life and can be reused by breeding pairs across multiple breeding seasons, so studying their dynamics is of relevance for biodive...

Number of occupied nests in the Regional Park of Sierra Espuña (SE Spain) from 1991 to 2017, considering the three forest raptor species. (DOC)

Code of the model NEST in Vensim programme. (DOC)

Modelling territorial occupancy and reproductive success is a key issue for better understanding the population dynamics of territorial species. This study aimed to investigate these ecological processes in a Eurasian Eagle-owl (Bubo bubo) population in south-eastern Spain during a seven-year period. A multi-season, multi-state modelling approach w...

Input data for PRESENCE. Occupancy histories of 72 Eurasian Eagle-owl territories (four surveys over seven years) in south-eastern Spain, and associated environmental covariates. (TXT)

Summary of model selection process on dynamic occupancy probabilities (ψt[m]) of a Eurasian Eagle-owl population in south-eastern Spain. (PDF)

Summary of model selection process on dynamic reproduction probabilities (Rt[m]) of a Eurasian Eagle-owl population in south-eastern Spain. (PDF)

Occurrence models that account for imperfect detection of species are increasingly used for estimating geographical range, for determining species-landscape relations and to prioritize conservation actions worldwide. In 2010, we conducted a large-scale survey in Río Muni, the mainland territory of Equatorial Guinea, which aimed to estimate the prob...

Mechanisms regulating colour polymorphism remain largely unknown and detailed investigation is required to explore the biological consequences on population dynamics. This paper presents the first study of the possible connection between colour polymorphism and productivity in a Booted Eagle (Aquila pennata) population breeding in southeastern Spai...

Interactions between top predators and mesopredators of the same guild often result in habitat segregation restricting interactions to shared habitat edges. Although negative edge effects are recognized as important spatial patterns in the ecology of fragmented landscapes, the underlying mechanisms of predator–prey interactions resulting in negativ...

Analysis of the 949 and 434 cases of mortality of Booted Eagle Aquila pennata and Short-toed Snake Eagle Circaetus gallicus, respectively, recorded by wildlife rehabilitation centres in Spain over a 16-year period (1990–2006) shows that power lines (19.5 and 35.2 %, respectively) and killing (32.5 and 22.9 %, respectively) were the main known cause...

The breeding performance of birds of prey is often related to changes in rainfall, which affects the productivity of the environment and the availability of food and may thereby affect chick survival. We investigated the influence of rainfall on the productivity of two populations of Booted Eagle Aquila pennata in two Spanish Mediterranean regions—...

Se analiza desde una perspectiva ecogeográfica el riesgo de predación del abejaruco (Merops apiaster) sobre la abeja melífera (Apis mellifera), para evaluar la percepción de su impacto sobre los colmenares por el sector apícola de la Región de Murcia. Para ello, se realizaron encuestas a apicultores y se elaboró una cartografía regional de idoneida...

RESUMEN Se analiza desde una perspectiva ecogeográfica el riesgo de predación del abejaruco (Merops apiaster) sobre la abeja melífera (Apis mellifera), para evaluar la percepción de su impacto sobre los colmenares por el sector apícola de la Región de Murcia. Para ello, se realizaron encuestas a apicultores y se elaboró una cartografía regional de...

This paper presents the first study of foraging behaviour and hunting success in Bonelli's Eagle. Attack success was modelled as a function of biological and environmental variables using observations made during a long-term monitoring. The overall attack success was 28.2%, based on 110 attack observations recorded between 1985 and 2008 in south-ea...

This paper presents the first study of foraging behaviour and hunting success in Bonelli's Eagle. Attack success was modelled as a function of biological and environmental vari-ables using observations made during a long-term monitoring. The overall attack success was 28.2%, based on 110 attack observations recorded between 1985 and 2008 in south-e...

Structural elements for breeding such as nests are key resources for the conservation of bird populations. This is especially true when structural elements require a specific and restricted habitat, or if the construction of nests is costly in time and energy. The availability of nesting-platforms is influenced by nest creation and persistence. In...

The presence of old nest structures can be an influential resource in reuse patterns and reproductive output for some birds. We used 15-year territorial occupancy data referring to the booted eagle Aquila pennata (a trans-Saharan migrant) and the common buzzard Buteo buteo (a sedentary species in southeastern Spain) to analyse old nest effects in t...

Different species show different responses to natural disturbances, depending on their capacity to exploit the altered environment and occupy new niches. In the case of semi-arid Mediterranean areas, there is no information available on the response of bird communities to disturbance caused by extreme weather events. Here, we evaluate the short-ter...

Territory fidelity defines a process in which individuals reoccupy a territory during different reproductive periods. In this study, we used generalized linear mixed models to analyse the territory fidelity of the Booted Eagle Hieraaetus pennatus in relation to different variables of the individual (previous breeding success, sex, mate switching an...

A Markovian modeling approach was used to explore territorial interactions among three forest raptors coexisting in a forested natural area in southeast Spain: the booted eagle (Hieraaetus pennatus), the common buzzard (Buteo buteo) and the northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis). Using field data collected over a period of 12 years, 11 annual transi...

Mediterranean coastal landscapes have suffered significant changes along the last decades due to agricultural intensification and tourism, that have altered the hydrological regime of wetlands, as has occurred in the Mar Menor (Southeast Spain). Such alterations and the consequent changes in nutrient flows are threatening the conservation of these...

Resumen El proceso urbanizador es un importante factor de perturbación que, en el Municipio de Murcia, suele presionar de forma notable sobre sus espacios forestales, alterándolos y fragmentándolos. Por ello surgió la necesidad de estudiar los efectos del desarrollo urbanístico sobre las masas forestales gestionadas por la administración local (Par...

En el Municipio de Murcia, los Parques Forestales Municipales, en especial el del Majal Blanco, son una figura de protección derivada de la planificación urbanística residencial, que conlleva la cesión de espacios de vocación forestal para su gestión pública. Para la propuesta de un Plan de Seguimiento, se ha realizado un proceso iterativo de revis...

El seguimiento desde 2002 de las poblaciones de Sapo Común Bufo bufo y Sapo Corredor Bufo calamita en el Parque Forestal Municipal del Majal Blanco y su entorno, arroja datos preocupantes para la conservación de estas especies y sus hábitats, en especial frente al desarrollo residencial que se imbrica con este espacio. Entre las principales amenaza...