Estación Biológica de Doñana

Airflows redefine the cost of aerial transport in the wild

Fuel economy matters to both animals and machines, as the cost of transport can determine where, when, and how far locomotion is possible. However, established estimates of these values for animal flight come from laboratories and treat the atmosphere as constant, even though fre...

Effectiveness of multi-component, dynamic begging displays as honest signals of nestling hunger

Abstract Parent–offspring communication depends on offspring signals that help parents assess need and allocate care. Nestling begging is often treated as a graded, information-rich and therefore honest signal of hunger, as predicted by costly signalling models. We quantified how...

Hidden genomic structure and widespread structural polymorphism across environmental gradients in the spiny sea star Marthasterias glacialis

Abstract Genomic regions of reduced recombination can preserve linkage among co-adapted alleles, facilitating local adaptation despite high connectivity. Such regions—often generated by chromosomal inversions—may be especially important in highly dispersive marine taxa yet remain...

Too warm to play: temperature selectively constrains social behaviour in the Alpine marmot, Marmota marmota

Temperature is an important abiotic factor constraining animal physiology, yet its impact on social dynamics remains largely unexplored in wild endotherms. Here, we investigated the effect of temperature on social interactions of Alpine marmots, a cooperative breeder highly adapt...