Stability of R-phycoerythrin from Furcellaria lumbricalis - Dependence on purification strategies and purity.

R-phycoerythrin (R-PE) is the most abundant, naturally occurring phycobiliproteins found in red algae. The spectroscopic and structural properties of phycobiliproteins exhibit unique absorption characteristics with two significant absorption maxima at 498 and 565 nm, indicating two different chromophores of R-PE, phycourobilin and phycoerythrobilin respectively. This study aimed to clarify how the stability of R-PE purified from F. lumbricalis was affected by different purification strategies. Crude extracts were compared to R-PE purified by i) microfiltration, ii) ultrafiltration, and iii) multi-step ammonium sulphate precipitation followed by dialysis. The stability of the different R-PE preparations was evaluated with respect to pH (2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12) and temperature (20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 °C). The absorbance spectra indicated higher stability of phycourobilin as compared to phycoerythrobilin for heat and pH stability in the samples. All preparations of R-PE showed heat stability till 40 °C from the findings of color, concentration of R-PE and fluorescence emission. The crude extract showed stability from pH 6 to 8, whereas R-PE purified by ultrafiltration and multi-step ammonium sulphate precipitation were both stable from pH 4 to 8 and R-PE purified by microfiltration exhibited stability from pH 4 to 10 from the results of color, SDS-PAGE, and concentration of R-PE. At pH 2, the color changed to violet whereas a yellow color was observed at pH 12 in the samples along with the precipitation of the protein.

Reactions of wintering passerines to male calls of the European cuckoo Cuculus canorus.

The reaction of birds to the nest parasite, the European cuckoo Cuculus canorus, has been the subject of extensive testing in various aspects. However, while the cuckoo is a long-distance migrant, some of its hosts are sedentary species. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether species, primarily hosts, react to the presence of the cuckoo also in the winter season. This behaviour may involve an attempt to drive the parasite away from locations that will subsequently become their breeding sites. During playback experiments conducted in the winter of 2021/2022 in Poland, we demonstrated that numerous bird species react to the male cuckoo calls in winter. These calls may be perceived as a source of danger, particularly by cuckoo hosts, who responded to this call more frequently than non-hosts and the control species (pigeon). Nonetheless, the birds' reactions were not strong, as they did not approach the source of the call. However, our results are constrained by the limited number of cuckoo host species wintering in Poland. To better evaluate the intensity of bird responses to the male cuckoo's call during the non-breeding season, further studies should be conducted in regions where a greater variety of species, especially those most susceptible to parasitism, overwinter.

Stability of individual anthocyanins from black carrots stored in light and darkness - Impact of acylation.

Black carrot anthocyanins have gained increasing attention as natural coloring agent, owing to their higher stability than anthocyanins from berries. The stability has been attributed to their higher degree of acylation. This study investigated the impact of acylation on the stability of individual anthocyanins during storage in light and darkness. We hypothesized that the acylated anthocyanins would be more stable than the non-acylated ones. The major five anthocyanins were fractioned by semi-preparative HPLC and stored at pH 4.5 in light and darkness to investigate how acylation affected the stability. The stability was evaluated by absorption spectroscopy and mass spectrometry (MS). Two of the anthocyanins were non-acylated; 3-xylosyl(glucosyl)galactoside and cyanidin 3-xylosylgalactoside, and three were acylated; cyanidin 3-xylosyl(sinapolyglucosyl)galacto-side, cyanidin 3-xylosyl(feruloylglu-cosyl)galactoside, and cyanidin 3-xylosyl(coumaroyl-glucosyl)galactoside. Both methods (spectroscopy and MS) showed a clear effect of acylation when stored in light, but surprisingly the two non-acylated anthocyanins, showed higher stability than the three acylated ones.

Trends in Lower Extremity Artery Disease Repair Incidence, Comorbidity, and Mortality: A Danish Nationwide Cohort Study, 1996-2018.

Background: The prevalence of occlusive lower extremity artery disease (LEAD) is rising worldwide while European epidemiology data are scarce. We report incidence and mortality of LEAD repair in Denmark from 1996 through 2018, stratified on open aorto-iliac, open peripheral, and endovascular repair. Methods: A nationwide cohort study of prospective data from population-based Danish registers covering 1996 to 2018. Comorbidity was assessed by Charlson's Comorbidity Index (CCI). Incidence rate (IR) ratios and mortality rate ratios (MRR) were estimated by multivariable Poisson and Cox regression, respectively. Results: We identified 41,438 unique patients undergoing 46,236 incident first-time LEAD repairs by either aorto-iliac- (n=5213), peripheral surgery (n=18,665) or percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA, n=22,358). From 1996 to 2018, the age- and sex-standardized IR for primary revascularization declined from 71.8 to 50.2 per 100,000 person-years (IRR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.66-0.75). Following a 2.5-fold IR increase of PTA from 1996 to 2010, all three repair techniques showed a declining trend after 2010. The declining IR was driven by decreasing LEAD repair due to claudication, and by persons aged below 80 years, while the IR increased in persons aged above 80 years (p interaction<0.001). LEAD repair was more frequent in men (IRRfemale vs male, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.77-0.80), which was consistent over calendar time (p interaction=0.41). Crude mortality decreased following open/surgical repair, and increased following PTA, but all three techniques trended towards lower adjusted mortality comparing the start and the end of the study period (MRRaorto-iliac, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.54-0.93 vs MRRperipheral, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.69-0.83 vs MRRPTA, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.86-1.07). Increasing age and CCI, male sex, smoking, and care dependency associated with increased mortality. Conclusion: The incidence rate of LEAD repair decreased in Denmark from 1996 to 2018, especially in persons younger than 80 years, and primarily due to reduced revascularization for claudication. Adjusted mortality rates decreased following open surgery, but seemed unaltered following PTA.

Trends in Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair Incidence, Comorbidity, Treatment, and Mortality: A Danish Nationwide Cohort Study, 1996-2018.

Background: Significant changes in Western populations' abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) epidemiology have been reported following the introduction of screening, endovascular AAA repair, and reduced tobacco consumption. We report incidence and mortality of AAA repair in Denmark from 1996 to 2018, where AAA screening was not implemented. Methods: Nationwide cohort study of prospective data from population-based Danish registries covering 1996 to 2018. We identified 15,395 patients undergoing first-time AAA repair using the Danish Vascular Registry. Comorbidity was assessed by Charlson's Comorbidity Index (CCI). Incidence rate (IR) ratios and mortality rate ratios (MRR) were estimated by multivariable Poisson and Cox regression, respectively. Results: Overall AAA repair IR decreased by 24% from 1996 through 2018, mainly reflecting a 53% IR reduction in ruptured AAA repairs in men. Overall, the IR decreased 52-63% in age groups below 70 years and increased 81% among octogenarians. The proportion of intact AAAs repaired endovascularly increased from 2% in 1996-1999 to 42% in 2015-2018. For both ruptured and intact AAAs the CCI score increased by 0.9% annually independently of age and sex. The adjusted five-year MRR in 2016-2018 vs.1996-2000 was 0.46 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.39-0.54) following ruptured and 0.51 (95% CI: 0.44-0.59) following intact AAA repair. Conclusion: In Denmark, overall AAA repair incidence decreased between 1996 and 2018, primarily reflecting a reduction among males and a shift to an older population requiring intervention. These trends mirror changes in tobacco consumption in Denmark. Regardless of age and comorbidity, AAA repair mortality decreased markedly during the study period.

Dynamic whole-body [18F]FES PET/CT increases lesion visibility in patients with metastatic breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: Correct classification of estrogen receptor (ER) status is essential for prognosis and treatment planning in patients with breast cancer (BC). Therefore, it is recommended to sample tumor tissue from an accessible metastasis. However, ER expression can show intra- and intertumoral heterogeneity. 16α-[18F]fluoroestradiol ([18F]FES) Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (PET/CT) allows noninvasive whole-body (WB) identification of ER distribution and is usually performed as a single static image 60 min after radiotracer injection. Using dynamic whole-body (D-WB) PET imaging, we examine [18F]FES kinetics and explore whether Patlak parametric images ( K i ) are quantitative and improve lesion visibility. RESULTS: This prospective study included eight patients with metastatic ER-positive BC scanned using a D-WB PET acquisition protocol. The kinetics of [18F]FES were best characterized by the irreversible two-tissue compartment model in tumor lesions and in the majority of organ tissues. K i values from Patlak parametric images correlated with K i values from the full kinetic analysis, r2 = 0.77, and with the semiquantitative mean standardized uptake value (SUVmean), r2 = 0.91. Furthermore, parametric K i images had the highest target-to-background ratio (TBR) in 162/164 metastatic lesions and the highest contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) in 99/164 lesions compared to conventional SUV images. TBR was 2.45 (95% confidence interval (CI): 2.25-2.68) and CNR 1.17 (95% CI: 1.08-1.26) times higher in K i images compared to SUV images. These quantitative differences were seen as reduced background activity in the K i images. CONCLUSION: [18F]FES uptake is best described by an irreversible two-tissue compartment model. D-WB [18F]FES PET/CT scans can be used for direct reconstruction of parametric K i images, with superior lesion visibility and K i values comparable to K i values found from full kinetic analyses. This may aid correct ER classification and treatment decisions. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04150731, https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04150731.

