Rui Lourenço

Universidade de Évora | uevora · MED Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture Environment and Development

Top predators are often used as sentinel species in contaminant monitoring due to their exposure and vulnerability to persistent, bioaccumulative and, in some cases, biomagnificable contaminants. Some of their ecological traits can vary in space and time, and are known to influence the contamination levels and therefore information on ecological tr...

The chemical industry is the leading sector in the EU in terms of added value. However, contaminants pose a major threat and significant costs to the environment and human health. While EU legislation and international conventions aim to reduce this threat, regulators struggle to assess and manage chemical risks, given the vast number of substances...

We evaluated feathers as a non-destructive biomonitoring tool documenting organochlorine pesticides (OCP) in liver and checked possible trends in pesticide use in two areas based on OCP concentrations in barn owls (Tyto alba). We measured the concentrations of 16 OCP in 15 primary feathers and 15 livers from barn owl carcasses collected on roadside...

Islands, and the particular organisms that populate them, have long fascinated biologists. Due to their isolation, islands offer unique opportunities to study the effect of neutral and adaptive mechanisms in determining genomic and phenotypical divergence. In the Canary Islands, an archipelago rich in endemics, the barn owl (Tyto alba), present in...

Native birds play a critical role in seed dispersal. The introduction of a new species may result in unpredictable effects on an ecosystem, namely in terms of seed dispersal. The Red-billed Leiothrix Leiothrix lutea is a frugivorous species native to Asia, whose potential role as seed disperser has not yet been analysed in its introduced range in E...

A data set of terrestrial, volant, and marine mammal occurrences in Portugal

Introducing IBISurvey (Introduced Bird Interaction Survey), a Citizen Science project. I Congreso Ibérico de Especies Invasoras (pages 123-128)

The IBISURVEY is a Citizen Science project of the University of Évora (PT). Its main objective is to assess the environmental, societal and economic impacts of introduced BIRDS in European countries. We encourage observers to report interactions between introduced birds and other animals, plants and humans.

Evaluating species responses to anthropogenic infrastructures and other habitat changes is often used to assess environmental impacts and to guide conservation actions. However, such studies are generally carried out at the population-level, disregarding inter-individual variability. Here, we investigate population- and individual-level responses t...

Results from the 1st census of the wintering population of Short-eared owl Asio flammeus in Portugal (2021/22)

Islands, and the particular organisms that populate them, have long fascinated biologists. Due to their isolation, islands offer unique opportunities to study the effect of neutral and adaptive mechanisms in determining genomic and phenotypical divergence. In the Canary Islands, an archipelago rich in endemics, the barn owl (Tyto alba) is thought t...

The combined actions of climatic variations and landscape barriers shape the history of natural populations. When organisms follow their shifting niches, obstacles in the landscape can lead to the splitting of populations, on which evolution will then act independently. When two such populations are reunited, secondary contact occurs in a broad ran...

The climate fluctuations of the Quaternary shaped the movement of species in and out of glacial refugia. In Europe, the majority of species followed one of the described traditional postglacial recolonization routes from the southern peninsulas towards the north. Like most organisms, barn owls are assumed to have colonized the British Isles by cros...

The Tagus Estuary hosts a high concentration of juvenile Common Barn Owls (Tyto alba) during the post-fledging dispersal period with more than 15 owls/km detected along roads in the south floodplain of Vila Franca de Xira (SF). The Tyto Tagus project examined the origin of these birds with six re-sightings of 136 colour-ringed nestlings (2006–2008...

The combined actions of climatic variations and landscape barriers shape the history of natural populations. When organisms follow their shifting niches, obstacles in the landscape can lead to the splitting of populations, on which evolution will then act independently. When two such populations are reunited, secondary contact occurs in a broad ran...

The COST Action ‘European Raptor Biomonitoring Facility’ (ERBFacility) aims to develop pan-European raptor biomonitoring in support of better chemicals management in Europe, using raptors as sentinel species. This presents a significant challenge involving a range of constraints that must be identified and addressed. The aims of this study were to:...

This poster outlines the role that can be played by natural science collections for monitoring of environmental contaminants in biota

The climate fluctuations of the Quaternary shaped the movement of species in and out of glacial refugia. In Europe, the majority of species followed one of the described traditional postglacial recolonization routes from the southern peninsulas towards the north. Like most organisms, barn owls are assumed to have colonized the British Isles by cros...

Birds can behave aggressively towards conspecifics to defend a territory and to compete for access to food and mates. The effects of phenotypes, such as sex and age, in aggressive behaviour have not yet been fully understood. Moreover, differences in aggression levels can reflect alternative behavioural strategies (i.e. proactive–reactive axis). We...

https://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S1470-160X(20)31190-0 Insectivorous birds have a large potential to provide biocontrol services in vineyards, thus contributing to the sustainability of this agroecosystem. Bird communities are influenced by vineyard management practices and surrounding landscape, which may influence their role as ecosystem...

