First-egg date and air temperature affect nest construction in Blue Tits Cyanistes caeruleus, but not in Great Tits Parus major

Capsule For nest construction by Blue Tits, but not Great Tits, first-egg date (FED) and air temperature significantly affected the mass of the nest as a whole and some of its component parts. Aims To test the hypothesis that use of nest materials is influenced by prevailing climatic conditions during nest construction. Methods Nests used in the study were built by Blue Tits Cyanistes caeruleus and Great Tits Parus major in nestboxes at a site in Lincolnshire, England during the 2008 and 2009 breeding seasons. Nests were dissected into their component parts and then weighed. Results Stepwise discriminant analysis showed that the asses of grasses, feathers and bark were significantly affected by species (all higher in Blue Tits) and year significantly affected the mass of wool and dust in the nests. ANOVA showed that total mass of the nest was not significantly affected by year of construction or species. By contrast, species, but not year, did significantly influence the masses of animal- and plant-derived materials in the nest. In Blue Tit nests there were significant correlations between FED and the mass of animal-derived material in 2008, but with plant-derived material in 2009. There were significant correlations between mean air temperature recorded during the seven days up to FED and the mass of the nests and their plant-derived materials. No significant correlations were observed between FED and nest components for Great Tits. Conclusion Nest construction is potentially affected by a variety of environmental factors, which may impact upon how nests function. A better understanding of how nest variability affects its function may allow better assessment of how climate change may impact upon the reproductive performance of bird

Unravelling migration connectivity reveals unsustainable hunting of the declining ortolan bunting

In France, illegal hunting of the endangered ortolan bunting Emberiza hortulana has been defended for the sake of tradition and gastronomy. Hunters argued that ortolan buntings trapped in southwest France originate from large and stable populations across the whole of Europe. Yet, the European Commission referred France to the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) in December 2016 for infringements to legislation (IP/16/4213). To better assess the impact of hunting in France, we combined Pan-European data from archival light loggers, stable isotopes, and genetics to determine the migration strategy of the species across continents. Ortolan buntings migrating through France come from northern and western populations, which are small, fragmented and declining. Population viability modeling further revealed that harvesting in southwest France is far from sustainable and increases extinction risk. These results provide the sufficient scientific evidence for justifying the ban on ortolan harvesting in France.Peer reviewe

A global threats overview for Numeniini populations: synthesising expert knowledge for a group of declining migratory birds

The Numeniini is a tribe of thirteen wader species (Scolopacidae, Charadriiformes) of which seven are near-threatened or globally threatened, including two critically endangered. To help inform conservation management and policy responses, we present the results of an expert assessment of the threats that members of this taxonomic group face across migratory flyways. Most threats are increasing in intensity, particularly in non-breeding areas, where habitat loss resulting from residential and commercial development, aquaculture, mining, transport, disturbance, problematic invasive species, pollution and climate change were regarded as having the greatest detrimental impact. Fewer threats (mining, disturbance, problematic native species and climate change) were identified as widely affecting breeding areas. Numeniini populations face the greatest number of non-breeding threats in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, especially those associated with coastal reclamation; related threats were also identified across the Central and Atlantic Americas, and East Atlantic flyways. Threats on the breeding grounds were greatest in Central and Atlantic Americas, East Atlantic and West Asian flyways. Three priority actions were associated with monitoring and research: to monitor breeding population trends (which for species breeding in remote areas may best be achieved through surveys at key non-breeding sites), to deploy tracking technologies to identify migratory connectivity, and to monitor land-cover change across breeding and non-breeding areas. Two priority actions were focused on conservation and policy responses: to identify and effectively protect key non-breeding sites across all flyways (particularly in the East Asian - Australasian Flyway), and to implement successful conservation interventions at a sufficient scale across human-dominated landscapes for species’ recovery to be achieved. If implemented urgently, these measures in combination have the potential to alter the current population declines of many Numeniini species and provide a template for the conservation of other groups of threatened species

Oxygen-induced retinopathy: Ultrastructure of vitreous new vessels in the kitten model

Oxygen-induced retinopathy was produced by exposing 3-day-old kittens to 80% oxygen between 60 and 105 hours. They were then allowed to survive in room air until day 15, 21 or 28 when they were sacrificed after perfusion with colloidal carbon. Specimens were prepared for transmission electron microscopy. Ninety separate vitreous capillaries from oxygen-treated animals were examined. A total of 235 intercellular junctions were examined, 116 of them from the 15-day old animals. In the 15-day old animals, five junctions of 116 were open and the remainder were tight. No open junctions were seen in 21- or 28-day-old animals. In one capillary from a 15-day animal, fenestrated endothelium was seen in an aberrant, intraluminal loop of endothelium which formed no part of the blood/tissue barrier. The wall thickness of the vitreous new vessels seemed to decrease and the number of vesicles and vacuoles appeared to increase with increasing age. The basement membrane of the vitreous new vessels was scanty. In some sections, cells, presumably macrophages, were seen outside the new vessels. It is concluded that the increased permeability of the vitreous new vessels in 15-day-old animals can be explained by, and is possibly totally due to, the presence of open endothelial junctions

Dissolution study of active pharmaceutical ingredients using molecular dynamics simulations with classical force fields

