A new study to improve seabird conservation in Patagonian ecosystems

July 4, 2018, University of Barcelona

Preserving a 300,000 square km area in Patagonian waters could improve the conservation of 20 percent of the population of sea birds in their natural habitat, according to a study published in the journal Conservation Biology and led by Francisco Ramírez, researcher from the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute of the University of Barcelona (IRBio).

The new study, which shows a multidisciplinary approach to define marine areas of interest in conservation, is also signed by Isabel Afán, Joan Giménez and Manuela G. Forero, from the Doñana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC).

One of the marine ecosystems with more biodiversity worldwide

Only 3 percent of the ocean surface is protected, which is a lower level to the one in terrestrial ecosystems. Marine ecosystems in the Argentinian Patagonia are among the areas with higher biodiversity and the highest biological production worldwide. Despite their ecological value, they are now among the most threatened marine areas by the impact of intense fishing activity and changes related to global warming.

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HUMMINGBIRD HAVEN SAVED: Tucson Audubon keeping Paton's open for bird watchers

Posted: Sunday, August 3, 2014 12:00 am

By Cathy Rosenberg Arizona Sonora News Service

Paton’s Birder Haven in Patagonia, Ariz., is a prime destination for bird watchers from all over the world. About 30,000 people come here each year to see the birds.

Wally and Marion Paton first invited bird watchers into their backyard in the 1990s after they saw people in the street with binoculars looking in. When the Patons died, there was no plan for the future.

“It became internationally known because of particularly one species,” said Paul Green, president of the Tucson Audubon Society. “It’s really the only place in the United States that you can reliably see the Violet-crowned hummingbird.”

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Whose fault is your lager hangover? Blame it on migrating birds

Researchers say the hybrid yeast that makes the world's favourite beer was probably created when a tree-dwelling Patagonian strain crossed the Atlantic with migrating birds

Robin McKie

The Observer, Sunday 13 April 2014

Lager drinkers can thank the birds for their favourite tipple. That is the conclusion of US scientists who say the yeast involved in making their beloved amber nectar could have been spread round the planet by migrating birds.

The work, by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, follows up on the 2011 discovery that a key component of the yeast used to make cold-brewed beers came from Patagonia, in South America.

Lager – which, say its multitudinous fans, has a crisper, cleaner taste than warm-brewed ales – was first made by monks in Bavaria 500 years ago, using a yeast that has since been shown to be a hybrid of European yeast and another yeast. It was this latter yeast that was traced to colonies found in trees in Patagonia three years ago.

The discovery raised a critical question, however. How did that yeast make it from South America to Europe, a 7,000-mile journey, and there form a hybrid with an old world version? When the discovery of the Patagonian link was announced, most speculation focused on the idea that the yeast could have arrived in the timbers of boats of early traders to and from South America.

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