There is recent concern over the status of many Neotropical migrant bird populations. Reports of declining numbers and the continuing loss and degradation of breeding and overwintering habitats have prompted an upsurge of interest in the conservation biology of these birds (review papers in Hagan and Johnston 1992). Fragmentation of the breeding habitat in North America often is cited as one of...

The paper reports on the breeding biology of the endemic subspecies of the Grey Wagtail in a human transformed area (banana plantations) on Tenerife (Canary Islands). Clutch size (3.96 ± 0.6) was lower than in continental zones, probably because of the climatic stability of the islands. Furthermore, the distance from the nest to the nearest water source and the length of the breeding season (la...

The Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax is widespread across the Palaearctic region though its population has decreased during the last century (Cramp & Simmons, 1977). In the Iberian Peninsula it has a threatened status (Blanco & González, 1992) and its reproduction is concentrated in no more than thirty colonies in the North, Northeast and Southwest (Palacios, 1997). Currently, population estim...

Rediscovered in the wild twenty years ago, the breeding biology of wild Blue-throated Macaws remains largely unexplored, yet is essential to its effective conservation and recovery. Here, we analyse reproductive parameters in an intensively managed wild population of Blue-throated Macaws, providing the first data on the breeding biology of this critically endangered species. During the six-year...

Department of Biology and Biotechnology “L. Spallanzani”, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy, Department of Plant Molecular Biology, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi, India, 3 Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biotechnology Division, International Rice Research Institute, Los Baños, Philippines, 4 Faculty of Life Sciences, Kyoto Sangyo University, Kyoto, Japan...

Molecular markers have facilitated a better understanding of the evolution of fungi. Molecular phylogenetics determined the closest relatives of fungi and defined natural groups within the true fungi. The impact of molecular markers on the population biology of fungi has been enormous, helping to define cryptic species and elucidating fungal breeding biology. The interaction between molecular p...

Computational Science and Engineering Laboratory, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland (G.T., P.K.); Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology (H.M.M., A.H.K.R.), Genetics, Genomics, and Development Program (H.M.M., A.H.K.R), and School of Integrative Plant Sciences, Section of Plant Biology (A.H.K.R), Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853; and Department of Comparative Development an...