Anna Orczewska

• Dr hab.
• Professor (Associate) at University of Silesia in Katowice

The biodiversity and distribution of many groups of arthropods living on the trunk and in the canopy of large trees is still relatively little described at the European scale. Pan traps are commonly used to assess pollinators in various ecosystems but have been less used to monitor spiders and harvestmen in trees. Here, we report on the diversity a...

Biological nitrogen fixation is a fundamental part of ecosystem functioning. Anthropogenic nitrogen deposition and climate change may, however, limit the competitive advantage of nitrogen-fixing plants, leading to reduced relative diversity of nitrogen-fixing plants. Yet, assessments of changes of nitrogen-fixing plant long-term community diversity...

Increasing areas of arable land, which is often heavily managed, negatively affect biological diversity in many ways, decreasing species richness and abundance. There is a substantial social demand for implementing agricultural management practices to preserve biological diversity locally. Here, we present the results of studies on the invertebrate...

Brief introduction: What are microclimates and why are they important? Microclimate science has developed into a global discipline. Microclimate science is increasingly used to understand and mitigate climate and biodiversity shifts. Here, we provide an overview of the current status of microclimate ecology and biogeography in terrestrial ecosystem...

Wild pollinators are crucial for ecosystem functioning and human food production and often rely on floral resources provided by different (semi‐) natural ecosystems for survival. Yet, the role of European forests, and especially the European forest herb layer, as a potential provider of floral resources for pollinators has scarcely been quantified....

Forest biodiversity and ecosystem services are hitherto predominantly quantified in forest interiors, well away from edges. However, these edges also represent a substantial proportion of the global forest cover. Here we quantified plant biodiversity and ecosystem service indicators in 225 plots along forest edge-to-interior transects across Europe...

Questions Forests are highly fragmented across the globe. For urban forests in particular, fragmentation increases the exposure to local warming caused by the urban heat island (UHI) effect. We here aim to quantify edge effects on herbaceous understorey vegetation in urban forests, and test whether these effects interact with forest structural comp...

Forests worldwide are experiencing fragmentation, with especially important consequences for ecosystems bordering urbanized areas. Urban forests are exposed to local warming due to the urban heat island which affects their biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. A key ecosystem function affecting carbon and nutrient cycling in forests is litter dec...

Global change has accelerated local species extinctions and colonizations, often resulting in losses and gains of evolutionary lineages with unique features. Do these losses and gains occur randomly across the phylogeny? We quantified: temporal changes in plant phylogenetic diversity (PD); and the phylogenetic relatedness (PR) of lost and gained sp...

Climate change is pushing species towards and potentially beyond their critical thermal limits. The extent to which species can cope with temperatures exceeding their critical thermal limits is still uncertain. To better assess species' responses to warming, we compute the warming tolerance (Δ T niche ) as a thermal vulnerability index, using speci...

Aim The microclimate and light conditions on the forest floor are strongly modified by tree canopies. Therefore, we need to better consider the micro‐environment when quantifying trait–environment relationships for forest understorey plants. Here, we quantify relationships between micro‐environmental conditions and plant functional traits at the co...

The urban heat island (UHI) causes strong warming of cities and their urban forests worldwide. Especially urban forest edges are strongly exposed to the UHI effect, which could impact urban forest biodiversity and functioning. However, it is not known to what extent the UHI effect alters edge-to-interior microclimatic gradients within urban forests...

Forest biodiversity and ecosystem services have been predominantly quantified in forest interiors, well away from edge influences. However, edges represent a significant portion of the forest cover in many regions world-wide. We quantified a broad set of plant biodiversity and ecosystem service indicators in 225 plots along forest edge-to-interior...

Ungulate populations are increasing across Europe with important implications for forest plant communities. Concurrently, atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition continues to eutrophicate forests, threatening many rare, often more nutrient-efficient, plant species. These pressures may critically interact to shape biodiversity as in grassland and tundra...

Forest fragmentation increases the proportion of edge area and this, in turn, induces changes in forest structure, species composition and microclimate. These factors are also strongly determined by the forest management regime. Although the interactive effects of edges and density on forest plant communities have been extensively studied, little i...

Aim The amount of forest edges is increasing globally due to forest fragmentation and land‐use changes. However, edge effects on the soil seed bank of temperate forests are still poorly understood. Here, we assessed edge effects at contrasting spatial scales across Europe and quantified the extent to which edges can preserve the seeds of forest spe...

Ungulate herbivore populations are increasing across Europe with important implications for forest plant communities. Concurrently, atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition continues to eutrophy forests, threatening many rare plant species. These pressures may critically interact to shape biodiversity as in grassland and tundra systems, yet any potentia...

