Living on the edge: demography of the slender-billed gull in the Western Mediterranean.

ABSTRACT: Small and peripheral populations are typically vulnerable to local extinction processes but important for the metapopulation dynamics of species. The Slender-billed gull (Chroicocephalus genei) is a long-lived species breeding in unstable ephemeral coastal habitats. Their Western Mediterranean populations are relatively small and represent the edge of their global geographical distribution. At a local scale, using long-term data (14 years) on annual breeding success and capture-resights of marked individuals, we estimated and compared the vital rates and evaluated the connectivity of two Spanish populations (Ebro Delta and Doñana) varying in their local environmental conditions. At a metapopulation scale, we analyzed 22 years of data on breeding numbers to predict their future prospects by

SUBMITTER: Sanz-Aguilar A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3963922 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature