Male-biased litter sex ratio in the southernmost Iberian population of edible dormouse : a strategy against isolation?

Litter sex ratio is a key component of parental fitness due to its impact on lifetime reproductive success. Multiple causes may lay at the origin of sex ratio variation among species and populations, such as maternal condition, local resource competition, presence of helpers, habitat quality or inbreeding levels. Whereas variation in sex allocation between species is relatively well understood, it is still unclear how and why litter sex allocation differs within species. Here, we present an analysis of litter sex ratio variation in two populations of edible dormice (Glis glis) over nine years of study. Populations are situated in the Montnegre and Montseny massifs in Catalonia (NE Iberian Peninsula). The Montnegre population is nowadays an isolated population located at the southernmost range edge of the species in the Iberian Peninsula. Litter sex ratio was male-biased in Montnegre but balanced in Montseny, whereas both populations showed a balanced adult sex ratio. We suggest that this differential sex allocation investment in Montnegre, may be a strategy to overcome isolation effects in this massif, as males are the dispersing sex in this and other rodent species

Flickering body temperature anticipates criticality in hibernation dynamics

Este artículo contiene 11 páginas, 5 figuras.Hibernation has been selected for increasing survival in harsh climatic environments. Seasonal variability in temperature may push the body temperatures of hibernating animals across boundaries of alternative states between euthermic temperature and torpor temperature, typical of either hibernation or summer dormancy. Nowadays, wearable electronics present a promising avenue to assess the occurrence of criticality in physiological systems, such as body temperature fluctuating between attractors of activity and hibernation. For this purpose, we deployed temperature loggers on two hibernating edible dormice for an entire year and under Mediterranean climate conditions. Highly stochastic body temperatures with sudden switches over time allowed us to assess the reliability of statistical leading indicators to anticipate tipping points when approaching a critical transition. Hibernation dynamics showed flickering, a phenomenon occurring when a system rapidly moves back and forth between two alternative attractors preceding the upcoming major regime shift. Flickering of body temperature increased when the system approached bifurcations, which were also anticipated by several metricand model-based statistical indicators. Nevertheless, some indicators did not show a pattern in their response, which suggests that their performance varies with the dynamics of the biological system studied. Gradual changes in air temperature drove transient between states of hibernation and activity, and also drove hysteresis. For hibernating animals, hysteresis may increase resilience when ending hibernation earlier than the optimal time, which may occur in regions where temperatures are sharply rising, especially during winter. Temporal changes in early indicators of critical transitions in hibernation dynamics may help to understand the effects of climate on evolutionary life histories and the plasticity of hibernating organisms to cope with shortened hibernation due to global warming.Peer reviewe

Dormouse Project: a citizen science project for the monitoring of Edible Dormouse populations in the Iberian Peninsula

The Dormouse Project is a citizen science project that has been studying and surveying the Edible Dormouse populations of the Iberian Peninsula. The project started in 2004 at the Montnegre-Corredor Natural Park, because of the lack of studies in the Iberian Peninsula and the few existing records of this species in Catalonia. It is coordinated by the Natural Science Museum of Granollers and funded by the Catalan administration. This project aims to assess the distribution and population trends of the Edible Dormouse by the installation of special nest boxes along the Iberian Peninsula. Furthermore, it has an important dissemination and awareness-raising role, by conducting different informative sessions adapted to a broad audience.The web platform (www.dormice.org), created in 2020, is a tool that has facilitated citizen participation, together with the creation and consolidation of a network of collaborators within the Dormouse Project. It has helped to compile, store, and manage the data collected by citizen volunteers and interested scientific personnel. The project improves the quality and comparability of data collection by developing a standardized data collection framework. This will harmonise the collection of information between different volunteers and will make it easier to compare data. Nowadays, the platform is getting consolidated, and we are willing to expand its limits, as well as showing its potential as a shared platform within the regions of Edible Dormouse distribution

De l'arqueologia a la història I: la documentació escrita en contrast amb l'arqueologia urbana: una aportació imprescindible

Conferència-xerrada centrada en la contrastació dels resultats de la intervenció arqueològica amb la documentació escrita, a càrrec de Xavier Solà, documentalista, Pere Freixas, historiador de l'art i Lídia Donat, tècnica del Museu d'Història dels jueus i de l'Institut del Patrona

Relationships between climate variables, seed production and reproduction of the Edible Dormouse (Glis glis) in mixed oak forests of the Iberian Peninsula

