Publications by authors named "R Baos"
Article Synopsis
- Top predators like black kites serve as indicators of ecosystem health, revealing how environmental contaminants impact them, particularly in long-lived species.
- This study measured levels of metals and arsenic in black kites from Doñana National Park, noting increases over time and variations based on sex and breeding status.
- Although contamination levels were high, particularly for lead, and negatively affected male breeding success, the research did not find clear links between metal exposure and survival or life expectancy, emphasizing the need for long-term ecological studies.
Doñana National Park (DNP) is a protected area renowned for hosting a wide variety of birds. However, the agricultural practices in its surroundings might cause pesticide contamination of the park biota. This work aimed to assess temporal trends of a wide variety of pesticides, including organochlorine (OCPs), organophosphate (OPPs) and pyrethroid (PYRs) pesticides, in bird eggs collected for more than twenty years (1999-2021) in DNP.
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- Accidents at mines, like the Aznalcóllar disaster in Spain, can cause severe environmental harm, exemplified by the toxic spill affecting the Guadiamar River in 1998.
- The study focused on the Eurasian otter as a sentinel species to monitor the impact of heavy metal and arsenic contamination in the river over several years, revealing significant contamination in the most affected areas.
- While metal levels decreased over time, certain elements showed rebounds, indicating ongoing contamination, and early exposure to lead and arsenic posed potential reproductive risks to otters, although their populations appear healthy regionally.
Background/objective: Exposure to environmental contaminants may result in reduced reproductive success and long-lasting population declines in vertebrates. Emerging data from laboratory studies on model species suggest that certain life-stages, such as development, should be of special concern. However, detailed investigations of long-term consequences of developmental exposure to environmental chemicals on breeding performance are currently lacking in wild populations of long-lived vertebrates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe occurrence of the emerging chlorinated flame retardant Dechlorane Plus (DP) and three of its possible degradation products was investigated in white stork eggs from two colonies in Spain. The average DP concentrations were 401 pg/g wet weight (w.w.
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