No change in common cuckoo Cuculus canorus parasitism and great reed warblers ’ Acrocephalus arundinaceus egg rejection after seven decades

Th e coevolutionary process among avian brood parasites and their hosts involves stepwise changes induced by the antagonistic selection pressures of one on the other. As long-term data on an evolutionary scale is almost impossible to obtain, most studies can only show snapshots of such processes. Information on host behaviour, such as changes in egg rejection rates and the methods of rejection are scarce. In Hungary there is an interesting case between the common cuckoo Cuculus canorus and the great reed warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus, where the level of parasitism is unusually high (around 50%). We compared host rejection rates and methods of rejection from within our own project to that of an early study carried out and published almost 70 yr ago in the same region. Our comparisons revealed high and stable rates of parasitism (range: 52 – 64%), and marked fl uctuations in the ratio of multiply parasitized nests (range: 24 – 52%). No difference was revealed in egg rejection rates after 7 decades (34 – 39%). Linear mixed-eff ects modelling revealed no year eff ect on the type host responses toward the parasitic egg(s) during the years of study (categorized as acceptance, ejection, burial, and nest desertion). Cuckoo egg rejection was primarily aff ected by the type of parasitism, as more cuckoo eggs were rejected during single parasitism than from multiply parasitized nests. Our comparison did not reveal any directional changes in this cuckoo – host relationship, except a slight decrease in the frequency of multiple parasitism, which is likely to be independent from coevolutionary processes

Nemzeti ökoszisztéma-szolgáltatás térképezés és értékelés, avagy a természetvédelem országos programja

Az Európai Unió 2020-ig megvalósítandó Biodiverzitás Stratégiájának egyik fő célkitűzése az ökoszisztéma-szolgáltatások (ÖSz-ek) minél teljesebb megőrzése és helyreállítása. Ennek érdekében a tagországok számára előírják, hogy térképezzék és értékeljék a területükön található ökoszisztémák állapotát (ÖÁ), valamint az általuk nyújtott ÖSz-ek helyzetét és gazdasági értékét. Magyarországon a 2016 őszén indult, Agrárminisztérium által koordinált KEHOP-4.3.0- VEKOP-15-2016-00001 számú kiemelt projekt keretében az „Ökoszisztéma-szolgáltatások” fejlesztési elem egyik fő feladata a hazai viszonyok között kiemelt fontossággal bíró ÖSz-ek országos térképezése és értékelése (Nemzeti Ökoszisztéma-szolgáltatás Térképezés és Értékelés; NÖSZTÉP). Az értékelés az ún. kaszkád-modell mentén végig halad az ÖSz-eket meghatározó ÖÁ jellemzőktől, az ÖSz kapacitásokon és az ebből ténylegesen igénybe vett szolgáltatásokon át az emberi jóllét fenntartásában vagy növelésében játszott szerepükig. A projekt eredményei a tervek szerint segítik majd a természeti tőkénkkel való fenntartható gazdálkodást, a zöldinfrastruktúra-hálózat fejlesztését, az egyes ágazatok közti hatékonyabb kommunikációt és a természetvédelmi és más ágazati döntéshozatalt

No change in common cuckoo parasitism and great reed warblers' egg rejection after seven decades

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How to Spot a Stranger's Egg?: a Mimicry-Specific Discordancy Effect in the Recognition of Parasitic Eggs

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The Hungarian ecosystem services assessment – an example for a national level science-policy interface

The 2nd target of the EU Biodiversity Strategy requires the member states to assess and map the most important ecosystem services (ES) and integrate these results into policy decisions. Led by the Ministry of Agriculture an EU-cofinanced project entitled „Strategic Investigations on the long-term preservation and development of natural heritage of Community Importance and on the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2020 objective” has started in Hungary in 2016 to fulfil these goals. The project has four main elements, focusing on 1) species and sites of Community Importance, 2) mapping and assessment of ES (MAES-HU), 3) defining landscape character types and methodology development for their protection, 4) planning of green-infrastructure development. The MAES-HU aims to build up spatial databases of ecosystems and ES in Hungary, and assess them using biophysical, economic and social indicators. To ensure broad scale scientific, policy and social credibility, the project puts high emphasis on participatory planning and stakeholder involvement. Prioritization of ESs for assessment was implemented in a series of workshops according to the main ecosystem categories: forests, water bodies and marshy areas, grasslands and arable fields (in a joint workshop but with separate evaluation) and urban ecosystems. Experts from different fields (8-14 per workshop) were invited to prioritise and shortlist the ES from CICES 4.3 based on expert consensus on their perceived societal importance in Hungary. After careful evaluation of the process and its outcomes, the MAES-HU working group finally chose 13 ES to map and assess during the remaining three years of the project until the end of 2020. The methodology of the assessment is built on the guidelines of the EU MAES working group and technical reports of former national assessments of several EU member states. The evaluation of the prioritized ES will be conducted in a four step process along the four levels of the cascade model: 1) condition of ecosystems, 2) capacity (potential supply) of the ecosystems for the selected ES, 3) actual use of the selected ES, 4) contributions of ES to human wellbeing. The assessment will last for about two years and will be performed by six expert working groups, involving around 40 experts from different fields. Graphical representations (i.e. mapping) will take place at all cascade levels using a detailed ecosystem map. Economic evaluation of specific ES is also planned. In the last year of the project, planning of different future scenarios will take place based on the joint evaluation of the assessed ES. The results of the MAES-HU project will hopefully assist the sustainable management of environmental resources, the development the green-infrastructure network, improved communication between different sectors, to incorporate the results into biodiversity and sectoral policies, and to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals.peerReviewe

National Ecosystem Services Assessment in Hungary: Framework, Process and Conceptual Questions

Mapping and assessing ecosystem services (ES) projects at the national level have been implemented recently in the European Union in order to comply with the targets set out in the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy for 2020 and later in the Strategy for 2030. In Hungary this work has just been accomplished in a large-scale six-year project. The Hungarian assessment was structured along the ES cascade with each level described by a set of indicators. We present the selected and quantified indicators for 12 ES. For the assessment of cascade level 4, human well-being, a set of relevant well-being dimensions were selected. The whole process was supported by several forms of involvement, interviews, consultations and workshops and in thematic working groups performing the ES quantifications, followed by building scenarios and synthesizing maps and results. Here we give an overview of the main steps and results of the assessment, discuss related conceptual issues and recommend solutions that may be of international relevance. We refine some definitions of the cascade levels and suggest theoretical extensions to the cascade model. By finding a common basis for ES assessments and especially for national ones, we can ensure better comparability of results and better adoption in decision making