The Edible Dormouse (Glis glis) is a small arboreal mammal that lives in deciduous forests in much of Europe, the Iberian Peninsula being one of the southern limits of its distribution. Some studies have shown that this species uses the strategy of anticipatory reproduction, which means that it adapts its reproductive effort to seed production, such as beech mast and acorns, which varies greatly from year to year. The Edible Dormouse anticipates future seed availability of the coming autumn and modulates its reproductive effort, as beech mast and acorns are a crucial resource for the young to survive their first hibernation.This work aims to determine the correlations between annual variations in climate and seed production, and their effect on Edible Dormouse reproduction using 9 years of data (2012–2020) in two natural parks in Catalonia (Montseny and Montnegre-Corredor). These are located at the southernmost limit of the distribution of this species in the Iberian Peninsula. The results show that the productivity of Beech trees (Fagus sylvatica) is conditioned by local meteorological conditions and pollen availability, and that the acorn production by oak trees (Quercus sp.) is also affected by local meteorological conditions, but not by pollen availability. Additionally, breeding by the Edible Dormouse in Montseny has shown high synchrony with acorn production and that the presence of beech seeds increases the number of offspring per female. These results encourage us to conduct future studies to predict how Edible Dormouse populations will be impacted by climate change

The efficiency of two widely used commercial live-traps to develop monitoring protocols for small mammal biodiversity

Biodiversity monitoring programs have been implemented worldwide as a source of information on ecosystem functioning. However, controversy concerning the indicators that should be monitored, and the development of adequate monitoring protocols for multi-species communities still hamper such implementation, especially in the case of small mammals. We analyze differences in the efficiency of the two most widely used commercial traps (Longworth and Sherman) working simultaneously in eight different mountain habitats in Andorra country (NE Iberia) as a first step for establishing standardized sampling protocols for species-rich small mammal communities. From summer 2008 to fall 2010 (six sampling occasions) we captured a total of 728 small mammal individuals (1445 including recaptures) of 13 species (12 in Longworth and 11 in Sherman, 10 species shared). Despite some specific biases (underestimation of two large species by Longworth traps and underestimation of one small species by Sherman traps), estimates of community parameters and similarity indexes, sampling efficiency (number of small mammals trapped), detectability, mean weight, and sex-ratio of the most abundant species, were similar for both sampling methods. Our results suggested that both trap models could be used interchangeably – without relevant biases – in small mammal community assessments where large species are infrequent. Focussing monitoring programs on highly detectable small mammal species (common species) would allow the establishment of robust monitoring programs aimed at reducing the time invested and economic costs.To the CENMA (Centre d’Estudis de la Neu i de la Muntanya d’Andorra de l’Institut d’Estudis Andorrans, IEA) and its technicians (Ramon Copons, Marta Domènech, Roger Caritg, Manel Niell, and Clara Pladevall), for the financial and logistic support throughout the study period.Peer Reviewe

Male-biased litter sex ratio in the southernmost Iberian population of edible dormouse : a strategy against isolation?

Litter sex ratio is a key component of parental fitness due to its impact on lifetime reproductive success. Multiple causes may lay at the origin of sex ratio variation among species and populations, such as maternal condition, local resource competition, presence of helpers, habitat quality or inbreeding levels. Whereas variation in sex allocation between species is relatively well understood, it is still unclear how and why litter sex allocation differs within species. Here, we present an analysis of litter sex ratio variation in two populations of edible dormice (Glis glis) over nine years of study. Populations are situated in the Montnegre and Montseny massifs in Catalonia (NE Iberian Peninsula). The Montnegre population is nowadays an isolated population located at the southernmost range edge of the species in the Iberian Peninsula. Litter sex ratio was male-biased in Montnegre but balanced in Montseny, whereas both populations showed a balanced adult sex ratio. We suggest that this differential sex allocation investment in Montnegre, may be a strategy to overcome isolation effects in this massif, as males are the dispersing sex in this and other rodent species

Concurrent Butterfly, Bat and Small Mammal Monitoring Programmes Using Citizen Science in Catalonia (NE Spain): A Historical Review and Future Directions

The Biodiversity and Bioindicators research group (BiBIO), based at the Natural Sciences Museum of Granollers, has coordinated four long-term faunal monitoring programmes based on citizen science over more than two decades in Catalonia (NE Spain). We summarize the historical progress of these programmes, describing their main conservation outputs, the challenges overcome, and future directions. The Catalan Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (CBMS) consists of a network of nearly 200 recording sites where butterfly populations have been monitored through visual censuses along transects for nearly three decades. This programme provides accurate temporal and spatial changes in the abundance of butterflies and relates them to different environmental factors (e.g., habitat and weather conditions). The Bat Monitoring Programme has progressively evolved to include passive acoustic monitoring protocols, as well as bat box-, underground- and river-bat surveys, and community ecological indices have been developed to monitor bat responses at assemblage level to both landscape and climatic changes. The Monitoring of common small mammals in Spain (SEMICE), a common small mammal monitoring programme with almost 80 active live-trapping stations, provides information to estimate population trends and has underlined the relevance of small mammals as both prey (of several predators) and predators (of insect forest pests). The Dormouse Monitoring Programme represents the first monitoring programme in Europe using specific nest boxes for the edible dormouse, providing information about biological and demographic data of the species at the southern limit of its distribution range. The combination and complementarity of these monitoring programmes provide crucial data to land managers to improve the understanding of conservation needs and develop efficient protection laws