Search results for "Euro"
showing 10 items of 27769 documents
Begging calls support offspring individual identity and recognition by zebra finch parents.
2009
Abstract In colonial birds, the recognition between parents and their offspring is essential to ensure the exclusivity of parental care. Although individual vocal recognition seems to be a key component of parent-chicks recognition, few studies assessed the period when the emergence of the vocal signature takes place. The present study investigated the acoustic cues of signaler identity carried in the begging calls at three stages of development in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata castanotis), a colonial species which experiences food-dependence after fledging. Testing parents with playback of begging calls recorded the day before fledging, we found that the offspring recognition was base…
Reproductive site selection: evidence of an oviposition cue in a highly adaptive dipteran, Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae)
2020
Abstract Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) is a vinegar fly species that originates from Eastern Asia and has spread throughout Europe and the Americas since its initial detection in United States in 2008. Its relatively large, sclerotized, and serrated ovipositor enables the ability to penetrate ripening fruits, providing a protected environment for its egg and larval stages. Because the mechanism of oviposition site selection of D. suzukii is a matter of hypothesis, the aim of the present study was to elucidate behavioral and chemical aspects of short-range ovipositional site selection within the context of D. suzukii reproductive biology. The preference of D. suzukii to lay eggs on artifici…
Endocrine correlates of the breeding asynchrony between two Corsican populations of Blue tits (Parus caeruleus)
2004
International audience; Analyses of the development of the reproductive system in seasonally breeding birds in the framework of long-term ecological studies are rare. Here, we present the Wrst results of such a study in two Corsican populations of a European passerine bird, the blue tit (Parus caeruleus). The two study populations occupy diVerent oak habitats and are separated by only 25km. Despite their close proximity, they show a one-month diVerence in onset of egg laying, even after controlling for altitude. This micro-geographic diVerence in breeding date appears adaptive because both study populations raise chicks when food is most plentiful. In our study, males reached their maximum …
Skylarks trade size and energy content in weed seeds to maximize total ingested lipid biomass
2014
International audience; tThe trade-off between forage quality and quantity has been particularly studied in herbivore organisms,but much less for seed eating animals, in particular seed-eating birds which constitute the bulk of win-tering passerines in European farmlands. The skylark is one of the commonest farmland birds in winter,mainly feeding on seeds. We focus on weed seeds for conservation and management purposes. Weedseeds form the bulk of the diet of skylarks during winter period, and although this is still a matter fordiscussion, weed seed predation by granivorous has been suggested as an alternative to herbicides usedto regulate weed populations in arable crops. Our objectives wer…
Phenotypic Divergence among West European Populations of Reed Bunting Emberiza schoeniclus: The Effects of Migratory and Foraging Behaviours
2013
[EN] Divergent selection and local adaptation are responsible for many phenotypic differences between populations, potentially leading to speciation through the evolution of reproductive barriers. Here we evaluated the morphometric divergence among west European populations of Reed Bunting in order to determine the extent of local adaptation relative to two important selection pressures often associated with speciation in birds: migration and diet. We show that, as expected by theory, migratory E. s. schoeniclus had longer and more pointed wings and a slightly smaller body mass than the resident subspecies, with the exception of E. s. lusitanica, which despite having rounder wings was the s…
Genomic Analysis of European Drosophila melanogaster Populations Reveals Longitudinal Structure, Continent-Wide Selection, and Previously Unknown DNA…
2020
Genetic variation is the fuel of evolution, with standing genetic variation especially important for short-term evolution and local adaptation. To date, studies of spatiotemporal patterns of genetic variation in natural populations have been challenging, as comprehensive sampling is logistically difficult, and sequencing of entire populations costly. Here, we address these issues using a collaborative approach, sequencing 48 pooled population samples from 32 locations, and perform the first continent-wide genomic analysis of genetic variation in European Drosophila melanogaster. Our analyses uncover longitudinal population structure, provide evidence for continent-wide selective sweeps, ide…
Identifying small pelagic Mediterranean fish schools from acoustic and environmental data using optimized artificial neural networks
2019
Abstract The Common Fisheries Policy of the European Union aims to exploit fish stocks at a level of Maximum Sustainable Yield by 2020 at the latest. At the Mediterranean level, the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) has highlighted the importance of reversing the observed declining trend of fish stocks. In this complex context, it is important to obtain reliable biomass estimates to support scientifically sound advice for sustainable management of marine resources. This paper presents a machine learning methodology for the classification of pelagic species schools from acoustic and environmental data. In particular, the methodology was tuned for the recognition of an…
Morphology, geographical variation and the subspecies of Marsh TitPoecile palustrisin Britain and central Europe
2016
Capsule: All British Marsh Tits belong to subspecies Poecile palustris dresseri, being smaller than nominate P. p. palustris of central Europe. Aims: Determining the subspecies of Marsh Tit in Britain to test whether ssp. P. p. palustris occurs in northern England and Scotland, by assessing regional variation in size compared with central European birds. Methods: 1147 wing length and 250 tail length measurements from 953 Marsh Tits were compared between eight British locations to test for regional variation. Biometrics were compared between birds from Britain and six locations within the continental European range of ssp. palustris. Results: There was no regional variation in wing or tail l…
Chemical fingerprints suggest direct familiarisation rather than phenotype matching during olfactory recognition in Australian sea lions (Neophoca ci…
2019
International audience; Olfaction is one of the most commonly used senses for communication among animals and is of particular importance to mother-offspring recognition in mammals. The use of smell in offspring recognition has been well studied, however, we often lack information about the underlying mechanistic basis for olfactory recognition. Using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), we examine chemical profiles of two different colonies of Australian sea lions (Neophoca cinerea) and assess similarity of chemical fingerprints in mother-pup pairs. This analysis allows us to examine whether a chemical base for phenotype matching exists in this species. Our results showed no GC-de…
Synthetic cartography for mapping biodiversity in the Mediterranean region: Sicily as a case study
2018
This paper proposes a new hierarchical land classification system for the mapping of species distribution at national or regional scales. Our integrative framework incorporates two hierarchical levels inferred from historical, climatic, geomorphological and geological attributes. The feasibility of this proposal is based on the use of historical collections and literature data, as well as on its ability to combine old low-precision data with more recent records of higher resolution. The system is set up for vascular plants, but it can also be used for other taxonomic groups. Furthermore, it has the potential for application to the whole Mediterranean region because it is based on informatio…