Published version [Abstract:]Reductions in body size are increasingly identified as a response to climate warming. Here we present evidence for a case of such body shrinkage, potentially due to malnutrition in early life. We show that an avian long-distance migrant (red knot Calidris c. canutus), experiencing globally unrivaled warming rates at its high-Arctic breeding grounds, produces smaller offspring with shorter bills during summers with early snowmelt. This has consequences half a world away where short-billed individuals have reduced survival on their tropical wintering grounds. This is associated with these molluscivores eating fewer deeply buried bivalve prey and more shallowly buried seagrass rhizomes. We suggest seasonal migrants experience reduced fitness at one end of their range due to a changing climate at the other end. Published version 3Phenological changes and geographical range shifts represent well-known responses to climate change (1). A third broadly observed response to global warming appears to be shrinkage of bodies (2-5). It has been hypothesized that body shrinkage is a genetic micro-evolutionary response to warming due to smaller individuals being better able to dissipate body heat due to a larger body surface/volume ratio (e.g., Bergmann's rule (2)). Conversely, it has been put forward that climate change may disrupt trophic interactions, potentially leading to malnutrition during an organism's juvenile life stage (6, 7). As poor growth may not be compensated for later in life (8), this would lead to smaller bodies (i.e., shrinkage as a phenotypically plastic response).Under climate change, some regions are warming up faster than others. Especially in the Arctic, warming has been observed at unprecedented rates (9, 10). Hence, body-size reductions would be expected to be most pronounced in the world's most northerly region (6). Many Arctic-breeding avian species, however, are long-distance migrants spending the northern winter at lower latitudes (11), where the impacts of climatic change are less obvious.Here, based on the analysis of satellite data, we show that over the past 33 years, snowmelt has occurred progressively earlier on the high-Arctic breeding grounds of the red knot (Calidris canutus canutus) at Taimyr Peninsula ( Fig. 1; 76-78°N), changing at a rate of about half a day per year ( Fig. 2A; R 2 = .32, F1,31 = 14.77, P < .001; see Table S1 and Figs. S1-S3). During these three decades, 1,990 juvenile red knots were caught and their body sizes measured in Gdańsk Bay, Poland, during their first southward migration to the West-African nonbreeding grounds (Fig. 1). These juvenile birds were smaller after Arctic summers with an early snowmelt, notably with respect to body mass ( Fig. 2B; AIC c = 14775.24, P < .0005; Table S2), bill length ( Fig. 2C; AICc = 7610.48, P < .005; Table S3), and overall body size (PC1 on bill, tarsus, and wing; Table S4; AICc = 5925.22, P < .05). The models best explaining variation in bill length and overall body size additionally included breedin...
Individual cloacal swabs of mallards (Anas) to isolate fluoroquinolone-resistant E. coli. PCR was used to detect specific antibiotic resistance genes. We found 9 E. coli isolates producing ESBL with bla genes: bla CTX-M-1 (6 isolates), bla CTX-M-9 plus bla TEM-1b (1 isolate), bla CTX-M-15 plus bla OXA-1 (1 isolate), and bla SHV-12 (1 isolate). In the isolate with bla CTX-M-15 , the gene aac(6)-Ib-cr was also detected. The bla genes were harbored by transferable plasmids of the IncN and IncI1 groups. Nine quinolone-resistant E. coli isolates with qnrS genes were found and characterized. There is considerable concern about antibiotic resistance in bacteria from humans and farm animals, but the spread of resistance into wider ecosystems has received much less attention (48). Usually, isolates of the common intestinal bacterium Escherichia coli are examined to detect antibiotic resistance in populations of wild animals. Wild birds are colonized with various strains of E. coli, including strains such as E. coli O157 that are pathogenic for humans (83). Fecal strains of E. coli resistant to antibiotics have been found at various prevalences in wild bird populations. In particular, bird populations sympatric to areas inhabited by people and areas with a high density of livestock were colonized with antibiotic-resistant E. coli strains possibly selected by the antibiotic practice in humans and domestic animals. Antibiotic-resistant E. coli isolates have been found in corvids (Corvus corone, C. frugilegus, C. macrorhynchos, Pica pica, and Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) (3,46,48,53,74), house sparrows (Passer domesticus) (22, 61), house martins (Delichon urbica) (73), feral pigeons (Columba livia forma domestica) (68
Aim Species are responding to climate change by changing their distributions, creating debate about the effectiveness of existing networks of protected areas. As a contribution to this debate, we assess whether regional winter abundances and distribution of the Smew Mergellus albellus, a migratory waterbird species listed on Annex I (EU Birds Directive) that overwinters exclusively in European wetlands, changed during 1990–2011, the role of global warming in driving distributional changes and the effectiveness of the network of Special Protection Areas (SPAs, EU Birds Directive) in the context of climate change. Location Europe. Methods We used site‐specific counts (6,883 sites) from 16 countries covering the entire flyway to estimate annual abundance indices and trends at country, region (north‐eastern, central and south‐western) and flyway scales, inside and outside SPAs. We fitted autoregressive models to assess the effect of winter temperature on the annual abundance indices whilst accounting for autocorrelation. Results The Smew wintering distribution shifted north‐eastwards in Europe in accordance with the predictions of global warming, with increasing numbers in the north‐eastern region and declines in the central region. Trends in wintering numbers were more positive in SPAs on the north‐eastern and south‐western part of the flyway. However, a large proportion of the wintering population remains unprotected in north‐eastern areas outside of the existing SPA network. Main conclusions SPAs accommodated climate‐driven abundance changes in the north‐eastern region of the wintering distribution by supporting increasing numbers of Smew in traditional and newly colonized areas. However, we highlight gaps in the current network, suggesting that urgent policy responses are needed. Given rapid changes in species distributions, we urge regular national and international assessments of the adequacy of the EU Natura 2000 network to ensure coherence in site‐safeguard networks for this and other species.
