Spanish Mainland Research Articles

The biodiversity and genetic structure of Balearic sheep breeds.

The Balearic sheep breeds, Mallorquina, Menorquina, Roja Mallorquina, Ibicenca and one possible new genetic group, Formentera, constitute a unique genetic resource in the Mediterranean farming landscape, displaying high genetic diversity levels and being well differentiated among themselves and with respect to the continental sheep breeds. We used a microsatellite panel of markers to study genetic diversity and relationships with other Spanish breeds. The results reported in this study have important implications for the use, conservation and breeding of Balearic sheep stocks. A mean number of 7.59 alleles was found among the Balearic sheep breeds for the microsatellites scored. The whole mean value of observed heterozygosity amounted to 0.62, whereas the expected heterozygosity value was 0.69, suggesting the presence of a great degree of genetic variability, although a significant deficit of heterozygotes was detected for some markers. Genetic distance estimates showed that Balearic sheep are differentiated from the other Spanish breeds and in particular, from the Merino type. The Ibicenca breed showed the highest distance value from other breeds. The neighbour-net method of analysis clustered the Roja Mallorquina, Menorquina and Mallorquina breeds. The Structure results clearly demonstrated the genetic differentiation among the four Balearic sheep breeds, with the Ibicenca and Formentera races joined, with slight migration among them. Few external genetic influences from the Spanish mainland breeds were detected.

Spread of the yellow‐legged hornet Vespa velutina nigrithorax du Buysson (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) across Northern Spain

The yellow‐legged hornet Vespa velutina nigrithorax du Buysson (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) is an Asian native species which has now established in parts of Europe. Since its detection in France in 2005 it has spread quickly across the country and also spread to the Iberian Peninsula. This paper compiles the most recent data about its spread and distribution on the Spanish mainland. The efficacy of using Véto‐Pharma© traps as a control method is also discussed.

MOTEDAS: a new monthly temperature database for mainland Spain and the trend in temperature (1951–2010)

ABSTRACTWe have developed a new monthly temperature database for mainland Spain by using the complete holding of maximum and minimum monthly mean values stored at the Spanish National Meteorological Agency (AEMet). After an exhaustive quality control exercise, the data set includes 1358 complete series, and a high‐resolution grid (0.1° × 0.1°) was calculated to analyse monthly trends. There has been an uneven increase in the mean values of maximum and minimum temperatures in the Spanish mainland from 1951 to 2010. The maximum monthly mean temperature values have risen mostly in late winter/early spring and the summer, while the minimum monthly mean temperature values have increased in summer, spring and autumn in southern areas. The spatial pattern of the diurnal temperature range shows a clear north–south gradient in summer, with positive trends in the north and negative trends in the south; furthermore, a negative pattern has been detected in the south in spring and autumn. These areas, particularly the Mediterranean coastland, have been subject to dramatic urbanization and land use changes during the past 30 years that may have affected nocturnal temperatures, in particular. Thus, warming processes in the Iberian Peninsula appear to be influenced both by global factors and more local ones, and their effects should be differentiated spatially.

How changes in diet and trade patterns have shaped the N cycle at the national scale: Spain (1961–2009)

During the last five decades (1961–2009), Spain has experienced a considerable expansion in the nutrient cycle of its agricultural sector and, in particular, a threefold increase in anthropogenic reactive nitrogen inputs, from 536 Gg N year−1 in 1961–1965 to 1673 Gg N year−1 in 2005–2009. Import of feed (soybean, cereals, and cakes) from America and Europe to supply a growing livestock population constitutes the largest share of this increase, along with intensification of synthetic fertilizer use. While in the early 1960s, Spain was nearly self-sufficient in terms of food and feed supply, the net import of agricultural products presently equals domestic crop production, when expressed in terms of nitrogen content (ca. 650 Gg N year−1). The most important driver of this shift appears to be the rapid change in domestic consumption patterns, which evolved from a typical Mediterranean diet to an animal-protein-rich diet similar to the North European and American diets. Besides livestock production mostly for national consumption, the Spanish agricultural system has specialized in vegetal products with low N content such as olive oil, wine, vegetables, and citrus fruit, which are for the most part exported. The nitrogen load exported outside the Spanish borders by rivers is very low (6.5 % of the total net N input). As a result of the high import and low export of reactive nitrogen, the Spanish mainland is suffering from considerable pollution by local emissions of reactive nitrogen forms to air and water.

