Discard-ban policies can help improve our understanding of the ecological role of food availability to seabirds

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Funds for this study were supplied by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and by the European Social Fund (grant ref.: CGL2013-42203-R). The study also received funding from the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement no. 634495 for the project Science, Technology, and Society Initiative to Minimize Unwanted Catches in European Fisheries (MINOUW). MG and ASA are supported by postdoctoral contracts co-funded by the Regional Government of the Balearic Islands and the European Social Fund. Two reviewers helped to improve the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Evaluating diversionary feeding as a method to resolve conservation conflicts in a recovering ecosystem

Funding: Scottish University Partnership of Environmental Research (SUPER DTP), Grant/Award Number: NE/S007342/1; Forestry and Land Scotland.1. The recovery of mammalian predators of conservation concern in Europe is a success story, but their impact on some prey species of conservation concern may cause conservation dilemmas. This calls for effective intervention strategies that mitigate predator impacts without compromising their recovery. 2. We evaluated diversionary feeding as a management intervention tool to reduce depredation on nests of rapidly declining Western capercaillies in Scotland. We studied the influence of diversionary feeding provision on the fates of artificial nests deployed using a replicated and representative randomised landscape-scale experiment. This comprised 30 'paired' control (no diversionary feeding) and treatment (diversionary feeding applied) sites, 60 in total, each containing six artificial nests distributed across 600 km2. The experiment was replicated over 2 years, and in the second year, the control-treatment pairs were reversed, yielding 60 treatment and 60 control sites and 720 artificial nests. 3. Diversionary feeding substantially reduced depredation of artificial nests, translating into an 82.5% increase in predicted nest survival over 28 days of incubation. The increase in survival was mostly accounted for by a reduction in the probability that a pine marten, the main nest predator, consumed or cached eggs. Diversionary food also significantly reduced nest predation by badgers, although the magnitude of this effect varied by year. 4. Synthesis and applications. Diversionary feeding is an easily employable method shown in this study to reduce predator impact (functional) without lethal (numerical) intervention. Managers should proceed with its application for conserving capercaillie in Scotland without delay.Peer reviewe

Interspecific synchrony on breeding performance and the role of anthropogenic food subsidies

Open Access via the PLOS Flat Fee Agreement Funding: This work has been partially supported by Balearic Government, Ministry of Education (FPU2012-000869), Ministry of Economy (IBISES-CGL2013-42203-R and RESET-CGL2017-85210-P) and EU project MINOW (H2020-634495). It was partially funded by the EU FEDER regional funds. ASA was supported by a Ramón y Cajal contract (RYC-2017- 22796) funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, the Agencia Estatal de Investigación and the ESF. MG was supported by a postdoctoral contract co-funded by the Regional Government of the BI and the ESF (PD/023/2015). There was no additional external funding received for this study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Open Access perpetuates differences between higher- and lower-income countries

We dedicate this letter to the memory of Sue Kilham, an outstanding mentor and ecologist.Peer reviewe

La escuela pictórica de Amberes en la segunda mitad del siglo XVI en Burgos. La estela de Frans Floris a través de dos obras de sus discípulos : Crispijn van den Broeck y Frans Pourbus I

Crispijn van den Broeck y Frans Pourbus I fueron dos pintores flamencos discípulos de Frans Floris. Su actividad artística se desarrolló en la segunda mitad del siglo XVI. Lograron gran fama y sus obras fueron exportadas a muchos países Europeos. En Burgos se conservan dos interesantes pinturas sobre tabla: Un Juicio Final de Crispijn van den Broeck y un San Jerónimo de Frans Pourbus I que llegaron a esta ciudad gracias a las relaciones comerciales entre Castilla y Flandes

Among-individual and within-individual variation in seasonal migration covaries with subsequent reproductive success in a partially migratory bird

