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Effective conservation plans and design of Special Protection Areas (SPAs) for protected species should take into account ranging behaviour and foraging habitats, and this is particularly important for wide-ranging species. Montagu's harriers Circus pygargus are ground-nesting semi-colonial raptors typical of agricultural habitats. We studied the foraging behaviour of 14 radio-tracked male Montagu's harriers, in order to investigate the distance from nests of foraging birds, the extent to which foraging range overlapped with SPAs designated for this species, and foraging habitat selection within foraging ranges. Average foraging range size, estimated from either minimum convex polygon or kernel 90%, was larger than 100 km 2 . Only 19 AE 11% of the foraging ranges were within SPA limits. Cereal (the main habitat used for nesting) was slightly counterselected for foraging, and most prey (64%, n= 117) captured in that habitat were insects. Hunting attempts occurred significantly more frequently than expected in alfalfa, where most prey captured were small mammals (70%, n = 102). Use of this habitat for foraging increased throughout the season. Most prey captured in other habitats (mainly tree crops, shrubs or uncultivated land) were birds (83%, n = 43). SPAs included a higher proportion of cereal, but a lower proportion of alfalfa than areas outside SPAs. Overall, our results show that breeding Montagu's harriers use an area for foraging much larger than current sizes of most SPAs for the species, that habitats selected for foraging differ from those used for nesting and that preferred foraging habitats were less common inside SPAs than outside. Conservation management for this species should aim to protect foraging habitats within a large radius of the colonies, probably requiring measures to be applied outside protected areas. More generally, SPAs designed without including information of ranging behaviour and foraging habitats may be ineffective.

<p class="Cos"><em>Aim of study: </em>In the Mediterranean region, yew (<em>Taxus baccata</em> L.) usually grows with other tree species in mixed forests. Yew recruitment and juvenile growth may depend on the structure of the forest and the net balance between competition for soil water and nutrients with neighbors and facilitation that these neighbors exert by protecting the plants from direct sun exposure. This study aims, at a regional scale, to analyze the structure of forests containing yew, and, on an individual level, to analyze the effect of the surrounding vegetation structure on the performance of yew juveniles.</p><p class="Cos"><em>Area of study: </em>The structural typologies of yew populations were defined based on field inventories conducted in 55 plots distributed in 14 localities in the North-Eastern (NE) Iberian Peninsula, covering a wide range of yew distribution in the area. In a second step, an analysis of neighboring species' effects on juveniles was conducted based on the data from 103 plots centered in yew juveniles in five localities.<em></em></p><p class="Cos"><em>Main Results: </em>A cluster analysis classified the inventoried stands into four forest structural types: two multi-stratified forests with scattered yew and two yew groves. Multiple regression modeling showed that the δ¹³C measured in last year's leaves positively relates to the basal area of conifer neighbors, but negatively with the cover of the yew crown by other trees.</p><p class="Cos"><em>Research highlights: </em>At a stand-level, the density of recruits and juveniles (625 ± 104 recruits ha^-1, 259 ± 55 juveniles ha^-1) in mixed forests was found to be higher than that on yew dominant stands (181 ± 88 recruits ha^-1 and 57 ± 88 juveniles ha^-1). At an individual-level, the water stress (estimated from leaf δ¹³C) of yew juveniles seems alleviated by the crown cover by neighbors while it increases with the basal area of conifers. Yew conservation should focus on selective felling for the reduction of basal area of neighbors surrounding the target tree, but avoid affecting the canopy cover to contribute to enhanced yew juvenile growth.</p><p class="Cos"><strong>Keywords: </strong>Biodiversity conservation; δ¹³C; forest management; plant-plant interaction; recruitment; <em>Taxus baccata</em>; water use efficiency.</p>

Background Anthropogenic disturbance has the potential to negatively affect wildlife health by altering food availability and diet composition, increasing the exposure to agrochemicals, and intensifying the contact with humans, domestic animals, and their pathogens. However, the impact of these factors on the fecal microbiome composition of wildlife hosts and its link to host health modulation remains barely explored. Here we investigated the composition of the fecal bacterial microbiome of the insectivorous bat Kuhl’s pipistrelle (Pipistrellus kuhlii) dwelling in four environmental contexts with different levels of anthropogenic pressure. We analyzed their microbiome composition, structure and diversity through full-length 16S rRNA metabarcoding using the nanopore long-read sequencer MinION™. We hypothesized that the bacterial community structure of fecal samples would vary across the different scenarios, showing a decreased diversity and richness in samples from disturbed ecosystems. Results The fecal microbiomes of 31 bats from 4 scenarios were sequenced. A total of 4,829,302 reads were obtained with a taxonomic assignment percentage of 99.9% at genus level. Most abundant genera across all scenarios were Enterococcus, Escherichia/Shigella, Bacillus and Enterobacter. Alpha diversity varied significantly between the four scenarios (p < 0.05), showing the lowest Shannon index in bats from urban and intensive agriculture landscapes, while the highest alpha diversity value was found in near pristine landscapes. Beta diversity obtained by Bray–Curtis distance showed weak statistical differentiation of bacterial taxonomic profiles among scenarios. Furthermore, core community analysis showed that 1,293 genera were shared among localities. Differential abundance analyses showed that the highest differentially abundant taxa were found in near pristine landscapes, with the exception of the family Alcaligenaceae, which was also overrepresented in urban and intensive agriculture landscapes. Conclusions This study suggests that near pristine and undisturbed landscapes could promote a more resilient gut microbiome in wild populations of P. kuhlii. These results highlight the potential of the fecal microbiome as a non-invasive bioindicator to assess insectivorous bats’ health and as a key element of landscape conservation strategies.