Screening of vip genes from a Spanish Bacillus thuringiensis collection and characterization of two Vip3 proteins highly toxic to five lepidopteran crop pests

A Spanish Bacillus thuringiensis strain collection was screened for the presence of vip genes. One hundred strains from a Canary Island collection were screened for vip1 and vip2 genes and 7% contained potentially novel vip1 and vip2-like genes, as indicated by the low degree of similarity with previously known vip1 and vip2 genes. Four hundred strains from a collection originating from the Spanish mainland were screened for vip3 genes and 14.5% of them contained potentially novel vip3-like genes. Reconstruction of the full-length vip sequences could only be achieved for two vip3 gene variants encoding 789 and 787 amino acid proteins that were designated as Vip3Aa45 and Vip3Ag4, respectively. These proteins showed 82% pairwise identity between them and differed from Vip3Aa1 in the putative signal peptide, two specific proteolytic processing sites and the 66-kDa insecticidal fragment. The purified proteins were tested against nine lepidopteran pest species and displayed toxicity, expressed as mean lethal concentration, for five of them. The two toxins were highly toxic for Lobesia botrana (∼1–2μg/ml) and Spodoptera littoralis (∼20ng/cm2), moderately toxic for Spodoptera exigua (∼100–300ng/cm2), and varied greatly in their toxicity for Mamestra brassicae or Chrysodeixis chalcites, with high toxicity for Vip3Aa45 in M. brassicae (∼40ng/cm2) and for Vip3Ag4 in C. chalcites (∼45ng/cm2).

Quality of life of menopausal women in the island of Majorca: a population based study

Objectives: To explore demographic and epidemiological characteristics surrounding menopause among women of Majorca, estimate their health related quality of life (QOL), and ascertain wheather they differ from those of the mainland population of menopausal women.Methods: A cross-sectional population-based study was conducted with a sample of 428 women. The Cervantes questionnaire for measuring QOL during menopause was used.Results: Among women in Majorca, the mean QOL is better than the national mean of the Spain reference population. It declines with age and levels off at menopause. In menopausal women, QOL improves slightly in tandem with educational level. 29% of menopausal women were on some form of therapy, most commonly a mix of estrogens and gestagens (36%). Only a weak association was detected between being menopausal and QOL.Conclusion: The Cervantes questionnaire allows periodic study sample cut-offs to determine whether changes in sociodemographic and disease-related variables are also accompanied by changes in self-perceived QOL. It is much better in menopausal women in Majorca than in those in the Spanish mainland.

Modelling long-term fire occurrence factors in Spain by accounting for local variations with geographically weighted regression

Abstract. Humans are responsible for most forest fires in Europe, but anthropogenic factors behind these events are still poorly understood. We tried to identify the driving factors of human-caused fire occurrence in Spain by applying two different statistical approaches. Firstly, assuming stationary processes for the whole country, we created models based on multiple linear regression and binary logistic regression to find factors associated with fire density and fire presence, respectively. Secondly, we used geographically weighted regression (GWR) to better understand and explore the local and regional variations of those factors behind human-caused fire occurrence. The number of human-caused fires occurring within a 25-yr period (1983–2007) was computed for each of the 7638 Spanish mainland municipalities, creating a binary variable (fire/no fire) to develop logistic models, and a continuous variable (fire density) to build standard linear regression models. A total of 383 657 fires were registered in the study dataset. The binary logistic model, which estimates the probability of having/not having a fire, successfully classified 76.4% of the total observations, while the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model explained 53% of the variation of the fire density patterns (adjusted R2 = 0.53). Both approaches confirmed, in addition to forest and climatic variables, the importance of variables related with agrarian activities, land abandonment, rural population exodus and developmental processes as underlying factors of fire occurrence. For the GWR approach, the explanatory power of the GW linear model for fire density using an adaptive bandwidth increased from 53% to 67%, while for the GW logistic model the correctly classified observations improved only slightly, from 76.4% to 78.4%, but significantly according to the corrected Akaike Information Criterion (AICc), from 3451.19 to 3321.19. The results from GWR indicated a significant spatial variation in the local parameter estimates for all the variables and an important reduction of the autocorrelation in the residuals of the GW linear model. Despite the fitting improvement of local models, GW regression, more than an alternative to "global" or traditional regression modelling, seems to be a valuable complement to explore the non-stationary relationships between the response variable and the explanatory variables. The synergy of global and local modelling provides insights into fire management and policy and helps further our understanding of the fire problem over large areas while at the same time recognizing its local character.

