White stork movements reveal the ecological connectivity between landfills and different habitats.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Connections between habitats are key to a full understanding of anthropic impacts on ecosystems. Freshwater habitats are especially biodiverse, yet depend on exchange with terrestrial habitats. White storks (Ciconia ciconia) are widespread opportunists that often forage in landfills and then visit wetlands, among other habitats. It is well known that white storks ingest contaminants at landfills (such as plastics and antibiotic resistant bacteria), which can be then deposited in other habitats through their faeces and regurgitated pellets.

Methods

We characterized the role of white storks in habitat connectivity by analyzing GPS data from populations breeding in Germany and wintering from Spain to Morocco. We overlaid GPS tracks on a land-use surface to construct

SUBMITTER: Lopez-Calderon C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10045253 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature