Raúl Bonal

Raúl Bonal
Complutense University of Madrid | UCM · Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution

PhD

About

104
Publications
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Publications

Publications (104)
Article
Full-text available
The fundamental trade‐off between current and future reproduction has long been considered to result in a tendency for species that can grow large to begin reproduction at a larger size. Due to the prolonged time required to reach maturity, estimates of tree maturation size remain very rare and we lack a global view on the generality and the shape...
Article
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DNA barcodes (i.e., gene sequences used as identifiers for species identification) constitute a very useful tool in invasive pest research. Using them, we studied, for the first time, the origin and population structure of the alien Cydia pomonella in Africa, a major apple pest. We sequenced a fragment of the mitochondrial gene Cytochrome c oxidase...
Article
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Increasing food production while avoiding negative impacts on biodiversity constitutes one of the main challenges of our time. Traditional silvopastoral systems like Iberian oak savannas ("dehesas") set an example, where free-range livestock has been reared for centuries while preserving a high natural value. Nevertheless, factors decreasing produc...
Article
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Human activities cause changes in the structure of landscapes that may impact negatively on wildlife at different levels. Agriculture and livestock, for example, have frequently led to landscapes of forest fragments and isolated trees within grass/crops matrices. These changes influence the distribution and behavior of animals, and the key ecologic...
Preprint
Increasing food production while avoiding negative impacts on biodiversity constitutes one of the main challenges of our time. Traditional silvopastoral systems like Iberian oak savannas (“dehesas”) set an example, where free-range livestock has been reared for centuries while preserving a high natural value. Nevertheless, factors decreasing produc...
Article
Full-text available
The benefits of masting (volatile, quasi-synchronous seed production at lagged intervals) include satiation of seed predators, but these benefits come with a cost to mutualist pollen and seed dispersers. If the evolution of masting represents a balance between these benefits and costs, we expect mast avoidance in species that are heavily reliant on...
Article
Abstract The codling moth Cydia pomonella L. (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) is a destructive pest of apples and pears worldwide. Due to the phytotoxic effect of chemical fumigant on postharvest apple, botanical insecticides are an interesting alternative to synthetic chemical insecticides regarding their low environmental impact. Hence, in the present...
Article
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Tropical Andes are one of the most important biodiversity hotspots on earth, yet our understanding on how their biotas have responded to Quaternary climatic oscillations is extraordinarily limited and the alternative models proposed to explain their demographic dynamics have been seldom formally evaluated. Here, we test the hypothesis that the inte...
Article
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Aim Our understanding of the mechanisms that maintain forest diversity under changing climate can benefit from knowledge about traits that are closely linked to fitness. We tested whether the link between traits and seed number and seed size is consistent with two hypotheses, termed the leaf economics spectrum and the plant size syndrome, or whethe...
Article
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Curculio glandium is one of the pre-dispersal seed predators occurring in Central Europe. It is associated with Quercus robur, the acorns of which are shelter and food sources for developing larvae. Females of the species, to our knowledge, are lacking in marking pheromones or do not use them; therefore, in nature, multiple infestations (over 10 eg...
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Lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni, Fleischer, 1818) populations have been one of the best monitored bird populations in Spain over the last 70 years. These populations suffered a sharp decline between the 1950s and 1990s. Since then, periodic censuses showed a population increase that lasted until 2010s. In those years, numerous projects for the recov...
Article
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Woody vegetation spread over former croplands in Europe has created new unexploited habitats for forest organisms. Their ability to colonise them and thrive depends on life‐history traits including fecundity, dormancy and dispersal ability. The effects of these traits on species distribution, abundance and community assembly have been extensively s...
Article
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The relationships that control seed production in trees are fundamental to understanding the evolution of forest species and their capacity to recover from increasing losses to drought, fire, and harvest. A synthesis of fecundity data from 714 species worldwide allowed us to examine hypotheses that are central to quantifying reproduction, a foundat...
Article
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Lack of tree fecundity data across climatic gradients precludes the analysis of how seed supply contributes to global variation in forest regeneration and biotic interactions responsible for biodiversity. A global synthesis of raw seedproduction data shows a 250‐fold increase in seed abundance from cold‐dry to warm‐wet climates, driven primarily by...
Article
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Between 2009 and 2018, information was collected about spider communities in holm oak forests in the Spanish provinces of Cáceres and Toledo. As a result of the study, a list of 189 species is presented, of which Gonatium dayense Si- mon, 1884 is added to the European list. Simultaneously, the list of spiders known from the provinces of Cáceres and...
Article
This study investigated chemical composition, repellent and biocidal activities of Salvia officinalis essential oil against Aphis fabae. In total, 19 major components were identified by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The major constituents in S. officinalis essential oil were determined as 1,8 cineole (11.40%), β- Selinene (11.26%), Camphor...
Article
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Despite its importance for forest regeneration, food webs, and human economies, changes in tree fecundity with tree size and age remain largely unknown. The allometric increase with tree diameter assumed in ecological models would substantially overestimate seed contributions from large trees if fecundity eventually declines with size. Current esti...
Article
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The codling moth, Cydia pomonella (L.), is a major pest in apple orchards worldwide. We carried out a two-year study in Northern Africa (Algeria), where the environmental conditions could affect codling moth phenology and host selection. Infestation rates in Golden Smoothie apple orchards (18% on average) were twice as high compared to Gala Brookfi...
Article
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Iberian man-made oak savannahs (so called dehesas) are traditional silvopastoral systems with a high natural value. Scattered trees provide shelter and additional food to livestock (cattle in our study sites), which also makes possible for animals depending on trees in a grass-dominated landscape to be present. We compared dehesas with nearby treel...
Article
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Iberian oak savannahs are traditional silvopastoral systems in which acorns constitute a key food source for livestock. Acorn feeding insects provoke significant economic losses; however, the high natural value of Iberian oak savannahs precludes any chemical treatment. This paper shows a novel way of biological pest control based on promoting lives...
Article
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The effects of climate change on oaks Quercus spp. constitute a main environmental concern for the conservation of temperate forests. In this context, we assessed the consequences of longer droughts on the interactions between the holm oak Quercus ilex L. and its main acorn pests. Infested acorns were prematurely abscised before reaching their pote...
Article
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Actinomycetes constitute a large group of Gram-positive bacteria present in different habitats. One of these habitats involves the association of these bacteria with insects. In this work, we have studied twenty-four actinomycetes strains isolated from the intestinal tract and feces from larvae of the xylophagous coleopteran Cerambyx welensii and h...
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The cover image is based on the Letter Flowering synchrony drives reproductive success in a wind‐pollinated tree by Michał Bogdziewicz et al., https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13609. image
Article
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Synchronised and quasi-periodic production of seeds by plant populations, known as masting, is implicated in many ecological processes, but how it arises remains poorly understood. Flowering and pollination dynamics are hypothesised to provide the mechanistic link for the observed relationship between weather and population-level seed production. W...
Article
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DNA barcoding identification needs a good characterization of intraspecific genetic divergence to establish the limits between species. Yet, the number of barcodes per species is many times low and geographically restricted. A poor coverage of the species distribution range may hamper identification, especially when undersampled areas host genetica...
Article
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Annually variable and synchronous seed production, or masting, is often correlated with environmental factors and in oaks involves differential pollination success that depends on phenological synchrony in flowering. The synchronization of phenology of flowering was thought to be driven by temperature during flowering (micro-climatic hypothesis). W...
Article
Key message Insect herbivory in novel Quercus ilex L. forests is a highly context- and scale-dependent process. We show that forest composition, tree height and fine-scale spatial location, as well as tree genetic relatedness and ontogeny, can all influence herbivore activity at local to landscape scale. ContextUnderstanding the intrinsic and extri...
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Abstract: Our study was carried out on the private farm of Mr Chebaani in Sidi Okba in the wilaya of Biskra (Algeria), to test the toxicity of a bio-pesticide of the aqueous extract of Ruta graveolens (Rutaceae), on the larvae and adults of the white scale (Parlatoria blanchardi Targ., 1868, Homoptera, Diaspididae) of the date palm. We sprayed thre...
Article
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The first records of Protaetia (Eupotosia) affinis (Andersch, 1797) and P. (E.) mirifica (Mulsant, 1842) for the Badajoz province (the southernmost records in Iberia) are provided, and the known distribution of both cetonids in Extremadura and its Iberian context is updated. Considerations on the chromatic variability of adults and some ecological...
Article
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1. Mast seeding is a widespread resource pulse caused by synchronized and intermittent production of a large seed crop by plant populations. The effects of masting on wildlife have been well documented in granivorous vertebrates, but less is known about its impact on population dynamics of insects. 2. We studied, over six years, variation in abund...
Article
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Host-parasite specificity constitutes one of the main speciation engines in phytophagous insects. The isolation of populations and its temporal persistence may promote local adaptations at the intra-specific level, in the same way that local extinctions and intense gene-flow among populations eliminate them. These adaptations may be the stage previ...
Article
Three large saproxylic cerambycids with different pest/legal status co-occur in the Iberian oak woodlands, Cerambyx welensii (Cw), Cerambyx cerdo (Cc) and Prinobius myardi (Pm): Cw is an emerging pest, Cc is a protected but sometimes harmful species and Pm is a secondary/minor pest. A precise taxonomic diagnosis is necessary for research, managemen...
Book
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Hoja divulgadora en la que se ofrecen claves precisas para la identificación de las clases de orugas que pueden aparecer en las encinas de la dehesa, facilitando así la toma de decisiones en la gestión de este tipo de plagas. Las hojas divulgadoras combinan el rigor temático con la claridad expositiva, configurándose como un modelo en la gestión de...
Article
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Background and aims: The ability of plants to allocate energy to resistance against herbivores changes with abiotic conditions and thus may vary along geographical clines, with important consequences for plant communities. Seed size is a plant trait potentially influencing plant tolerance to endoparasites, and seed size often varies across latitude...
Article
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La aplicación de las nuevas Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TICs) está revolucionando el sector agropecuario; en este artículo mostramos cómo pueden contribuir a desarrollar una “ganadería de precisión” en las dehesas de porcino. La bellota es imprescindible para la producción de una carne de calidad, y su baja disponibilidad y/o a...
Article
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The predator satiation hypothesis posits that masting helps plants escape seed predation through starvation of predators in lean years, followed by satiation of predators in mast years. Importantly, successful satiation requires sufficiently delayed, bottom-up effects of seed availability on seed consumers. However, some seed consumers may be capab...
Article
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The new species Araneus bonali Morano, sp. n. (Araneae, Araneidae) collected in central and western Spain is described and illustrated. Its novel status is confirmed after a thorough revision of the literature and museum material from the Mediterranean Basin. The taxonomy of Araneus is complicated, but both morphological and molecular data supporte...
Article
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Synchrony between seed growth and oogenesis are suggested to largely shape trophic breadth of seed-feeding insects and ultimately contribute to their co-existence by means of resource partitioning or in the time when infestation occurs. Here we investigated: i) the role of seed phenology and sexual maturation of females in the host specificity of s...
Article
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The quick spread of the chestnut gall wasp Dryocosmus kuriphilus in Europe constitutes an outstanding example of recent human-aided biological invasion with dramatic economic losses. We screened for the first time a set of five nuclear and mitochondrial genes from D. kuriphilus collected in the Iberian Peninsula, and compared the sequences with tho...
Article
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Variation in seed availability shapes plant communities, and is strongly affected by seed predation. In some plant species, temporal variation in seed production is especially high and synchronized over large areas which is called mast seeding. One selective advantage of this phenomenon is predator satiation which posits that masting helps escape s...
Article
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Species introduced to habitats outside their native range often escape control by their natural enemies. Besides competing with native species, an alien species might also affect the native herbivores by introducing a new source of different quality food. Here, we describe the case of northern red oak (Quercus rubra) invasion in Europe. We collecte...
Article
Aim Landscape attributes can determine plant–animal interactions via effects on the identity and abundance of the involved species. As most studies have been conducted in a context of habitat loss and fragmentation, we know very little about interaction assembly in new habitats from a landscape approach. This study aimed to test the effect of fores...
Article
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Insect herbivory decreases plant fitness by constraining plant growth, survival and reproductive output. Most studies on the effects of herbivory in trees rely on correlational inter-individual comparisons and could thus be affected by confounding factors linked to both herbivory and plant performance. Using the Mediterranean Holm oak (Quercus ilex...
Article
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Masting is the highly variable production of synchronized seed crops, and is a common reproductive strategy in plants. Weather has been long recognized as centrally involved in driving seed production in masting plants. However, the theory behind mechanisms connecting weather and seeding variation has only recently been developed, and still lacks e...
Conference Paper
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Las orugas de lepidópteros heteróceros son los defoliadores más importantes de las encinas Quercus ilex de las dehesas. Conocer su biología y las interacciones que establecen con otros organismos es clave para saber qué papel juegan en estos sistemas agroforestales y plantear medidas de control de sus poblaciones. Este trabajo analiza si, como ocur...
Conference Paper
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Las dehesas son un sistema agroforestal tradicional que combina pastos con arbolado (principalmente encinas Quercus ilex y alcornoques Quercus suber) y que ocupa cientos de miles de hectáreas en la Península Ibérica. Las orugas de varias especies de lepidópteros se alimentan de las hojas de encina y pueden causar defoliaciones intensas, las cuales...
Article
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Escaping seed predation is a classic “economy of scale” hypotheses (predator satiation hypothesis, Psh) to explain the selection for the synchronous production of massive and nil seed crops (masting) in plants. The Psh postulates that predator satiation occurs through a combination of (1) “functional satiation,” as not all seeds can be consumed dur...
Article
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Host specialization has long been hypothesized to explain the extraordinary diversity of phytophagous insects in the tropics. However, addressing this hypothesis has proved challenging because of the risk of over-looking rare interactions, and hence biasing specialization estimations, and the difficulties to separate the diversity component attribu...
Article
Background and Aims The geographical distributions of species are constrained by their ecological requirements. The aim of this work was to analyse the effects of environmental conditions, historical events and biogeographical constraints on the diversification of the three species of the western Mediterranean shrub genus Stauracanthus, which have...
Article
The factors governing community assemblages in fragmented habitats remain a challenging topic in ecology, especially in the present context of global change. We studied the colonisation of holm oak ( Quercus ilex L.) woodland by specialist Lepidoptera in an afforested savannah‐like landscape that has emerged as a result of the abandonment of cropla...
Article
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Evolutionary ecologists dating back to Darwin (1871) have sought to understand why males are larger than females in some species, and why females are the larger sex in others. Although the former is widespread in mammals, rodents and other small mammals usually exhibit low levels of sexual size dimorphism (SSD). Here, we investigate patterns of sex...
Article
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We describe a novel species Cheiracanthium ilicis sp. n. (Araneae, Eutichuridae) collected in the province of Toledo (Central Spain). It was found during a systematic sampling campaign carried out in an agricultural landscape with isolated Holm oaks Quercus ilex and small forest patches. Its morphology and affinities with other species of the genus...
Article
Aim Host specificity within plant‐feeding insects constitutes a fascinating example of natural selection that promotes inter‐specific niche segregation. If specificity is strong, composition of local plant parasitic insect guilds is largely dependent on the presence and prevalence of the preferred hosts. Alternatively, if it is weak or absent, hist...
Article
Small rodents play a key role in forest ecosystems as common prey, but also as prevalent seed consumers and dispersers. Hence, there is a great interest in disentangling the factors involved in their population dynamics. We conducted an intensive 2-year field study to test the relative role of seasonality in seed abundance, shrub cover and wild boa...
Article
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The complexity of animal life histories makes it difficult to predict the consequences of climate change on their populations. In this paper, we show, for the first time, that longer summer drought episodes, such as those predicted for the dry Mediterranean region under climate change, may bias insect population sex ratio. Many Mediterranean organi...
Article
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The patterns of seedling recruitment in animal-dispersed plants result from the interactions among environmental and behavioral variables. However, we know little on the contribution and combined effect of both kinds of variables. We designed a field study to assess the interplay between environment (vegetation structure, seed abundance, rodent abu...
Article
Understanding the factors determining genetic diversity and structure in peripheral populations is a long-standing goal of evolutionary biogeography, yet little empirical information is available for tropical species. In this study, we combine information from nuclear microsatellite markers and niche modelling to analyse the factors structuring gen...
Article
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Aims Forest fragmentation and reduced tree population densities can potentially have negative impacts on mating patterns, offspring genetic diversity and reproductive performance. The aim of the present study is to test these hypotheses comparing an extremely fragmented, low tree density (~0.02 trees/ha) holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) stand from Centra...
Article
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Scatter-hoarding rodents influence the population dynamics of plants by acting as seed predators and dispersers. Therefore, rodent foraging preferences for certain seed traits (species, size, condition) have been extensively studied. However, to what extent these preferences are fixed or they track the temporal changes on seed characteristics due t...
Article
Predator satiation and seed abortion have been reported as effective mechanisms reducing pre-dispersal seed predation, however, whether they may act simultaneously and whether their contribution to seed defense may spatially vary has been barely addressed. Across the altitudinal range of the dry tropical tree Acacia pennatula we investigated the im...
Article
Seed‐caching rodents play a key role in the ecology of seed dispersal by not only consuming but also dispersing seeds. Rodent foraging behaviour is usually framed within optimal models, which predict that their decisions should maximize food intake and minimize foraging costs. Although predation risk and seed pilferage by conspecifics have been env...