Person:
Barrientos Yuste, Rafael

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First Name
Rafael
Last Name
Barrientos Yuste
Affiliation
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Faculty / Institute
Ciencias Biológicas
Department
Biodiversidad, Ecología y Evolución
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Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Nearby night lighting, rather than sky glow, is associated with habitat selection by a top predator in human-dominated landscapes
    (Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 2023) Barrientos Yuste, Rafael; Vickers, Winston; Longcore, Travis; Abelson, Eric S.; Dellinger, Justin; Waetjen, David P.; Fandos Guzmán, Guillermo; Shilling, Fraser M.
    Artificial light at night (ALAN) is increasing in extent and intensity across the globe. It has been shown to interfere with animal sensory systems, orientation and distribution, with the potential to cause significant ecological impacts. We analysed the locations of 102 mountain lions (Puma concolor) in a light-polluted region in California. We modelled their distribution relative to environmental and human-disturbance variables, including upward radiance (nearby lights), zenith brightness (sky glow) and natural illumination from moonlight. We found that mountain lion probability of presence was highly related to upward radiance, that is, related to lights within approximately 500 m. Despite a general pattern of avoidance of locations with high upward radiance, there were large differences in degree of avoidance among individuals. The amount of light from artificial sky glow was not influential when included together with upward radiance in the models, and illumination from moonlight was not influential at all. Our results suggest that changes in visibility associated with lunar cycles and sky glow are less important for mountain lions in their selection of light landscapes than avoiding potential interactions with humans represented by the presence of nearby lights on the ground.
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    Quantifying and addressing the prevalence and bias of study designs in the environmental and social sciences
    (Nature Communications, 2020) Christie, Alec P.; Abecasis, David; Adjeroud, Mehdi; Alonso, Juan C.; Amano, Tatsuya; Anton, Álvaro; Baldigo, Barry P.; Barrientos Yuste, Rafael; Bicknell, Jack E.; Buhl, Deborah A.; Cebrian, Just; Ceia, Ricardo S.; Cibils-Martina, Ricardo; Clarke, Sarah; Claudet, Joachim; Craig, Michael D.; Davoult, Dominique; De Backer, Annelies; Donovan, Mary K.; Eddy, Tyler D.; França, Filipe M.; Gardner, Jonathan P. A.; Harris, Bradley P.; Huusko, Ari; Jones, Ian L.; Kelaher, Brendan P.; Kotiaho, Janne S.; López-Baucells, Adrià; Major, Heather L.; Mäki-Petäys, Aki; Martín, Beatriz; Martín De La Calle, Carlos Alfonso; Martin, Philip A.; Mateos-Molina, Daniel; McConnaughey, Robert A.; Meyer, Christoph F. J.; Mills, Kade; Montefalcone, Monica; Noreika, Norbertas; Palacín, Carlos; Pande, Anjali; Pitcher, C. Roland; Ponce, Carlos; Rinella, Matt; Rocha, Ricardo; Ruiz-Delgado, María C.; Schmitter-Soto, Juan J.; Shaffer, Jill A.; Sharma, Shailesh; Sher, Anna A.; Stagnol, Doriane; Stanley, Thomas R.; Stokesbury, Kevin D. E.; Torres, Aurora; Tully, Oliver; Vehanen, Teppo; Watts, Corinne; Zhao, Quingyuan; Sutherland, William J.
    Building trust in science and evidence-based decision-making depends heavily on the credibility of studies and their findings. Researchers employ many different study designs that vary in their risk of bias to evaluate the true effect of interventions or impacts. Here, we empirically quantify, on a large scale, the prevalence of different study designs and the magnitude of bias in their estimates. Randomised designs and controlled observational designs with pre-intervention sampling were used by just 23% of intervention studies in biodiversity conservation, and 36% of intervention studies in social science. We demonstrate, through pairwise within-study comparisons across 49 environmental datasets, that these types of designs usually give less biased estimates than simpler observational designs. We propose a model-based approach to combine study estimates that may suffer from different levels of study design bias, discuss the implications for evidence synthesis, and how to facilitate the use of more credible study designs.
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    Differential recovery ability from infections by two blood parasite genera in males of a Mediterranean lacertid lizard after an experimental translocation
    (Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A, 2023) Megía Palma, Rodrigo; Redondo, Lara; Blázquez Castro, Sara; Barrientos Yuste, Rafael
    Different blood parasites can co‐infect natural populations of lizards. However, our knowledge of the host's ability to recover from them (i.e., significantly reduce parasitemia levels) is scarce. This has interest from an ecological immunology perspective. Herein, we investigate the host recovery ability in males of the lizard Psammodromus algirus infected by parasite genera Schellackia and Karyolysus. The role of lizard hosts is dissimilar in the life cycle of these two parasites, and thus different immune control of the infections is expected by the vertebrate host. As Schellackia performs both sexual and asexual reproduction cycles in lizards, we expect a better immune control by its vertebrate hosts. On the contrary, Karyolysus performs sexual reproductive cycles in vectors, hence we expect lower immune control by the lizards. We carried out a reciprocal translocation experiment during the lizards’ mating season to evaluate both parasitemia and leukocyte profiles in male lizards, being one of the sampling plots close to a road with moderate traffic. These circumstances provide a combination of extrinsic (environmental stress) and intrinsic factors (reproductive vs. immune trade‐offs) that may influence host's recovery ability. We recaptured 33% of the lizards, with a similar proportion in control and translocated groups. Karyolysus infected 92.3% and Schellackia 38.5% of these lizards. Hosts demonstrated ability to significantly reduce parasitemia of Schellackia but not of Karyolysus. This suggests, in line with our predictions, a differential immune relationship of lizards with these parasites, at time that supports that parasites with different phylogenetic origins should be analyzed separately in investigations of their effects on hosts. Furthermore, lizards close to the road underwent a stronger upregulation of lymphocytes and monocytes when translocated far from the road, suggesting a putative greater exposure to pathogens in the latter area.
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    Longitudinal effects of habitat quality, body condition, and parasites on colour patches of a multiornamented lizard
    (Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 2022) Megía Palma, Rodrigo; Merino, Santiago; Barrientos Yuste, Rafael
    Ontogeny is expected to be a determinant factor affecting production of colour patches in lizards, while immune challenges or sudden weight loss may impair the maintenance of pigment-based coloration within a breeding season. We translocated males of the lizard Psammodromus algirus between two sampling plots that differed in distance to a road, vegetation structure, and predator abundance. We analysed variation in spectral reflectance of their colour patches the same and the following year. The change in the reflectance of the lizard colour patches within the first breeding season was explained by the interaction between plot and treatment, but not body condition. The maintenance of the breeding coloration was impaired only in those males translocated close to the road, probably reflecting that it is a poor-quality habitat for P. algirus. The following year, lizards that produced a more elaborate coloration were those that increased their body condition and controlled some parasitic infections, although suffered an increase of others. This study shows that colour patch production is plastic in P. algirus. Lizards increasing parasites or losing weight reduced pigmentation, although habitat quality can cushion these negative effects on pigmentation. However, not all parasites constrain the investment in coloration. In fact, some increased in those lizards that allocated more pigments to colour patches. In conclusion, longitudinal studies following experimental manipulation can contribute to understand pigment allocation rules in lizards.