Gulls living in cities as overlooked seed dispersers within and outside urban environments

Martín‐Vélez, Víctor; Montalvo, Tomás; Afán, Isabel; Sánchez-Márquez, Antoni; Aymí, Raül; Figuerola, Jordi; Lovas‐Kiss, Ádám; Navarro, Joan

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153535

Cited by 15 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…The seeds of S. elaeagnifolium have been reported to be distributed by animal movement, for example by sheep (Bouhache & Gbèhounou, 2014), ground squirrels (Rammou et al, 2022) and gulls (Martín‐Vélez et al, 2022). Contaminated soils and seeds, agricultural machinery and irrigation channels have also been blamed for the invasiveness of S. elaeagnifolium (Chafik et al, 2013; Qasem, 2014).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solanum elaeagnifolium Cav. (Solanales: Solanaceae) presence confirmed in Portugal

et al. 2022

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Field surveys conducted in December 2021 in two regions in Portugal revealed the occurrence of the invasive plant species Solanum elaeagnifolium Cav. (silverleaf nightshade), following records from the web portal BioDiversity4All. The first population was found at Costa da Caparica, municipality of Almada (Lisbon region), in an abandoned area located in an urban environment and next to the ocean, presenting a small infestation to date (ca. 200 stems). The second population was found in an abandoned field located in an agricultural area at Cano, municipality of Sousel (Northern Alentejo region). The infestation was large (>0.5 ha

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solanum elaeagnifolium Cav. (Solanales: Solanaceae) presence confirmed in Portugal

et al. 2022

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“…Frugivores have highly detailed movement patterns that can be used to predict where seeds are likely to be deposited following the calculated seed retention time. This can be measured using structured observations (Morales et al, 2103;Ramos et al 2020), or by tracking animals with GPS or radio tracking devices (Kays et al, 2011;Abedi-Lartey et al, 2016;Rehm et al, 2019;Martin-Velez et al, 2022). Movement paths from tracking devices describe where an animal has travelled and, for frugivorous animals, these can be used to predict where seeds are deposited.…”

Section: Summary Of Frugivore Tracking Movement Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A global systematic review of frugivorous animal tracking studies and the estimation of seed dispersal distances

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Dent

Duthie

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Seed dispersal is one of the most important ecosystem services globally. It shapes plant populations, encourages forest succession, and has multiple, indirect benefits for humans, yet it is one of the most threatened processes in plant regeneration, worldwide. The restricted movement of local frugivores, through habitat fragmentation, is one of the main threats to seed dispersal. These restrictions alter the behaviour associated with movements before, during and after interacting with fruits and seeds. Consequently, there have been recent calls for animal movement and behaviour to be better integrated with seed dispersal studies to enable researchers to fully understand the processes that determine seed rain. To assess the current use of animal tracking in frugivory studies and to provide a baseline for future studies, we provide a comprehensive review and synthesis on the existing primary literature of global tracking studies that monitor movement of frugivorous animals. Specifically, we identify studies that estimate dispersal distances and how they vary with morphological and environmental traits. We show that over the last two decades there has been a large increase in frugivore tracking studies that determine seed dispersal distances. However, gaps across taxa and geographic distribution still exist. Furthermore, we found that certain morphological and environmental traits can be used to predict seed dispersal distances. We demonstrate that an increase in body mass significantly increases the estimated seed dispersal mean and maximum distances, as does species flight ability. Our results also suggest that protected areas have a positive effect on mean seed dispersal distances when compared to unprotected areas. We anticipate that this review act as a reference for future frugivore tracking studies to build upon, specifically to understand the drivers of movement, and to interpret how seed dispersal and other ecosystem services will be impacted by human disturbance and land use changes.

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“…For example, during the COVID-19 lockdown, the availability of fishery discards at sea, an important resource for this breeding colony [ 13 , 39 ], was reduced notably, associated with the reduction of the fishing activity in the waters close to Barcelona [ 40 , 41 ]. To compensate for the lack of fishing discards, we expected that urban yellow-legged gulls would increase the use of terrestrial habitats, increasing the consumption of resources such as urban birds (for example, rock pigeons), also an important part of their diet [ 13 , 21 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in the feeding ecology of an opportunistic predator inhabiting urban environments in response to COVID-19 lockdown

et al. 2023

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Urban-dwelling species present feeding and behavioural innovation that enable them to adjust to anthropogenic food subsidies available in cities. In 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 virus outbreak resulted in unprecedented reduction in the human activity worldwide associated with the human lockdown. This situation opened an excellent opportunity to investigate the capability of urban wildlife to cope with this anthropopause event. Here, we investigated the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on the feeding strategies of the urban yellow-legged gull ( Larus michahellis ) population inhabiting the highly dense city of Barcelona (NE Spain). We compared the diet of chicks (through stomach content and stable isotope analyses) sampled randomly around the city of Barcelona before (2018 and 2019), during (2020) and after (2021) the COVID-19 lockdown. The results revealed that the anthropopause associated with the lockdown had an effect on the diet of this urban-dwelling predator. The diversity of prey consumed during the lockdown was lower, and consumption of urban birds (pigeons and parakeets) and marine prey (fishery discards and natural prey) decreased during the year of lockdown. Although it was not analysed, these diet changes probably were associated with variations in the availability of these resources due to the decrease in human activity during the lockdown. These results demonstrate the trophic flexibility of urban-dwelling species to cope with the changes in the availability of human-related anthropogenic resources in urban marine ecosystems.

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Gulls living in cities as overlooked seed dispersers within and outside urban environments

Cited by 15 publications

References 50 publications

Solanum elaeagnifolium Cav. (Solanales: Solanaceae) presence confirmed in Portugal

Solanum elaeagnifolium Cav. (Solanales: Solanaceae) presence confirmed in Portugal

A global systematic review of frugivorous animal tracking studies and the estimation of seed dispersal distances

Changes in the feeding ecology of an opportunistic predator inhabiting urban environments in response to COVID-19 lockdown

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