Scientists from the University of Leeds and the Spanish National Research Council say urgent protection is needed for the fragile Doñana wetlands in Andalusia as the result of the bill which sanctions illegal strawberry production in its immediate vicinity. The bill, which was approved by the regional government without any parliamentary debate, allows intensive irrigated strawberry farming on land originally devoted to forestry or rain-fed agriculture. 80% of the strawberries grown in the...

A study led by the Doñana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC) and the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology (IPE-CSIC) concludes that stopping winter floods of rice field in the Ebro Delta, a management to control the invasion of the apple snail, have not had an impact to date on the abundance of many waterbirds species wintering in the area.
This apple snail control has been highly controversial due to its potential side effects on waterbird conservation. However, by assessing long series of...

Plants and their dispersers form interaction networks whose structure has important implications for the persistence and stability of the community. Frugivory is vital for the dispersal of many plants, but the dispersal interactions between plants and non-frugivorous animals are poorly studied. In this study, the authors characterized the structure of networks for seed dispersal by waterfowl, considered whether their structure is similar to that of the networks formed between frugivorous...

Researchers have found that eggs of two fish species can survive passage through the digestive tract of waterfowl after being swallowed, and this finding may help explain the long-standing mystery of how some species of fish colonize isolated lakes and ponds.

Global warming and direct anthropogenic impacts, such as water extraction, largely affect water budgets in Mediterranean wetlands, thereby increasing wetland salinities and isolation, and decreasing water depths and hydroperiods (duration of the inundation period). These wetland features are key elements structuring waterbird communities. However, the ultimate and net consequences of these dynamic conditions on waterbird assemblages are largely unknown. A regular sampling of waterbird...