Many animals avoid roads due to traffic disturbance, but there are also some species that use roads in their everyday life and even obtain resources from them. Understanding the factors that influence the intensity of road use by these species can help understand temporal patterns of road mortality and thereby maximize the cost-effectiveness of mitigation measures. This study, conducted between 2009 and 2017 in Doñana, investigates the environmental factors influencing road use in the...

Biological invasions provide an opportunity for ecological and evolutionary exploration of immune function in host–parasite interactions. Studying parasite-induced immune response in native and invasive species can provide novel insights into mechanisms underlying invasion success. This study aimed to establish the influence of mite ectoparasites on the invasion of the alien water boatman Trichocorixa verticalis (Corixidae) originating from North America.

extinctions. Amphibians are one of the most sensitive animal groups to climate change, currently undergoing a global decline. Predictive models for Europe and Iberian Peninsula forecast that the future impact of climate change on amphibians will depend on their capacity to alter their distributions by tracking climate warming. In the present study, the responses of Iberian amphibian species to recent climate change are explored by comparing amphibian distributions between two time periods...

The last populations of threatened taxa usually survive in low-impacted areas, whose protection and management is critical for its conservation. However, they can also be located in humanized and highly dynamic areas, whose management can be extremely challenging. The Andalusian buttonquail Turnix sylvaticus sylvaticus is the critically endangered nominal subspecies of the common buttonquail, a largely unknown species due to its secretive habits. This study shows how the last Andalusian...

The use of commercial bumblebees to aid crop pollination may result in overcrowding of agricultural landscapes by pollinators. Consequently, transmission of parasites between pollinators via shared flowers may be substantial. In SW Spain, the authors assessed the initial infection status of commercial Bombus terrestris colonies and then explored spatial and seasonal influences on changes in parasite prevalence across a landscape where bumblebee colonies are intensively used to pollinate berry...