Puszcza Białowieska : miniprzewodnik naukowy

"Dzisiejsza roślinność Puszczy jest wynikiem procesów ekologicznych, które kształtowały ją od schyłku ostatniego zlodowacenia, kiedy ocieplenie klimatu umożliwiło rozwój ekosystemów leśnych na tym terenie. Około 12 tysięcy lat temu rozprzestrzeniły się tu lasy sosnowo-brzozowe, a następnie kolejno przybywały inne gatunki drzew, które wędrowały z cieplejszych rejonów Europy, gdzie przetrwały okres zlodowacenia. Stopniowo wzbogacały one tutejsze lasy i powodowały ich zróżnicowanie w zależności od warunków siedliskowych. Do pierwszych przybyszów, po sośnie i brzozie, należały wiąz i leszczyna, a między ok. 9300 a 3800 lat temu miał miejsce najbujniejszy rozwój wielogatunkowych, mieszanych lasów liściastych." (fragm.

New Species in the Old World: Europe as a Frontier in Biodiversity Exploration, a Test Bed for 21st Century Taxonomy

The number of described species on the planet is about 1.9 million, with ca. 17,000 new species described annually, mostly from the tropics. However, taxonomy is usually described as a science in crisis, lacking manpower and funding, a politically acknowledged problem known as the Taxonomic Impediment. Using data from the Fauna Europaea database and the Zoological Record, we show that contrary to general belief, developed and heavily-studied parts of the world are important reservoirs of unknown species. In Europe, new species of multicellular terrestrial and freshwater animals are being discovered and named at an unprecedented rate: since the 1950s, more than 770 new species are on average described each year from Europe, which add to the 125,000 terrestrial and freshwater multicellular species already known in this region. There is no sign of having reached a plateau that would allow for the assessment of the magnitude of European biodiversity. More remarkably, over 60% of these new species are described by non-professional taxonomists. Amateurs are recognized as an essential part of the workforce in ecology and astronomy, but the magnitude of non-professional taxonomist contributions to alpha-taxonomy has not been fully realized until now. Our results stress the importance of developing a system that better supports and guides this formidable workforce, as we seek to overcome the Taxonomic Impediment and speed up the process of describing the planetary biodiversity before it is too late

Long-term and large-scale multispecies dataset tracking population changes of common European breeding birds

Around fifteen thousand fieldworkers annually count breeding birds using standardized protocols in 28 European countries. The observations are collected by using country-specific and standardized protocols, validated, summarized and finally used for the production of continent-wide annual and long-term indices of population size changes of 170 species. Here, we present the database and provide a detailed summary of the methodology used for fieldwork and calculation of the relative population size change estimates. We also provide a brief overview of how the data are used in research, conservation and policy. We believe this unique database, based on decades of bird monitoring alongside the comprehensive summary of its methodology, will facilitate and encourage further use of the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme results.publishedVersio

Weather impacts on interactions between nesting birds, nest-dwelling ectoparasites and ants

Weather has a dominant impact on organisms, including their life histories and interspecific interactions. Yet, for nesting birds, and the arthropods inhabiting bird nests, the direct and cascading effects of weather are poorly known. We explored the influence of ambient temperatures and rainfall on the cohabitation of dome-shaped bird nests by Wood Warblers Phylloscopus sibilatrix, their blowfly Protocalliphora azurea ectoparasites, and predatory Myrmica and Lasius ants that may provide nest sanitation. We sampled blowflies and ants in 129 nests, and measured warbler nestlings during 2018–2020 in the primeval Białowieża Forest, eastern Poland. The probability of ectoparasites occurring in nests increased with increasing ambient temperatures and declining precipitation in the early nestling stage, when adult blowflies are ovipositing. Where present, the number of ectoparasites was greater if higher ambient temperatures had prevailed in the late nestling stage, but only when ants were absent from nests. However, the nestling growth was unrelated to ectoparasite abundance or ant presence within bird nests, although it was lower at high rainfall. The results suggest that weather can have conflicting impacts on interactions between nesting birds and nest-dwelling arthropods, but birds can mostly compensate for any related costs in old-growth forest, where food is generally abundant

No lunar phobia in insectivorous bats in Kenya

We monitored foraging insectivorous bats along walked transects in forest and farmland at Arabuko-Sokoke Forest in coastal Kenya, using a heterodyne bat detector. The main purpose was to test whether aerial-hawking insectivorous bats that feed in open places (in this case mostly Scotophilus and Scotoecus spp.) show lunar phobia, i.e. restricting their activity on moonlit nights. Such behavior would be an expected response to the threat posed by visually oriented aerial predators such as bat hawks, owls and carnivorous bats. The occurrence of lunar phobia in bats is a controversial issue and may have implications for how bats will be affected by increasing light pollution. Our results show that foraging activity of the bats that we studied was related to time of day, season, and habitat, albeit with no additional effect of moonlight discernable. We therefore conclude that foraging activity occurs independently of moonlight. This result is partly at odds with previous findings including predictions from a meta-analysis of lunar phobia in bats, which indicates that lunar phobia is common in these animals, though most likely to be present in tropical species that feed in open situations near vegetation and over water. Equally, our results conform to findings from studies of aerial insectivorous bats in tropical as well as temperate areas, most of which have failed to reveal any clear evidence of lunar phobia. We believe that moonlight generally does not facilitate aerial predation on flying bats in open situations, or, alternatively, the bats accept increased predation pressure while they fulfil the energetic requirements through hunting

New Species in the Old World: Europe as a Frontier in Biodiversity Exploration, a Test Bed for 21st Century Taxonomy

The number of described species on the planet is about 1.9 million, with ca. 17,000 new species described annually, mostly from the tropics. However, taxonomy is usually described as a science in crisis, lacking manpower and funding, a politically acknowledged problem known as the Taxonomic Impediment. Using data from the Fauna Europaea database and the Zoological Record, we show that contrary to general belief, developed and heavily-studied parts of the world are important reservoirs of unknown species. In Europe, new species of multicellular terrestrial and freshwater animals are being discovered and named at an unprecedented rate: since the 1950s, more than 770 new species are on average described each year from Europe, which add to the 125,000 terrestrial and freshwater multicellular species already known in this region. There is no sign of having reached a plateau that would allow for the assessment of the magnitude of European biodiversity. More remarkably, over 60% of these new species are described by non-professional taxonomists. Amateurs are recognized as an essential part of the workforce in ecology and astronomy, but the magnitude of non-professional taxonomist contributions to alpha-taxonomy has not been fully realized until now. Our results stress the importance of developing a system that better supports and guides this formidable workforce, as we seek to overcome the Taxonomic Impediment and speed up the process of describing the planetary biodiversity before it is too late

Population responses of bird populations to climate change on two continents vary with species’ ecological traits but not with direction of change in climate suitability

Climate change is a major global threat to biodiversity with widespread impacts on ecological communities. Evidence for beneficial impacts on populations is perceived to be stronger and more plentiful than that for negative impacts, but few studies have investigated this apparent disparity, or how ecological factors affect population responses to climatic change. We examined the strength of the relationship between species-specific regional population changes and climate suitability trends (CST), using 30-year datasets of population change for 525 breeding bird species in Europe and the USA. These data indicate a consistent positive relationship between population trend and CST across the two continents. Importantly, we found no evidence that this positive relationship differs between species expected to be negatively and positively impacted across the entire taxonomic group, suggesting that climate change is causing equally strong, quantifiable population increases and declines. Species’ responses to changing climatic suitability varied with ecological traits, however, particularly breeding habitat preference and body mass. Species associated with inland wetlands responded most strongly and consistently to recent climatic change. In Europe, smaller species also appeared to respond more strongly, while the relationship with body mass was less clear-cut for North American birds. Overall, our results identify the role of certain traits in modulating responses to climate change and emphasise the importance of long-term data on abundance for detecting large-scale species’ responses to environmental changes