Dense city centers support less evolutionary unique bird communities than sparser urban areas.

Urbanization alters avian communities, generally lowering the number of species and contemporaneously increasing their functional relatedness, leading to biotic homogenization. Urbanization can also negatively affect the phylogenetic diversity of species assemblages, potentially decreasing their evolutionary distinctiveness. We compare species assemblages in a gradient of building density in seventeen European cities to test whether the evolutionary distinctiveness of communities is shaped by the degree of urbanization. We found a significant decline in the evolutionary uniqueness of avian communities in highly dense urban areas, compared to low and medium-dense areas. Overall, communities from dense city centers supported one million years of evolutionary history less than communities from low-dense urban areas. Such evolutionary homogenization was due to a filtering process of the most evolutionarily unique birds. Metrics related to evolutionary uniqueness have to play a role when assessing the effects of urbanization and can be used to identify local conservation priorities.

Host space, not energy or symbiont size, constrains feather mite abundance across passerine bird species.

Comprehending symbiont abundance among host species is a major ecological endeavour, and the metabolic theory of ecology has been proposed to understand what constrains symbiont populations. We parameterized metabolic theory equations to investigate how bird species' body size and the body size of their feather mites relate to mite abundance according to four potential energy (uropygial gland size) and space constraints (wing area, total length of barbs and number of feather barbs). Predictions were compared with the empirical scaling of feather mite abundance across 106 passerine bird species (26,604 individual birds sampled), using phylogenetic modelling and quantile regression. Feather mite abundance was strongly constrained by host space (number of feather barbs) but not by energy. Moreover, feather mite species' body size was unrelated to the body size of their host species. We discuss the implications of our results for our understanding of the bird-feather mite system and for symbiont abundance in general.

Metal-Organic Framework Glass as a Functional Filler Enables Enhanced Performance of Solid-State Polymer Electrolytes for Lithium Metal Batteries.

Polymers are promising candidates as solid-state electrolytes due to their performance and processability, but fillers play a critical role in adjusting the polymer network structure and electrochemical, thermal, and mechanical properties. Most fillers studied so far are anisotropic, limiting the possibility of homogeneous ion transport. Here, applying metal-organic framework (MOF) glass as an isotropic functional filler, solid-state polyethylene oxide (PEO) electrolytes are prepared. Calorimetric and diffusion kinetics tests show that the MOF glass addition reduces the glass transition temperature of the polymer phase, improving the mobility of the polymer chains, and thereby facilitating lithium (Li) ion transport. By also incorporating the lithium salt and ionic liquid (IL), Li-Li symmetric cell tests of the PEO-lithium salt-MOF glass-IL electrolyte reveal low overpotential, indicating low interfacial impedance. Simulations show that the isotropic structure of the MOF glass facilitates the wettability of the IL by enhancing interfacial interactions, leading to a less confined IL structure that promotes Li-ion mobility. Finally, the obtained electrolyte is used to construct Li-lithium iron phosphate full batteries that feature high cycle stability and rate capability. This work therefore demonstrates how an isotropic functional filler can be used to enhance the electrochemical performance of solid-state polymer electrolytes.

Variation in bill surface area is associated with local climatic factors across populations of the plain laughingthrush.