Capsule: There was significant variation on the incidence of road traffic mortality across bird species, due to seasonal and weather effects but also due to differences between years. Aims: To assess patterns of mortality due to traffic collision for six common bird species over a period of nine years in relation to seasonality and weather. Methods...

Interspecific competition is rarely assessed between exotic and distantly related native species, although these can compete for some ecological resources. Here, we assessed the occurrence of interspecific aggression resulting from direct competition between two European native songbird species (henceforth focal species), the robin Erithacus rubecu...

Birds of prey, owls and falcons are widely used as sentinel species in raptor biomonitoring programmes. A major current challenge is to facilitate large-scale biomonitoring by coordinating contaminant monitoring activities and by building capacity across countries. This requires sharing, dissemination and adoption of best practices addressed by the...

The red-billed leiothrix (Leiothrix lutea) is an Asian-native passerine which has been introduced across several regions of the world, including Europe. Although it is widely considered to be among the most harmful bird invaders, its occurrence in Europe is still understudied. Here, we aim to assess its distribution and population status in Europe....

Urbanization and its inherent road network are one of the major movements that impulse landscape and biodiversity change, and its effects have yet to be fully understood. Few works focus on the effect of this urbanization on abundance and population trend of a certain species, as this study does, using the tawny owl (Strix aluco) as our case study....

The decline of oak (Quercus spp.) forests is a current trend in Northern Hemisphere and is characterized by a loss in tree vigour and increased mortality. The canopy insects are suspected to have role in this decline, but there is poor knowledge about their incidence in evergreen-oak stands. The main aim of this study is to characterize the inciden...

Limited quantitative data are available on food habits of the White Stork (Ciconia ciconia) in Mediterranean environments, particularly in ricefields where a relatively new food resource, the invasive Red Swamp Crayfish (Procambarus clarkii), is abundant. We studied the diet of the White Stork in a heterogeneous landscape (Central Portugal) in orde...

The correct affiliation of Sabrina Lo Brutto is shown in this paper.

Citation: Movalli, P., Ramello, G., Sbokos, J., Dekker, R., Vrezec, A., Shore, R.F., García-Fernández, A.J., Wernham, C., Krone, O., Alygizakis, N., Aradis, A., Badry, A., Barbagli, F., Berry, P., Biesmeijer, K., Boano, G., Bond, A.L., Choresh, Y., Kristensen, J.B., Cincinelli, A., Danielsson, S., Dias, A., Dietz, R., Eens, M., Espín, S., Eulaers,...

Porphyrins are pigments produced in most animal cells during the synthesis of heme, but their importance for external coloration is unclear. Owls (Order Strigiformes) are among the few animals that accumulate porphyrins in the integument, where it could serve as a means of signaling. Here we hypothesized that the porphyrin content of feathers may d...

Lethal interactions can shape ecosystem structure, and consequently understanding their causes is ecologically relevant. To improve both empirical and theoretical knowledge on superpredation (i.e. predation on high‐order predators), we studied an eagle owl population, including its main prey and mesopredators, and then we crossed these results with...

Figure 1: Aggressiveness (sum of all aggressive interactions measured in the experiments, i.e., head forward displays and attacks) performed by each species: (a) leiothrix versus robin experiments (N=7); (b) leiothrix versus blackcap experiments (N=9). Bar colours refer to the success of the interaction in displacing the opponent: successful displa...

Behavioural dominance and aggressiveness may be crucial traits facilitating the establishment of invasive species. Few studies considered agonistic interactions between exotic and native bird species in feeding contexts, particularly when the exotic has social habits. We aimed to know if individuals of a social invasive species, the red-billed leio...

Atlas of Portuguese mammals, providing an update of their Iberian distribution

Estimates of the population trends of nocturnal birds in Portugal resulting from the volunteer-based monitoring program - NOCTUA-Portugal

Recording wildlife mortality on railways is challenging as they have narrow corridors and lower accessibility. To improve mitigation measures, surveys must be systematic and their frequency depending on the targeted species traits and biology. To obtain unbiased estimates in diverse contexts, the data should be corrected using mortality estimators....

Owls are strongly affected by roads, including collision with vehicles and disturbance. The tawny owl Strix aluco is a common species across Europe and a frequent victim of road-killing. We studied road mortality and abundance of tawny owls in southern Portugal from 2005 to 2016. We considered two road types with varying traffic load: main roads an...

The establishment of an introduced species is an important step of the invasion pathway. Often species become established because of their superior competitiveness over the native community or by occupying empty niches. Recently, the red-billed leiothrix Leiothrix lutea has become established in some European natural-woods, which can be quite relev...

