Collision risk of bats with small wind turbines: Worst-case scenarios near roosts, commuting and hunting structures.

Small wind turbines (SWTs) have become increasingly common within the last decade, but their impact on wildlife, especially bats, is largely unknown. We conducted an operational experiment by sequentially placing a mobile SWT with five different operational modes at six sites of high bat activity, including roosts, commuting structures, and highly frequented hunting areas. Bat flight trajectories around the SWT were documented at each site during five consecutive nights using a specifically designed high-spatial-resolution 3D camera.

Decline in territory size and fecundity as a response to carrying capacity in an endangered songbird.

Density-dependent processes are fundamental mechanisms for the regulation of populations. Ecological theories differ in their predictions on whether increasing population density leads to individual adjustments of survival and reproductive output or to dominance and monopolization of resources. Here, we use a natural experiment to examine which factors limit population growth in the only remaining population of the endangered pale-headed brush finch (Atlapetes pallidiceps).

Genetic depletion at adaptive but not neutral loci in an endangered bird species.

Many endangered species suffer from the loss of genetic diversity, but some populations may be able to thrive even if genetically depleted. To investigate the underlying genetic processes of population bottlenecks, we apply an innovative approach for assessing genetic diversity in the last known population of the endangered Pale-headed Brushfinch (Atlapetes pallidiceps) in Ecuador. First, we measure genetic diversity at eleven neutral microsatellite loci and adaptive SNP variation in five Toll-like receptor (TLR) immune system genes.