Recent studies have found that avian bill and tarsus morphology may have evolved in response to climatic conditions, and these organs play important roles in thermoregulation and water retention in extreme environments. Here, we examined whether bill surface area and tarsus length were associated with climatic conditions in the plain laughingthrush, Garrulax davidi, which mainly occurs in north China and occupies several climatic zones from east to west. We measured bill surface area and tarsus length in 321 adults from 11 populations, almost encompassing all habitat types of the species. We analyzed the relationships among these morphological traits and local climatic factors. Bill surface area was positively correlated with maximum temperature, indicating that bill surface area tended to be larger in hotter environments. Furthermore, we found a negative relationship among bill surface area and winter precipitation, indicating that bill surface area tended to be larger in arid areas. However, we did not find any relationships between tarsus length and climatic factors. These results suggest that local climates may shape the evolution of bill morphology divergence, and summer seems to be the critical season for thermoregulation in this temperate zone passerine.

Unleashing the sequestration potential of soil organic carbon under climate and land use change scenarios in Danish agroecosystems.

Future global climate changes are expected to increase soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition. However, the combined effect of C inputs, land use changes, and climate on SOC turnover is still unclear. Exploring this SOC-climate-land use interaction allows us to understand the SOC stabilization mechanisms and examine whether the soil can act as a source or a sink for CO2. The current study estimates the SOC sequestration potential in the topsoil layer of Danish agricultural lands by 2038, considering the effect of land use change and future climate scenarios using the Rothamsted Carbon (RothC) model. Additionally, we quantified the loss vulnerability of existing and projected SOC based on the soil capacity to stabilize OC. We used the quantile random forest model to estimate the initial SOC stock by 2018, and we simulated the SOC sequestration potential with RothC for a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario and a crop rotation change (LUC) scenario under climate change conditions by 2038. We compared the projected SOC stocks with the carbon saturation deficit. The initial SOC stock ranged from 10 to 181 Mg C ha-1 in different parts of the country. The projections showed a SOC loss of 8.1 Mg C ha-1 for the BAU scenario and 6 Mg C ha-1 after the LUC adoption. This SOC loss was strongly influenced by warmer temperatures and clay content. The proposed crop rotation became a mitigation measure against the negative effect of climate change on SOC accumulation, especially in sandy soils with a high livestock density. A high C accumulation in C-saturated soils suggests an increase in non-complexed SOC, which is vulnerable to being lost into the atmosphere as CO2. With these results, we provide information to prioritize areas where different soil management practices can be adopted to enhance SOC sequestration in stable forms and preserve the labile-existing SOC stocks.

A survey of preferences for respiratory support in the intensive care unit for patients with acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure.

BACKGROUND: When caring for mechanically ventilated adults with acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure (AHRF), clinicians are faced with an uncertain choice between ventilator modes allowing for spontaneous breaths or ventilation fully controlled by the ventilator. The preferences of clinicians managing such patients, and what motivates their choice of ventilator mode, are largely unknown. To better understand how clinicians' preferences may impact the choice of ventilatory support for patients with AHRF, we issued a survey to an international network of intensive care unit (ICU) researchers. METHODS: We distributed an online survey with 32 broadly similar and interlinked questions on how clinicians prioritise spontaneous or controlled ventilation in invasively ventilated patients with AHRF of different severity, and which factors determine their choice. RESULTS: The survey was distributed to 1337 recipients in 12 countries. Of these, 415 (31%) completed the survey either fully (52%) or partially (48%). Most respondents were identified as medical specialists (87%) or physicians in training (11%). Modes allowing for spontaneous ventilation were considered preferable in mild AHRF, with controlled ventilation considered as progressively more important in moderate and severe AHRF. Among respondents there was strong support (90%) for a randomised clinical trial comparing spontaneous with controlled ventilation in patients with moderate AHRF. CONCLUSIONS: The responses from this international survey suggest that there is clinical equipoise for the preferred ventilator mode in patients with AHRF of moderate severity. We found strong support for a randomised trial comparing modes of ventilation in patients with moderate AHRF.

To Flee or Not to Flee: How Age, Reproductive Phase, and Mate Presence Affect White Stork Flight Decisions.

Recognizing, assessing, and responding to threats is critical for survival in the wild. Birds, especially in their role as parents, must decide whether to flee or delay flight when threatened. This study examines how age, reproductive stage, and the presence of a mate influence flight initiation distance (FID) and nest recess duration in white storks. Analyzing the data with a generalized additive mixed model (GAMM), we found significant correlations between FID and age, reproductive stage, and presence of a mate. These results suggest that the trade-off between current and future reproduction shifts during critical breeding periods, such as incubation and nestling care. To increase breeding success, White Storks appear willing to take risks and extend their stay in the nest when offspring are most valuable and vulnerable. In the presence of a mate, individuals leave the nest earlier, suggesting possible sexual conflict over parental care. The duration of nest abandonment is consistent with FID, except for age. These results illustrate how parental age, brood value, vulnerability, and sexual dynamics influence white stork flight decisions in complex ways. Understanding these dynamics enriches our knowledge of bird behavior and adaptations to environmental challenges and highlights the complexity of parental decision making.

Defensive tolerance to parasitism is correlated with sexual selection in swallows.

Parasite-mediated sexual selection has been the topic of extensive research and enthusiastic debate for more than three decades. Here, we suggest that secondary sexual characters may not only signal parasite resistance but also defensive tolerance. We exemplify this possibility by analysing information on two sexually selected traits, annual reproductive success, and ectoparasitism in a barn swallow Hirundo rustica population followed for more than 30 years. For each individual, we estimated the slope of the association between reproductive success and parasitism as an index of tolerance and subsequently explored the association with the expression of the sexually selected traits. In accordance with expectations of parasites playing a role in sexual selection, tail length was negatively related to load of chewing lice and nest size was positively related to tolerance to chewing lice. We discuss the importance of considering defensive tolerance for understanding the role of parasite-mediated sexual selection.

A qualitative content analysis of the experience of hypospadias care: The importance of owning your own narrative.

Objectives: There is a lack of studies on men's individual experiences of living with hypospadias. We aimed to explore the personal experiences of having hypospadias in relation to healthcare and surgery. Subjects and methods: Purposive sampling was used to include men (aged 18 and over) with hypospadias representing different phenotypes (from distal to proximal) and ages in order to maximise the variation and richness of our data. Seventeen informants, aged 20-49, were included in the study. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted between 2019 and 2021. Inductive qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data. Results: We identified three categories: (1) Having surgery, which comprised the decision to operate, the experience of having surgery, and the outcomes of surgery; (2) Going to the doctor, which focused on follow-up care, re-entering care in adolescence or adulthood, and the experience of healthcare interactions; (3) Being informed, both about hypospadias in general, as well as about your specific body and medical history. There was overall a large variation in experiences. The latent theme across the data was the importance of owning your own narrative. Conclusion: The experience of men with hypospadias in healthcare is complex and varied, highlighting the difficulty of fully standardised care. Based on our results, we suggest that follow-up should be offered in adolescence, and that ways of accessing care for late onset complications be made clear. We further suggest clearer consideration for the psychological and sexual aspects of hypospadias. Consent and integrity in all aspects and all ages of hypospadias care should be adapted to the maturity of the individual. Access to trustworthy information is key, both directly from educated healthcare staff and if possible, from websites or patient-led forums. Healthcare can play a key role in providing the growing individual with tools to understand and address concerns that may develop relating to their hypospadias through life, giving them ownership over their own narrative.

Long-term consistency in susceptibility of prey species to predation by an avian predator.

Selection by predators affects prey through competition for limiting resources. This not only has consequences for direct mortality but also indirectly affects disturbance. Changes in the intensity of selection on prey by predators may affect the size of prey populations, with consequences for their short- or long-term interactions. We assessed whether predation by northern goshawks Accipiter gentilis modified the composition of prey communities consistently along a temporal gradient, showing long-term consistency in susceptibility of prey species to predation. We followed six populations of the goshawk in two biomes in Denmark and Finland during 1949-2019. Susceptibility to goshawk predation in 2005-2017 in Denmark was only weakly related to susceptibility to goshawk predation in 1977-2004. In Finland, susceptibility of shared prey species to goshawk predation was positively related between periods. The average difference in susceptibility to goshawk predation between periods was considerably higher in Denmark than in Finland. Susceptibility of prey species to predation in goshawks increased with latitude and body mass of prey species, and decreased with period of time and population density of prey species. The changes in susceptibility to predation suggest changes in the characteristics of the local prey pools.

Effects of light and noise pollution on avian communities of European cities are correlated with the species' diet.

Urbanization affects avian community composition in European cities, increasing biotic homogenization. Anthropic pollution (such as light at night and noise) is among the most important drivers shaping bird use in urban areas, where bird species are mainly attracted by urban greenery. In this study, we collected data on 127 breeding bird species at 1349 point counts distributed along a gradient of urbanization in fourteen different European cities. The main aim was to explore the effects of anthropic pollution and city characteristics, on shaping the avian communities, regarding species' diet composition. The green cover of urban areas increased the number of insectivorous and omnivorous bird species, while slightly decreasing the overall diet heterogeneity of the avian communities. The green heterogeneity-a measure of evenness considering the relative coverage of grass, shrubs and trees-was positively correlated with the richness of granivorous, insectivorous, and omnivorous species, increasing the level of diet heterogeneity in the assemblages. Additionally, the effects of light pollution on avian communities were associated with the species' diet. Overall, light pollution negatively affected insectivorous and omnivorous bird species while not affecting granivorous species. The noise pollution, in contrast, was not significantly associated with changes in species assemblages. Our results offer some tips to urban planners, managers, and ecologists, in the challenge of producing more eco-friendly cities for the future.

Lockdown effects on fear revealed direct and indirect effects of human presence on perceived predation risk.

The Covid-19 lockdown reduced drastically human presence outdoors, providing an uncontrolled experiment for disentangling direct and indirect effects of human presence on animal fearfulness. We measured 18,494 flight initiation distances (FIDs, the distance at which individual animals fly away when approached by a human) from 1333 populations of 202 bird species taken in four European cities both before, during and after the lockdown. FIDs decreased during lockdown in rural habitats but increased in urban habitats, especially for singing birds. Height above ground increases during lockdown in non-singing birds only, and birds adjusted horizontal tolerance to approach according to height outside lockdown, in rural habitats and while not singing. Responses showed lagged effects after lockdown in urban but not in rural habitats. Differential responses to lockdown among habitats and between signing and non-singing birds were consistent with relaxation of direct disturbance effects on birds in rural habitats during lockdown, as well as with increased indirect fear effects mediated by predator release in cities. FIDs seemed to measure the balance of direct and indirect effects of humans on predations risk and food needs rather than direct effects of humans on fear.

A chromosome-level reference genome and pangenome for barn swallow population genomics.

Insights into the evolution of non-model organisms are limited by the lack of reference genomes of high accuracy, completeness, and contiguity. Here, we present a chromosome-level, karyotype-validated reference genome and pangenome for the barn swallow (Hirundo rustica). We complement these resources with a reference-free multialignment of the reference genome with other bird genomes and with the most comprehensive catalog of genetic markers for the barn swallow. We identify potentially conserved and accelerated genes using the multialignment and estimate genome-wide linkage disequilibrium using the catalog. We use the pangenome to infer core and accessory genes and to detect variants using it as a reference. Overall, these resources will foster population genomics studies in the barn swallow, enable detection of candidate genes in comparative genomics studies, and help reduce bias toward a single reference genome.

EVI and NDVI as proxies for multifaceted avian diversity in urban areas.

Most ecological studies use remote sensing to analyze broad-scale biodiversity patterns, focusing mainly on taxonomic diversity in natural landscapes. One of the most important effects of high levels of urbanization is species loss (i.e., biotic homogenization). Therefore, cost-effective and more efficient methods to monitor biological communities' distribution are essential. This study explores whether the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) can predict multifaceted avian diversity, urban tolerance, and specialization in urban landscapes. We sampled bird communities among 15 European cities and extracted Landsat 30-meter resolution EVI and NDVI values of the pixels within a 50-m buffer of bird sample points using Google Earth Engine (32-day Landsat 8 Collection Tier 1). Mixed models were used to find the best associations of EVI and NDVI, predicting multiple avian diversity facets: Taxonomic diversity, functional diversity, phylogenetic diversity, specialization levels, and urban tolerance. A total of 113 bird species across 15 cities from 10 different European countries were detected. EVI mean was the best predictor for foraging substrate specialization. NDVI mean was the best predictor for most avian diversity facets: taxonomic diversity, functional richness and evenness, phylogenetic diversity, phylogenetic species variability, community evolutionary distinctiveness, urban tolerance, diet foraging behavior, and habitat richness specialists. Finally, EVI and NDVI standard deviation were not the best predictors for any avian diversity facets studied. Our findings expand previous knowledge about EVI and NDVI as surrogates of avian diversity at a continental scale. Considering the European Commission's proposal for a Nature Restoration Law calling for expanding green urban space areas by 2050, we propose NDVI as a proxy of multiple facets of avian diversity to efficiently monitor bird community responses to land use changes in the cities.