Salvador Rebollo

University of Alcalá | UAH · Department of Life Sciences

Oak (Quercus spp.) colonization is a slow process especially in Mediterranean environments, with apparent important differences among species. We do not know the magnitude of differences in colonization of oak species in the Iberian Peninsula and how these differences are driven by interacting abiotic (e.g., drought) and biotic (e.g., seed dispersa...

BACKGROUND Birds have been shown to reduce pest effects on various ecosystem types. This study aimed to synthesize the effect of birds on pest abundance, product damage and yield in agricultural and forest systems in different environments. Our hypothesis is that birds are effective pest regulators that contribute to a reduction in pest abundance,...

Understanding how habitat structure relates to reproductive performance of species can help identify what habitats are of the highest quality for a given species and thereby guide effective management. Here, we compared the influence of prey abundance and the amount of shelter area on the relationship between habitat and breeding performance. We fo...

Seed dispersal by scatter‐hoarder corvids is key for the establishment of important tree species from the Holarctic region such as the walnut (Juglans regia). However, the factors that drive animal decisions to cache seeds in specific locations and the consequences of these decisions on seed fate are poorly understood. We experimentally created fou...

El comportamiento de los animales cuando almacenan semillas determina el patrón espacial de la dispersión de muchas especies de plantas. Este trabajo evalúa el efecto de la territorialidad, la distancia recorrida desde la fuente de semillas y las preferencias espaciales a distintas escalas en el patrón espacial de dispersión de semillas y de plántu...

Earthworms are an important soil taxon as ecosystem engineers, providing a variety of crucial ecosystem functions and services. Little is known about their diversity and distribution at large spatial scales, despite the availability of considerable amounts of local-scale data. Earthworm diversity data, obtained from the primary literature or provid...

For plants with seeds dispersed by scatter‐hoarders, decision‐making by animals when caching determines the spatial pattern of seed dispersal and lays the initial template for recruitment, driving the regeneration of many plant species. However, the mechanism by which animal behaviour shapes seed distributions in spatially complex landscapes is not...

Aim Wild biodiversity and agrobiodiversity are affected by challenges such as agricultural intensification. However, it is unknown whether or not both components of biodiversity respond similarly to environmental factors and to these challenges. Here, we examine the spatial relationships between the distributions of wild biodiversity and agrobiodiv...

The possible consequences of top predators for the success of restoration actions for animals is still poorly understood. Our main objective was to analyze whether there could be a risk of creating habitats with an excess of predation by top predators when carrying out actions to improve cliff habitats for cliff-nesting birds at mining sites. We su...

Oak regeneration and the expansion of forested sites in Eurasia rely on acorn dispersal by animals, especially the Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius). However, in open agroforestry systems where jays are absent, such as old-fields far from acorn sources, oak recruitment still occurs. We hypothesize that the Eurasian magpie (Pica pica), an abundant...

Soil organisms, including earthworms, are a key component of terrestrial ecosystems. However, little is known about their diversity, their distribution, and the threats affecting them. We compiled a global dataset of sampled earthworm communities from 6928 sites in 57 countries as a basis for predicting patterns in earthworm diversity, abundance, a...

This PDF file includes: Materials and Methods Supplementary Text Figs. S1 to S6 Tables S1 to S4 References

Habitat enhancement for birds is frequently implemented during mine site restoration. Cliff‐nesting birds often colonize anthropogenic environments such as mining areas (aggregate sites and quarries for aggregate and cement production). Mining activity can compromise breeding success, causing cliff‐nesting birds to depend on the management and rest...

LInk to full article: https://rdcu.be/bRlhp Vertical banks in mining sites can provide safe nesting sites for burrowing bird species. These burrows can then, in turn, provide nest sites for species unable to create burrows themselves, especially in areas where the abundance of safe nesting holes is a limiting factor. Thus, primary burrowing specie...

Herbivores alter plant biodiversity (species richness) in many of the world’s ecosystems, but the magnitude and the direction of herbivore effects on biodiversity vary widely within and among ecosystems. One current theory predicts that herbivores enhance plant biodiversity at high productivity but have the opposite effect at low productivity. Yet,...

El objetivo de esta Guía es promocionar la conciliación entre la actividad minera y la conservación del avión zapador durante la vida útil de la explotación o y en la fase final de restauración. Estas recomendaciones pueden ser fácilmente ejecutadas por el personal que trabaja en la explotación, sin necesidad de disponer de amplios conocimientos so...

Novel ecosystems have emerged through human intervention and are rapidly expanding around the world. Whether they can support animal wildlife has generated considerable controversy. Here we developed a new approach to evaluate the ability of a novel forest ecosystem, dominated by the exotic tree species Eucalyptus globulus, to support animal wildli...