In general, interspecific competition has been studied mainly in between species belonging to the same genus or family, since they tend to have more ecological similarities and thus more overlapping niches than more distant relatives. With this work, we aimed to evaluate the occurrence of interspecific competition between two species of passerine b...

Since 2010 we developed in the Herdade da Mitra (University of Évora) two ringing schems based on Constant Effort Sites: MAI – Monitoring Winter Birds and CES – Constant Effort Site (Spring). In addition to these projects we survey a House martin Delichon urbicum colony, and give support to several academic activities and science dessimination. In...

Given their central role in mercury (Hg) excretion and suitability as reservoirs, bird feathers are useful Hg biomonitors. Nevertheless, the interpretation of Hg concentrations is still questioned as a result of a poor knowledge of feather physiology and mechanisms affecting Hg deposition. Given the constraints of feather availability to ecotoxicol...

Waterbird counts in dams of Alentejo, Portugal

Analysis of the variables that influence the detection of nocturnal birds - Noctua Portugal program

Uncovering the genetic basis of phenotypic variation and the population history under which it established is key to understand the trajectories along which local adaptation evolves. Here, we investigated the genetic basis and evolutionary history of a clinal plumage color polymorphism in European barn owls (Tyto alba). Our results suggest that bar...

Interspecific competition in birds has been studied mainly in a breeding context (e.g. singing interactions or nesting-site competition), and less often have researchers analysed aggressive behaviour related with interspecific feeding competition. We evaluated interspecific competition in an owner-intruder context during foraging activity and asses...

Diet composition is linked to reproductive performance directly or indirectly by other life-history traits, including home range behaviour. The relationships between prey abundance, diet and individual fitness have often been explored. However, these relationships are complex and difficult to disentangle, especially in vertebrate top predators. Her...

Nocturnal birds (Strigiformes and Caprimulgiformes) have been poorly studied in Portugal, and we gathered information from six different sources in order to evaluate the current status and distribution of these species in the country: 1) the monitoring programme of nocturnal birds (NOCTUA-Portugal); 2) the bird atlas of Madeira; 3) published litera...

Interspecific competition has been studied in many animal species with overlapped distributions, still the research has been focused mostly on ecological subjects as niche occupancy or food resources sharing. In this work, we aimed to evaluate the effect of a heterospecific intruder in the song activity of a passerine, the blackcap Sylvia atricapil...

The geographic distribution of some bird species which are potential direct competitors may sometimes overlap extensively, indicating the existence of ecological and behavioural mechanisms to reduce competition. A possible example such a pair is the Robin Erithacus rubecula (Turdidae) and the Blackcap Sylvia atricapilla (Sylviidae), which are abund...

Prey selection by the eagle owl in southern Portugal

BACKGROUND: Despite its importance for reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions, there is still incomplete understanding of factors responsible for high road mortality. In particular, few empirical studies examined the idea that spatial variation in roadkills is influenced by a complex interplay between road-related factors, and species-specific habita...

Lethal interactions among large vertebrate predators have long interested researchers because of ecological and conservation issues. Research focusing on lethal interactions among vertebrate top predators has used several terms with a broad sense, and also introduced new terminology. We analysed the published literature with reference to the main u...

The vocal behaviour of birds may be influenced by many factors, including the risk of being detected by a predator. In Donana Protected Area, the tawny owl co-exists alongside its intraguild predator, the eagle owl Bubo bubo. We considered four scenarios to study the vocal behaviour of tawny owls at dusk by analysing: A) the calling rate of all mal...

CARACTERÍSTICAS DEL BRILLO DE LAS SEÑALES VISUALES EN JÓVENES Y ADULTOS DE BUBO BUBO Trabajos recientes han demostrado la importancia del papel que las señales visuales desempeñan en la comunicación de las aves nocturnas. Los plumajes acromáticos (es decir, aquellos libres de pigmentos) con altos niveles de contraste contra un fondo oscuro son los...

We compared movement patterns and rhythms of activity of a top predator, the Iberian lynx Lynx pardinus, a mesopredator, the red fox Vulpes vulpes, and their shared principal prey, the rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus, in relation to moon phases. Because the three species are mostly nocturnal and crepuscular, we hypothesized that the shared prey would...

Despite the fact that investigations of home range behaviour have exponentially evolved on theoretical, analytical and technological grounds, the factors that shape animal home range behaviour still represent an unsolved question and a challenging field of research. However, home range studies have recently begun to be approached under a new integr...

In order to understand habitat requirements in territorial species, it is important to take into account the specific tasks and constraints associated with the different stages and social status of an individual life cycle (e.g. territorial breeder or nonterritorial floater). However, social status has rarely been taken into account in studies on h...