f Extended-spectrum-beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing, AmpC beta-lactamase-producing, and plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance (PMQR) gene-positive strains of Escherichia coli were investigated in wintering rooks (Corvus frugilegus) from eight European countries. Fecal samples (n ؍ 1,073) from rooks wintering in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Serbia, Spain, and Switzerland were examined. Resistant isolates obtained from selective cultivation were screened for ESBL, AmpC, and PMQR genes by PCR and sequencing. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and multilocus sequence typing were performed to reveal their clonal relatedness. In total, from the 1,073 samples, 152 (14%) cefotaxime-resistant E. coli isolates and 355 (33%) E. coli isolates with reduced susceptibility to ciprofloxacin were found. Eighty-two (54%) of these cefotaxime-resistant E. coli isolates carried the following ESBL genes: bla CTX-M-1 (n ؍ 39 isolates), bla CTX-M-15 (n ؍ 25), bla CTX-M-24 (n ؍ 4), bla TEM-52 (n ؍ 4), bla CTX-M-14 (n ؍ 2), bla CTX-M-55 (n ؍ 2), bla SHV-12 (n ؍ 2), bla CTX-M-8 (n ؍ 1), bla CTX-M-25 (n ؍ 1), bla CTX-M-28 (n ؍ 1), and an unspecified gene (n ؍ 1). Forty-seven (31%) cefotaxime-resistant E. coli isolates carried the bla CMY-2 AmpC beta-lactamase gene. Sixty-two (17%) of the E. coli isolates with reduced susceptibility to ciprofloxacin were positive for the PMQR genes qnrS1 (n ؍ 54), qnrB19 (n ؍ 4), qnrS1 and qnrB19 (n ؍ 2), qnrS2 (n ؍ 1), and aac(6=)-Ib-cr (n ؍ 1). Eleven isolates from the Czech Republic (n ؍ 8) and Serbia (n ؍ 3) were identified to be CTX-M-15-producing E. coli clone B2-O25b-ST131 isolates. Ninety-one different sequence types (STs) among 191 ESBL-producing, AmpC-producing, and PMQR gene-positive E. coli isolates were determined, with ST58 (n ؍ 15), ST10 (n ؍ 14), and ST131 (n ؍ 12) predominating. The widespread occurrence of highly diverse ESBL-and AmpC-producing and PMQR gene-positive E. coli isolates, including the clinically important multiresistant ST69, ST95, ST117, ST131, and ST405 clones, was demonstrated in rooks wintering in various European countries.T he incidence of bacteria resistant to cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones is growing steadily and constitutes a serious risk for human and animal health. The major mechanism conferring resistance to cephalosporins is mediated by extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) and AmpC beta-lactamases (1). Although plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance (PMQR) genes confer only a low level of resistance to fluoroquinolones and resistance is mainly caused by point mutations of the quinolone resistance-determining region (QRDR), coding for gyrase and topoisomerase (2), the interaction between mutations in the QRDR and PMQR genes leads to higher levels of resistance to fluoroquinolones (3).Wild animals that do not come directly into contact with antibiotics are affected by their use in human and veterinary medicine. The close proximity of wild animals with humans and domestic animals plays an impo...
Aim Many species are showing distribution shifts in response to environmental change. We explored (a) the effects of inter‐annual variation in winter weather conditions on non‐breeding distributional abundance of waterbirds exploiting different habitats (deep‐water, shallow water, farmland) and (b) the long‐term shift in the population centroid of these species and investigate its link to changes in weather conditions. Location Europe. Methods We fitted generalized additive mixed Models to a large‐scale, 24‐year dataset (1990–2013) describing the winter distributional abundance of 25 waterbird species. We calculated the annual and long‐term (3‐year periods) population centroid of each species and used the winter North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index to explain the inter‐annual and long‐term shifts in their location. Results (a) Year‐to‐year southwestwards shifts in the population centroids of deep‐ and shallow‐water species were linked to negative NAO values. Shallow‐water species shifted northeastwards associated with positive NAO values and the distance shifted increased with increasing NAO. Deep‐water species shifted northeastwards up to zero NAO indices, but showed no further increase at higher NAO values. (b) Deep‐water species showed long‐term northeastwards shifts in distributional abundance throughout the 1990s and the 2000s. Shallow‐water species, on the other hand, shifted northeastwards during the 1990s and early 2000s, but southwestwards thereafter. There were no significant links between the NAO and year‐to‐year movements or long‐term shifts in farmland species’ population centroid. Main Conclusions We provide evidence for a link between both year‐to‐year and long‐term changes in waterbird winter distributional abundances at large geographical scales to short‐ and long‐term changes in winter weather conditions. We also show that species using shallow water, deep‐water and farmland habitats responded differently, especially at high NAO values. As well as important ecological implications, these findings contribute to the development of future conservation measures for these species under current and future climate change.
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