Prey species in the three raptors diets in the study area. Prey species in the Northern Goshawk, Eurasian Sparrowhawk and Common Buzzard diets during the breeding season in the study area. 2,618 prey items of Goshawk were identified from camera images taken at the nests and from uneaten prey remains collected in the nests and surrounding plucking s...

Map of forest types in the study area. The figure was prepared based on forest stand composition and structure determined from aerial photographs and confirmed with field visits. White areas are non-forest habitats. (DOCX)

Characteristics and description of forest types based on composition and structure. Proportion of total forest area occupied by each forest type, relative and average (± SD) tree height in the forest patch, relative and average abundance of eucalyptus trees, large eucalyptus and large oaks. Average tree height and abundance were measured in 10 m ra...

Data and sources for all populations of the three raptors used to prepare Fig 2. Country, population, time scale estimation, number of nests, mean nearest neighbor distances (NND), SD of the mean, pair density, and data sources for all populations of Goshawk, Sparrowhawk and Buzzard used to prepare Fig 2. (DOCX)

Location of the study area in southwestern Europe. (DOCX)

Despite numerous efforts and many hypotheses to explain the selective pressures that may have favoured reversed sexual dimorphism (RSD) in raptors ‐ i.e. that the female is larger than the male ‐ some drivers of RSD are still unknown. Here we analyse how much variation in RSD is explained by hunting habitat structure, territoriality or territory si...

Animal territoriality, defined here as defence of well-delimited breeding areas to exclude competitors, has been widely studied. However, the phylogenetic and ecological characteristics influencing the variation in the expression of this behaviour are poorly understood. We evaluated the effect of phylogeny and key ecological factors on territorial...

With ongoing degradation of natural forests and spread of forest plantations, plantations must play an increasingly important role in biodiversity conservation. Study of habitat selection and reproductive success of surrogate species in plantations can guide forest management decisions for increasing biodiversity. In this paper we studied the suita...

Capsule: Northern Goshawk Accipiter gentilis diet has changed significantly since the 1980s, probably due to changes in populations of preferred prey species. Aims and methods: To assess changes to the breeding season diet of the Northern Goshawk in southwest Europe over three decades. We examined prey remains at and around nests and assessed avia...

Introduction. The magpie is the most common corvid in Eurasia, which distribution overlaps with the distribution of many Quercus species. We assessed acorn dispersal of the magpie in a woodland and farmland mosaic. Methods. The study was conducted in Central Spain in a Q.ilex plantation surrounded by old-fields dominated by annual herbs. We used bi...

The sand martin (Riparia riparia) is a bird with conservation value in Europe and is one of the species which interacts most with gravel pits. Its populations in Europe are primarily located in mining areas, so their colonies are subjected to constant and rapid changes caused by mining activity. This can compromise the success of settled colonies i...

Most forest ecosystems contain a diverse community of top‐level predators. How these predator species interact, and how their interactions influence their spatial distribution is still poorly understood. Here we studied interactions among top predators in a guild of diurnal forest raptors in order to test the hypothesis that predation among competi...

Scatter-hoarding animals such as corvids play a crucial role in the dispersal of nut-producing tree species. This interaction is well known for some corvids, but remains elusive for other species such as the magpie (Pica pica), an abundant corvid in agroecosystems and open landscapes of the Palearctic region. In addition, the establishment of the i...

Diet studies present numerous methodological challenges. We evaluated the usefulness of commercially available trail-cameras for analyzing the diet of Northern Goshawks (Accipiter gentilis) as a model for nesting raptors during the period 2007-2011. We compared diet estimates obtained by direct camera monitoring of 80 nests with four indirect analy...

Reversed sexual dimorphism (RSD), which occurs when the female of a species is larger than the male, is the rule for most birds of prey but the exception among other bird and mammal species. The selective pressures that favour RSD are an intriguing issue in animal ecology. Despite the large number of hypotheses proposed to explain the evolution of...

The response of semiarid grasslands to small, non‐colonial herbivores has received little attention, focusing primarily on the effects of granivore assemblages on annual plant communities. We studied the long‐term effects of both small and large herbivores on vegetation structure and species diversity of shortgrass steppe, a perennial semiarid gras...

Vertebrate herbivores can be key determinants of grassland plant species richness, although the magnitude of their effects can largely depend on ecosystem and herbivore characteristics. It has been demonstrated that the combined effect of primary productivity and body size is critical when assessing the impact of herbivores on plant richness of per...

1. Some plant functional traits evolved with high temporal resource variability and disturbance in ecosystems where these factors are prevalent. Persistence of characteristics of these functional traits in ecosystems may depend on continued resource variability and disturbance, which in turn may promote functional diversity. In Mediterranean ecosys...