Map on predicted deposition of Cs-137 in Spanish soils from geostatistical analyses

The knowledge of the distribution of 137Cs deposition over Spanish mainland soils along with the geographical, physical and morphological terrain information enable us to know the 137Cs background content in soil. This could be useful as a tool in a hypothetical situation of an accident involving a radioactive discharge or in soil erosion studies. A Geographic Information System (GIS) would allow the gathering of all the mentioned information. In this work, gamma measurements of 137Cs on 34 Spanish mainland soils, rainfall data taken from 778 weather stations, soil types and geographical and physical terrain information were input into a GIS. Geostatistical techniques were applied to interpolate values of 137Cs activity at unsampled places, obtaining prediction maps of 137Cs deposition. Up to now, geostatistical methods have been used to model spatial continuity of data. Through semivariance and cross-covariance functions the spatial correlation of such data can be studied and described. Ordinary and simple kriging techniques were carried out to map spatial patterns of 137Cs deposition, and ordinary and simple co-kriging were used to improve the prediction map obtained through a second related variable: namely the rainfall. To choose the best prediction map of 137Cs deposition, the spatial dependence of the variable, the correlation coefficient and the prediction errors were evaluated using the different models previously mentioned. The best result for 137Cs deposition map was obtained when applying the co-kriging techniques.

Experiencias constructivas del terremoto de Lorca

El terremoto de Lorca del 11 de mayo de 2011 es el más importante que ha sufrido el territorio peninsular español en los últimos 55 años, desde el terremoto de Albolote (Granada) de 1956 que, casualmente, fue del mismo tipo y tuvo idéntica magnitud de 5,1 grados en la escala Richter. En estos 55 años, la tipología de los edificios ha cambiado completamente, pasando de edificios de muros de fábrica de hasta dos plantas de altura, a la generalización de edificios de pisos de una media de 6 plantas, de pilares y vigas con nudos rígidos y forjados de hormigón. Es importante extraer experiencias constructivas del comportamiento que han tenido los edificios de Lorca, porque es el único caso real de que disponemos, para la mejora de la seguridad estructural antisísmica de los edificios en España. En Lorca se ha constatado el mal comportamiento de las estructuras de fábrica de ladrillo con las que está construido el patrimonio histórico. Se ha probado que, con la sola excepción de un edificio, las estructuras nuevas de hormigón y acero han superado una aceleración sísmica del triple de la prevista por la norma sismorresistente NCSE-02, con la que fueron calculadas. Por el contrario, se ha constatado un pésimo comportamiento de los elementos de fábrica (petos, cerramientos, tabiques, etc, de ladrillo) con fracasos generalizados, que son los que produjeron los enormes daños materiales en las viviendas y los daños personales. Estos elementos no son «estructurales», pero la norma NCSE-02 establecía para ellos unas condiciones que no debieron aplicarse en las construcciones realizadas desde su implantación.

