Programme and Abstracts
Edited by Zoltán BartaU
O
E
TURKU 2017
FIN
11
thConference of the European Ornithologists’
Union
18 – 22 August 2017
Turku
Posters 185 impact in Artemisia-steppes. Males showed a high return rate (43%), and occupied their former territories even if they were burned. The continuation of this project is going to be the basis for future population viability analysis.
SUNDAY, 20/08/2017 MAIN BUILDING P.134
Next-generation insights into the Blackbird blackbox
Dieter Thomas Tietze1, Daronja Trense1, Sven Koglin1, Michael Wink1
1Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
The Common Blackbird (Turdus merula) is one of the most common bird species in Europe. It has independently populated many cities and other human settlements in the last 200 years. The Blackbird is furthermore a partial migrant: Populations further southwest in Europe and urban populations tend not to migrate in contrast to more continental and shyer forest populations. Recently, this passerine species turned out to be among the most susceptible to USUTU virus infection. For all these reasons, the Blackbird has been intensively studied. Nevertheless, neither a reference genome nor transcriptome has been made publicly available to study the genomics and functional genomics of the various adaptive and phenotypic differences observable between and within species. We extracted total RNA and sequenced mRNA from 14 different tissues from urban and rural Blackbirds as well as genomic DNA. We assembled and annotated a de novo transcriptome and a draft genome, but also mapped reads on the genomes of well investigated species. We present preliminary results of our first downstream analyses.
SATURDAY, 19/08/2017 HALLIX P.135
Potential spatio-temporal mismatching in trophic relationships of Alpine Chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus) in North-Western Italy
Cristina Vallino1, Enrico Caprio1, Fabrizio Genco1, Dan Chamberlain1, Claudia Palestrini1, Angela Roggero1, Rolando Antornio1
1University, Turin, Piedmont, Italy
Climate change has already had significant impacts on animal communities including habitat loss and phenological mismatches. Mountain ecosystems are expected to be particularly subject to the effects of global warming, but the impacts on bird populations inhabiting these environments are poorly known. This project concerns the potential mismatching between the Alpine Chough (AC), a widespread mountain bird species that occurs almost exclusively above the treeline, and grasshoppers, their most important food source during the reproductive period. A pilot study carried out in summer 2016 in North-Western Italy showed that AC decreased while grasshoppers increased with altitude. This may lead to a potential spatio-temporal mismatch between AC and grasshoppers. We also observed that local ACs didn’t feed only on natural grasslands and pastures, but rather they exploited human food scraps (e.g. at bars and restaurants). In assessing these dynamics, it is clear that further studies need to evaluate the influence of human food sources on the behaviour and body condition of the individuals and on the Choughs’ spatio-temporal responses to natural grasshoper prey by comparing populations subject to different levels of anthropogenic influence. We will assess: i) the abundance of grasshoppers along altitudinal transects; ii) the foraging behaviour, diet, movements and habitat use of Choughs through isotope analysis, radiotelemetry and direct observations; and, iii) individual bird body condition indirectly measured through analysis of contaminants and antioxidant levels in blood plasma and feathers.