Knowledge on the effects of land use on community composition and species abundance is crucial for design-ing realistic conservation strategies, particularly in highly dynamic systems such as Mediterranean agricultural mosaics that are subjected to intensive cultivation. We investigated these effects on the nocturnal bird species occurring in the s...

Mammalian herbivores can have dramatic effects on the vegetation through different mechanisms, and may therefore modify resource distribution or create habitat for other species. Organisms that cause such changes are classified as ecosystem engineers. The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is a semi-fossorial mammal native to the Iberian Penin...

Herbivores are expected to influence grassland ecosystems by modifying root biomass and root spatial distribution of plant communities. Studies in perennial dominated grasslands suggest that grazing intensity and primary productivity may be strong determinants of the vertical distribution of subterranean biomass. However, no studies have addressed...

Soil macroinvertebrate communities (SMC) are well known to influence major ecosystem processes, but relatively few investigations have examined the mechanisms and factors involved in SMC regulation. We conducted a factorial experiment with combinations of seasonal grazing by sheep and irrigation (simulating different precipitation regimes) to asses...

How do effects from perturbations such as irrigation and grazing that have an impact at one stage of the recruitment process (e.g., seedling) affect performance at later stages (e.g., adult)? Such effects may be transferred to later stages without any further change (transferred effects), reinforced by a similar effect so that their importance incr...

Question: Which factors influence the effectiveness of biotic refuges for harbouring grazing-sensitive species in pastures with a long history of grazing by large herbivores? Previous research showed that spiny clumps of the cactus Opuntia polyacantha provided refuges from cattle grazing for plants and for inflorescence production on short-grass st...

How do effects from perturbations such as irrigation and grazing that have an impact at one stage of the recruitment process (e.g., seedling) affect performance at later stages (e.g., adult)? Such effects may be transferred to later stages without any further change (transferred effects), reinforced by a similar effect so that their importance incr...

Knowledge about the factors determining habitat use is especially interesting for herbivores living under seasonal climates as they have to deal with food shortage during the drought season. In this context, different-aged individuals are expected to respond differently to seasonal variations because nutritional requirements and predation risk can...

Different-sized herbivores differ in several aspects from their relationship with food to predation risk whilst foraging. Consequently, the spatial distribution of food, food quality and refuge availability can determine differences in habitat selection by large and small herbivores. In regions under Mediterranean climate, food and water availabili...

Mammals that build extensive open burrow systems are often classified as ecosystem engineers, since they have the potential to modulate the availability of resources for themselves and other organisms. Lizards may benefit from the heterogeneity created by these structures, especially if coupled with an increased offer of sites for refuge and thermo...

Beyond their role as primary consumers, herbivore activities can play a key part in spatial processes at the ecosystem level (e.g., McNaughton 1983; McInnes et al. 1992; De Miguel et al. 1997). Environmental factors such as geomorphology, soil and vegetation characteristics, slope, aspect etc., affect the spatial distribution of the resources they...

Debido a la gran extensión ocupada por los ecosistemas de pastizal y a su relativamente elevado grado de naturalidad, la gestión de los pastizales tendrá importantes implicaciones en la conservación de numerosas especies silvestres de los distintos niveles tróficos. En este artículo sugerimos ideas básicas para que el aprovechamiento de los pastiza...

A factorial field experiment was used to assess the influence of soil-disturber mammals in the structure of a 9-year-old Mediterranean annual plant community subjected to different sheep grazing and irrigation regimes. We estimated the disturbance rate (mound building activity) by Mediterranean voles, their effects on vegetation and the mechanisms...

This study evaluates the hypothesis that biological grazing refuges have an important role in plant-grazer interactions of grasslands with a long history of grazing. We assessed the hypothesis that clumps of the spiny cactus Opuntia polyacantha provide biological refuges from cattle grazing, affecting cover and seedhead production of associated vas...

A small-scale field study was conducted to explain seedling emergence and recruitment of reproductive individuals in a four-year-old Mediterranean annual plant community. The analyzed levels were populations, functional types, and total number of individuals in the community. We hypothesized that the number of germinable seeds positively affects th...

Can the interaction of episodic and chronic disturbances explain the maintenance of savanna-like patterns? We explored the morphological and spatial patterns of the leguminous shrub Retama sphaerocarpa in a Mediterranean environment in relation to disturbance. Various morphological variables of R. sphaerocarpa shrubland were found to be determined...

The spatial distribution and competition for the use of resources between sheep —transhumant merino— and chamois Rupicapra pyrenaica parva . Cabrera, 1910) has been analyzed during the summer grazing period in the Cantabrian range. The studied area, —a 750 ha. wide high pass— was divided into sectors depending on geophysical variables (substratum,...