Inventory and vertical migration of 90Sr fallout and 137Cs/ 90Sr ratio in Spanish mainland soils

In this paper the inventory of 90Sr in 34 points distributed along the Spanish peninsular territory is presented. Obtained values range between 173 Bq/m 2 and 2047 Bq/m 2. From these data set and those 137Cs data obtained in a previous work the 137Cs/ 90Sr activity ratio has been established, laying this value between 0.9 and 3.6. Also the migration depth of both radionuclides has been analysed obtaining for 137Cs an average value 57% lower than that obtained for 90Sr. Additionally, this paper presents the results obtained in 11 sampling points in which the activity vertical profile has been measured. These profiles have been analysed to state the behaviour of strontium in soils and after, by using a convective–diffusive model, the parameters of the model which governs the vertical migration of 90Sr in the soil, v (apparent convection velocity) and D (apparent diffusion coefficient) have been evaluated. Mean values obtained are 0.20 cm/year and 3.67 cm 2/year, respectively.

<strong>Checklist of the caddisflies of the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands (Trichoptera)</strong>

The first faunistic review of the caddisflies (Trichoptera) from the Iberian Peninsula, using as a reference the Limnofauna Europaea, was presented in 1987 and included 267 species. A comprehensive faunistic, nomenclatorial and systematically revised checklist of the Iberian caddsiflies was given in 1992 and included 294 species for the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands. Since 1992 our knowledge of the faunistic composition of some peninsular areas, especially of the meridional half and the Mediterranean region have considerably improved. It is now possible to update significantly the knowledge of caddisflies in the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands. We critically reviewed the literature data and supplemented these with our recent new records. We also take into consideration some unpublished collections of the authors from different Iberian regions. The checklist now contains 342 species (327, 185, 60 and 18 species from the Spanish mainland, the Portuguese mainland, Andorra, and the Balearic Islands, respectively), belonging to 75 genera and 22 families. Together, 4 families, i.e., Limnephilidae (23.7%), Hydroptilidae (14.9%), Leptoceridae (10.5%) and Rhyacophilidae (9.3 %), comprise 57% of the Iberian fauna.

Inventory and vertical migration of 137Cs in Spanish mainland soils

In this study the total activity of 137Cs deposited per unit area over the Spanish peninsular territory was analysed using a 150 × 150 km2 mesh grid, with samples taken from 29 points. The deposited activities ranged between 251 and 6074 Bq/m2. A linear relationship was obtained between these values and the mean annual rainfall at each sampling point which allowed a map to be drawn, using GIS software, which shows the distribution of total deposited 137Cs activity across the Spanish mainland. At twelve of these sampling points the vertical migration profile of 137Cs was obtained. These profiles are separated into two groups with different behaviour, one of which includes clay and loam soils and the other containing sandy soils. For both groups of profiles the parameters of the convective–diffusive model, which describes the vertical migration of 137Cs in the soil, v (apparent convection velocity) and D (apparent diffusion coefficient) were calculated.

Characterization of Peaks and Valleys of Electricity Demand. Application to the Spanish Mainland System in the Period 2000-2020

Energy planning must anticipate the development and strengthening of power grids, power plants construction times, and the provision of energy resources with the aim of increasing security of supply and its quality. This work presents a methodology for predicting power peaks in mainland Spain’s system in the decade 2011-2020. Forecasts of total electricity demand of Spanish energy authorities set the boundary conditions. The accuracy of the results has successfully been compared with records of demand (2000-2010) and with various predictions published. Three patterns have been observed: 1) efficiency in the winter peak; 2) increasing trend in the summer peak; 3) increasing trend in the annual valley of demand. By 2020, 58.1 GW and 53.0 GW are expected, respectively, as winter and summer peaks in a business-as-usual scenario. If the observed tendencies continue, former values can go down to 55.5 GW in winter and go up to 54.7 GW in summer. The annual minimum valley of demand will raise 5.5 GW, up to 23.4 GW. These detailed predictions can be very useful to identify the types of power plants needed to have an optimum structure in the electricity industry.