Acknowledgements: We thank Raymond Duncan (Grampian Ringing Group), whose insatiable enthusiasm for ringing was inspirational. We thank everyone who contributed to fieldwork, especially Mike Harris and David Hunter; Roger Pradel for generous advice on CMR mixture models; and UK Natural Environment Research Council for funding (NE/R000859/1, NE/P009719/1). Data accessibility Data are available from the Dryad Digital Repository: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pvmcvdnhv [46]. Electronic supplementary material is available online at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5054649.Peer reviewedPostprin

Population control of an overabundant species achieved through consecutive anthropogenic perturbations

The control of overabundant vertebrates is often problematic. Much work has focused on population-level responses and overabundance due to anthropogenic subsidies. However, far less work has been directed at investigating responses following the removal of subsidies. We investigate the consequences of two consecutive perturbations-closure of a landfill and an inadvertent poisoning event- on the trophic ecology (13C, 15N and 34S), survival, and population size of an overabundant generalist seabird species, the yellow-legged gull. We expected that the landfill closure would cause a strong dietary shift and the inadvertent poisoning a decrease in gull population size. As a long-lived species, we also anticipated adult survival to be buffered against the decrease in food availability but not against the inadvertent poisoning event. Stable isotope analysis confirmed the dietary shift towards marine resources after the disappearance of the landfill. Although the survival model was inconclusive, it did suggest that the perturbations had a negative effect on survival, which was followed by a recovery back to average values. Food limitation likely triggered dispersal to other populations, while poisoning may have increased mortality; these two processes were likely responsible for the large fall in population size that occurred after the two consecutive perturbations. Life-history theory suggests that perturbations may encourage species to halt existing breeding investment in order to ensure future survival. However, under strong perturbation pulses the resilience threshold might be surpassed and changes in population density can arise. Consecutive perturbations may effectively manage overabundant species

Hierarchical variation in phenotypic flexibility across timescales and associated survival selection shape the dynamics of partial seasonal migration

We thank everyone from UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and University of Aberdeen (UoA) who contributed to data collection, particularly Hannah Grist and Jenny Sturgeon; NatureScot for access to the Isle of May National Nature Reserve; Scottish Ornithologists' Club (SOC) for their support; and all volunteer observers, particularly Raymond Duncan and Moray Souter. This work was funded by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC; award NE/R000859/1 and award NE/R016429/1 as part of the UK-SCaPE programme delivering National Capability), Norwegian Research Council (SFF-III grant 223257), NTNU, UK Royal Society, Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS), SOC and UoA.Peer reviewedPostprin

Infestation of small seabirds by Ornithodoros maritimus ticks : Effects on chick body condition, reproduction and associated infectious agents

Funding This Project was partially funded by the Govern Balear (Acciones Especiales, AAEE031/2017) and the Spanish Ministry of Innovation and Universities (RESET, ref: CGL2017-85210-P). ASA was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Innovation and Universities Innovation and Universities, the Agencia Estatal de Investigación and the European Social Found (RYC-2017- 22796). Data accessibility Data will be available via the Spanish National Research Council data repository. Sanz-Aguilar, A., Payo-Payo, A., Igual, J. M., Rotger, A., Viñas Torres, M., Picorelli, V., 2019. Storm petrel data sets. https://doi.org/10.20350/digitalCSIC/. Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Acknowledgements We thank Esteban Cardona, Oliver Martínez, Raül Luna, Toni Avila, Esther López Marín, Miquel Mas, Enric Real y Santiago de la Vega for their help and support on the colony monitoring. Balearic Islands Government, Sant Josep City Hall, COFIB and Fundación Balearia for their logistic support. Ethical statement This study was authorized by the Reserves des Vedrà es Vedranell i els illots de Ponent, Balearic Government. All aspects of the study were performed according to guidelines established for the ethical treatment of animals and complied with current Spanish regulations. The collection of ticks was authorized by the Balearic Government (Reference: CAP 21/2018).Peer reviewedPostprin