The CHARMM, general Amber and OPLS force fields are evaluated for their suitability in simulating the molecular dynamics of the dissolution of the hydrophobic, small-molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients aspirin, ibuprofen, and paracetamol in aqueous media. The force fields are evaluated by comparison with quantum chemical simulations or experimental references on the basis of the following capabilities: accurately representing intra- and intermolecular interactions, appropriately reproducing crystal lattice parameters, adequately describing thermodynamic properties, and the qualitative description of the dissolution behavior. To make this approach easily accessible for evaluating the dissolution properties of novel drug candidates in the early stage of drug development, the force field parameter files are generated using online resources such as the SWISS PARAM servers, and the software packages ACPYPE and Maestro. All force fields are found to reproduce the intermolecular interactions with a reasonable degree of accuracy, with the general Amber and CHARMM force fields showing the best agreement with quantum mechanical calculations. A stable crystal bulk structure is obtained for all model substances, except for ibuprofen, where the reproductions of the lattice parameters and observed crystal stability are considerably poor for all force fields. The heat of solution used to evaluate the solid-to-solution phase transitions is found to be in qualitative agreement with the experimental data for all combinations tested, with the results being quantitatively optimum for the general Amber and CHARMM force fields. For aspirin and paracetamol, stable crystal–water interfaces were obtained. The (100), (110), (011) and (001) interfaces of aspirin or paracetamol and water were simulated for each force field for 30 ns. Although generally expected as a rare event, in some of the simulations, dissolution is observed at 310 K and ambient pressure conditions

Assessing potential conflicts between offshore wind farms and migration patterns of a threatened shorebird species

Installation of offshore wind farms (OWFs) is becoming increasingly important to ensure a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions; however, OWFs also pose a threat to migrating birds and other wildlife. Informed marine spatial planning is therefore crucial, but individual-based high-resolution data on bird migration across the sea are currently lacking. We equipped 51 individuals of the near threatened Eurasian curlew Numenius arquata with GPS tags (118 flight tracks) across multiple years and countries to assess their four-dimensional migration routes across the Baltic Sea (i.e. flight tracks, altitudes, phenology and diurnal patterns), to inform collision-risk models and assess potential conflicts with current and future OWFs. Despite a broad-front migration, we identified core migration areas in the south-western Baltic Sea (and adjacent mainland), largely overlapping with already operating OWFs. Generalized linear models based on a resampling procedure to overcome autocorrelation of tracking data showed that flight altitudes across the sea and during autumn (median: 60 m) were significantly lower than those across land (median: 335 m) and during spring (median across sea: 150; median across land: 576 m). Across the sea, curlews spent 74.8% and 62.2% of their migration times below 300 m during autumn and spring, respectively, indicating a potentially high collision risk with OWFs. The mean flight speed was 56.3 km/h (+/- 20.3 km/h). Migration intensity was highest at night over a 10-day period during April, suggesting that restricted turbine operation for several days might be a possible management measure. Our study showed that, even for broad-front migrants, it is possible to identify particularly sensitive sea areas deserving special protection enabling a sound marine spatial planning. This is a crucial finding also for various other shorebirds on the East Atlantic Flyway. Further studies are needed to assess the behavioural reactions of migrating birds with respect to OWFs using high-resolution tracking data.Peer reviewe

An update of the European breeding population sizes and trends of the Ortolan Bunting (Emberiza hortulana)

Following recent updates proposed by BirdLife International and further updates across Europe gathered in the context of a continent-wide study of the migration strategy of the species, we propose here an update of national population sizes and associated recent trends of the Ortolan Bunting (Emberiza hortulana). Previous estimates for the period 1999-2002 reported 5'200'000 to 16'000'000 breeding pairs, for an area extending east to European Russia, and south to the Caucasus and Turkey. The countries holding the largest populations were Turkey (3-10 million pairs) and Russia (1.5-5.0 million pairs). The updated results give approximately 3'319'000 to 7'057'000 pairs in Europe (for the period 2012-2014), representing a c. 50% decrease in numbers over the last decade. This decrease is partly due to overestimates proposed in previous reports for the key country, Turkey, which is now considered to support only 5000'000 to 1'000'000 pairs. Russia still holds 2.0-4.3 million pairs, although with an estimated decline of c. 15-30% since 2000. Overall, within the 39 European countries assessed here, recent decadal trends (on average 2000-2012) in population size are reported as unknown in 15 countries, increasing in 2 countries (Germany and Serbia), stable or fluctuating in 6 countries, and decreasing in 16 countries including recent extinctions in Belgium, Hungary, Slovakia and the Netherlands. Overall, declining populations are mostly located in northern Europe, and fourteen of the 15 northern European countries with a known national trend have declining breeding populations, suggesting that northern breeders are of particular conservation concern

Consistent response of bird populations to climate change on two continents

Global climate change is a major threat to biodiversity. Large-scale analyses have generally focused on the impacts of climate change on the geographic ranges of species and on phenology, the timing of ecological phenomena. We used long-term monitoring of the abundance of breeding birds across Europe and the United States to produce, for both regions, composite population indices for two groups of species: those for which climate suitability has been either improving or declining since 1980. The ratio of these composite indices, the climate impact indicator (CII), reflects the divergent fates of species favored or disadvantaged by climate change. The trend in CII is positive and similar in the two regions. On both continents, interspecific and spatial variation in population abundance trends are well predicted by climate suitability trends