Background levels of polychlorinated biphenyls in the population of the Canary Islands (Spain)

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are persistent and toxic compounds that have been detected in human serum or tissues worldwide. The objective of our study was to determine serum PCB levels in a representative sample of the general population of the Spanish Archipelago of the Canary Islands (607 serum samples from subjects aged between 6 and 75 years) in order to establish the main causes of this contamination and to evaluate the potential risks posed by these chemicals on the population through the use of toxicity equivalence to dioxins (TEQs). PCB congeners (28, 52, 77, 81, 101, 105, 114, 118, 123, 126, 138, 153, 156, 157, 167, 169, 180, and 189) were measured by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Our results showed that PCB residues were found in 76% of serum samples analyzed, with the congeners 153 and 180 being the most frequently detected and having the highest median values (21.8 and 6.7 ng/g lipid, respectively). Serum levels of non-dioxin-like PCBs increased with age, body mass index (BMI), urban habitat, and smoking. The median concentration of the sum of PCBs considered as markers of environmental contamination by these chemicals (M-PCBs) was 46.4 ng/g lipid. Levels of the sum of dioxin-like PCBs (DL-PCBs) were 48.5 ng/g lipid in the 95th percentile, and were also positively associated with age. As a consequence, age seemed to be positively associated with TEQs levels, reaching values as high as 58.6 pg/g lipid in the serum samples from oldest people. Our results indicate that the inhabitants of the Canary Archipelago show levels of PCB contamination lower than other populations present on the Spanish mainland, as well as many populations from developed countries. Nevertheless, as these compounds may induce adverse health effects even at very low doses, our findings should be considered by local Public Health authorities in order to establish measures for diminishing the exposure of the population of these islands to PCBs.

A new orophilous species of the genus Dasylobus (Opiliones: Phalangiidae) from Sierra Nevada, Spain

A new species, Dasylobus nevadensis, is described; it inhabits high areas of the Sierra Nevada, the highest mountain chain in Spanish mainland. The new species is smaller than all other Iberian Dasylobus species and has short, annulated legs, light silver coloration, and is juvenile-like. Together with Roeweritta carpentieri (Roewer 1953), this is an orophilous endemic species from Sierra Nevada.

Mainland versus island differences in behaviour of Podarcis lizards confronted with dangerous prey: the scorpion Buthus occitanus

Rapid divergence in behaviour of populations invading novel habitats is often considered adaptive as it may allow a species to exploit novel resources. Here we explore the behavioural response of two closely related species of Podarcis lizards living in different habitats, the Spanish mainland and a dry volcanic island, towards a potentially dangerous prey. Our results show that whereas insular lizards attacked scorpions and consequently considered them to be potential prey, mainland lizards tended to flee or ignored them. Sexual differences in the response to scorpions were pronounced in the insular habitat. Males tended to attack scorpions while females tended to ignore them. Inter‐specific and inter‐sexual differences in the responses of lizards may be mediated by body size differences between populations and sexes. The rapid changes in behaviour allowing insular lizards to recognize scorpions as potential prey may have allowed these animals to capitalize on an abundant food resource in a depauperate environment.

A Creole origin for Barlovento Spanish? A linguistic and sociohistorical inquiry

ABSTRACTMcWhorter challenges the validity of the limited access model for creole formation, noting that “the mainland Spanish colonies put in question a model which is crucial to current creole genesis.” His thesis is that in the Spanish mainland colonies the disproportion between the Black and White populations was enough for the emergence of a creole language. This article focuses on one colony, Venezuela, and argues that Africans there had as much access to Spanish as they did in islands such as Cuba. Based on this fact, the relevant linguistic evidence is analyzed. The most important contribution of this study is the discussion of the Spanish crown's monopolization of the slave trade, which kept the Black/White ratio relatively low in certain Spanish colonies until the end of the 18th century. Until now, this part of the puzzle has been absent in the discussion of the missing Spanish creoles.

Is Mitochondrial DNA Variation Associated with Sporadic Breast Cancer Risk?

