Showing papers by "M. Glória Pereira published in 2020"
TL;DR: The results of this study highlight that L. stagnalis are resilient to acute exposures to microplastics and PBDEs, and thatmicroplastics are unlikely to influence HOC accumulation or the microbiome of this species over short timescales.
33 citations
29 citations
TL;DR: Winter cereal, treated with the neonicotinoid clothianidin, is used as a test system to examine patterns of exposure in farmland birds during a typical sowing period, and the widespread availability of seeds at the soil surface was identified as a primary source of exposure.
28 citations
TL;DR: Clear evidence is provided that treated seed is a source of pesticide exposure for gamebirds following autumn sowing and this findings have implications for gamebird worldwide where seed treatments are in use, and will aid the design of any future avian biomonitoring studies for agrochemical compounds.
21 citations
TL;DR: In females, parasite loads increased strongly with decreasing selenium:mercury molar ratios, suggesting females may be more susceptible to the interactive effects of contaminants and parasites on physiology, with potential fitness consequences.
Abstract: Environmental contaminants and parasites are ubiquitous stressors that can affect animal physiology and derive from similar dietary sources (co-exposure). To unravel their interactions in wildlife, it is thus essential to quantify their concurring drivers. Here, the relationship between blood contaminant residues (11 trace elements and 17 perfluoroalkyl substances) and nonlethally quantified gastrointestinal parasite loads was tested while accounting for intrinsic (sex, age, and mass) and extrinsic factors (trophic ecology inferred from stable isotope analyses and biologging) in European shags Phalacrocorax aristotelis. Shags had high mercury (range 0.65-3.21 μg g-1 wet weight, ww) and extremely high perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) residues (3.46-53 and 4.48-44 ng g-1 ww, respectively). Males had higher concentrations of arsenic, mercury, PFOA, and PFNA than females, while the opposite was true for selenium, perfluorododecanoic acid (PFDoA), and perfluooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS). Individual parasite loads (Contracaecum rudolphii) were higher in males than in females. Females targeted pelagic-feeding prey, while males relied on both pelagic- and benthic-feeding organisms. Parasite loads were not related to trophic ecology in either sex, suggesting no substantial dietary co-exposure with contaminants. In females, parasite loads increased strongly with decreasing selenium:mercury molar ratios. Females may be more susceptible to the interactive effects of contaminants and parasites on physiology, with potential fitness consequences.
20 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined differences in soil properties and species traits in each of the survey years to understand potential drivers of vegetation change, including nitrogen deposition and grazing management, and found that a significant increase in soil total nitrogen was associated with the decline in species diversity between 1970 and 1990.
Abstract: Analysis of long-term vegetation change is limited. Furthermore most studies evaluating change only examine two snapshots in time, which makes it difficult to define rates of change and accurately assess potential drivers. To assess long-term change in calcareous grassland over multiple time periods, we re-surveyed a transect study undertaken at Parsonage Down National Nature Reserve, Wiltshire, southern England in 1970 and 1990 by T. Wells. We examined differences in soil properties and species traits in each of the survey years to understand potential drivers of vegetation change, including nitrogen deposition and grazing management. There was a clear shift in species composition, combined with significant declines in species richness and diversity between 1970 and 2016, with the greater rate of change occurring between 1990 and 2016. A significant increase in soil total nitrogen was found, which was significantly associated with the decline in species diversity between 1970 and 1990. Significant changes in community-weighted mean traits were identified for plant height (increasing), specific leaf area (decreasing), grazing tolerance (decreasing) and Ellenberg N (decreasing) between 1970 and 2016. By using survey data from multiple time periods, we suggest that N deposition may have contributed towards community changes between 1970 and 1990, as indicated by the change in soil properties and the associated decline in species diversity. Vegetation change between 1990 and 2016 is likely to be largely attributable to a decline in grazing pressure, indicated by the increase in taller species and a decrease in grazing tolerance.
12 citations
TL;DR: The trophic magnification of PBDEs, PCBs and OCs reflected food-web structure, with greater accumulation in more connected food webs with more generalist taxa, and interactions between pollutant properties, environmental conditions and biological network structure in the transfer and biomagnification of POPs in river ecosystems are highlighted.
12 citations