To the Editor: In the May 15, 2007 issue of Cancer Research, Bai et al. (1) claimed that individuals carrying haplogroup K mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) lineages are at significantly increased risk of developing breast cancer, whereas those bearing haplogroup U lineages have a significantly decreased risk. However, this study has a number of drawbacks. First, haplogroup K is phylogenetically nested within haplogroup U; consequently, diagnostic mutations in haplogroup U are necessarily also diagnostic in haplogroup K (in particular, A11467G, A12308G, and G12372A). Therefore, how can there be 29 cases belonging to haplogroup K but only 12 belonging to the broader group U? This is not trivial because these were the only two haplogroups found to be associated with breast cancer risk after correction for multiple testing. Second, the study does not investigate nor even mention the potential influence of population stratification in their sample of 156 European-American breast cancer patients and 260 controls, nor are their results replicated in an independent population. The door is therefore open to false-positive findings (type I error).We have collected breast cancer patients and ethnicity-matched controls from two different Spanish locations. One sample consisted of 464 cases and 453 controls from continental Spain (2), whereas the second, from Canary Islands, included 302 cases and 295 controls. The first sample has been tested for population stratification using a panel of neutral single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP; ref 2). Our samples were genotyped for a set of 25 mtDNA SNPs, including all those with evidence of association based on unadjusted P values in (1) as well as the variant G10398A reported in (3, 4). We found no evidence of association for any of the variants after adjustment for multiple testing in either sample (Table 1). With the Spanish mainland sample alone, we had ∼80% power to detect odds ratios (OR) as low as 2.00 for G9055A and 1.50 for A12308G (the two variants that define haplogroups K and U, respectively). In fact, OR estimates for the variants G9055A and A12308G were in the opposite direction to those reported in (1): 0.65 [95% confidence interval (95% CI), 0.36–1.18] and 0.87 (95% CI, 0.45–1.66) in Spanish mainland and Canary Island samples, respectively, for G9055A; and 0.74 (95% CI, 0.55–0.99) and 0.77 (95% CI, 0.52–1.14), respectively, for A12308G.MtDNA variation is deeply structured in populations. These markers are therefore more susceptible to false-positive findings in association studies than autosomal SNPs (5). Phenotype alone is not sufficient to rule out the existence of different mtDNA ancestries in a population sample (this is especially true in countries such as the USA; ref. 6). In this regard, the positive SNP associations with breast cancer found by other authors (3, 4) are also questionable. Assessing population stratification and/or replication of positive associations using independent samples is therefore essential in all association studies, and even more so in those of MtDNA. We conclude that although it is possible that mtDNA variation is associated with breast cancer risk, this remains to be properly shown.

Transculturización, adaptación, reajustes e influencias en el léxico de la época de los Austrias: interacciones en los zoónimos Canarios

The strong historical link between the Canary Islands and the Americas has facilitated the existence of a tight lexical relationship between both territories. This connection began right from the period of their conquest and colonization. So, the creation of the new lexical repertoires in the Canaries and America shares the same processes, timing and features. But this likeness, often studied and justified, could not hide the peculiarities of the Canarian lexicon that follow from the historical and social facts of the Canarian Europeanization process. These singularities appear in different jargons, but perhaps it is specially evident in the case of animal names: the lack of terms derived from the language of the guanches, the scarce presence of words coming from the west of the Spanish mainland, contrary to what happens in other repertoires, and the degree of wealth and the spread of literacy, are the most important characteristics of this lexical field.

Potential for higher invasiveness of the alien Oxalis pes-caprae on islands than on the mainland

The higher vulnerability of islands to invasions compared to mainland areas has been partially attributed to a simplification of island communities, with lower levels of natural enemies and competitors on islands conferring vacant niches for invaders to establish and proliferate. However, differences in invader life-history traits between populations have received less attention. We conducted a broad geographical analysis (i.e. 1050 km wide transect) of plant traits comparing insular and mainland populations to test the hypothesis that alien plants from insular populations have the potential for higher invasiveness than their alien mainland counterparts. For this purpose plants of the annual geophyte Oxalis pes-caprae were grown from bulbs collected in the Balearic islands and the Spanish mainland under common greenhouse conditions. There were no significant differences in bulb emergence and plant survival between descendants from insular and mainland populations. However, Oxalis descendants from insular populations produced 20% more bulbs without reducing allocation to bulb size, above-ground biomass or flowering than descendants from mainland populations. Based on the lack of sexual reproduction in Oxalis and the dependence of invasion on bulb production, our study suggests that the higher occurrence of Oxalis in the Balearic islands than in the Spanish mainland can partially be explained by genetically based higher propagation potential of insular populations compared to mainland populations.