The herb layer of temperate forests contributes to long-term forest ecosystem functioning and provisioning of ecosystem services. Therefore, a thorough understanding of its dynamics in the face of environmental changes is essential. This paper focuses on the species and functional diversity of the herb layer of riparian forests to verify how these...

Question When evaluating forests in terms of their biodiversity, distinctiveness and naturalness, the affinity of the constituent species to forests is a crucial parameter. Here we ask to what extent are vascular plant species associated with forests, and does species’ affinity to forests vary between European regions? Location Temperate and borea...

Global forest cover is heavily fragmented. Due to high edge-to-surface ratios in small forest patches, a large proportion of forests is affected by edge influences involving steep microclimatic gradients. Although forest edges are important ecotones and account for 20% of the global forested area, it remains unclear how biotic and abiotic drivers a...

W toczonych od wielu lat dyskusjach na temat roli lasów w bilansie węglowym Biosfery wysuwano argumenty odnoszące się do różnych okresów czasu, od dziesięcioleci po tysiąclecia. Teraz perspektywa czasowa, przynajmniej w Europie, została skonkretyzowana do trzech dziesięcioleci. Nie ma już zatem wielkiego znaczenia rozpatrywanie problemu, na ile stu...

Forest biodiversity world‐wide is affected by climate change, habitat loss and fragmentation, and today 20% of the forest area is located within 100 m of a forest edge. Still, forest edges harbour a substantial amount of terrestrial biodiversity, especially in the understorey. The functional and phylogenetic diversity of forest edges have never bee...

This paper presents all current knowledge on the biology of the invasive therophyte Impatiens glandulifera Royle (Himalayan Balsam), and covers aspects of taxonomy, morphology, distribution, habitat requirements, ecology, life cycle, genetics, history of invasive spread, ecological impact and management. Although a few review papers have been publi...

Questions Due to the diverse abiotic conditions and the extensive, early‐autumn, manual mowing practiced once per few years, Molinia semi‐natural wet meadows are known due to their high plant species diversity. However, recent socio‐economic transformations and land use change (i.e. cessation of use) have been contributing to significant biodiversi...

Aim Variation in plant defence traits has been frequently assessed along large‐scale macroclimatic clines. In contrast, local‐scale changes in the environment have recently been proposed to also modulate plant defence traits. Yet, the relative importance of drivers at both scales has never been tested. We aimed to quantify the relative importance o...

Forests play a key role in global carbon cycling and sequestration. However, the potential for carbon drawdown is affected by forest fragmentation and resulting changes in microclimate, nutrient inputs, disturbance and productivity near edges. Up to 20% of the global forested area lies within 100 m of an edge and, even in temperate forests, knowled...

Questions How do contrasting environmental conditions among forests and hedgerows affect the vegetative and reproductive performance of understorey forest herbs in both habitats? Can hedgerows support reproductive source populations of forest herbs, thus potentially allowing progressive dispersal of successive generations along the linear habitats?...

This account presents information on all aspects of the biology of Poa nemoralis L. (Wood Meadow‐grass) that are relevant to understanding its ecological characteristics and behaviour. The main topics are presented within the standard framework of the Biological Flora of the British Isles: distribution, habitat, communities, responses to biotic fac...

Linear landscape elements such as hedgerows and road verges have the potential to mitigate the adverse effects of habitat fragmentation and climate change on species, for instance, by serving as a refuge habitat or by improving functional connectivity across the landscape. However, so far this hypothesis has not been evaluated at large spatial scal...

Forest edges are interfaces between forest interiors and adjacent land cover types. They are important elements in the landscape with almost 20% of the global forest area located within 100 m of the edge. Edges are structurally different from forest interiors, which results in unique edge influences on microclimate, functioning and biodiversity. Th...

Hedgerows have the potential to facilitate the persistence and migration of species across landscapes, mostly due to benign microclimatic conditions. This thermal buffering function may become even more important in the future for species migration under climate change. Unfortunately, there is a lack of empirical studies quantifying the microclimat...

Questions Does the influence of forest edges on plant species richness and composition depend on forest management? Do forest specialists and generalists show contrasting patterns? Location Mesic, deciduous forests across Europe. Methods Vegetation surveys were performed in forests with three management types (unthinned, thinned 5‐10 years ago an...

Białowieża Forest is one of the closest to pristine forest ecosystems in temperate vegetation zone in European Lowland, which is still being transformed by forest management. We investigated the effects of salvage logging of spruce stands killed by bark beetle on the recovery process and the biodiversity of the herb layer in the early stages of veg...

Within the period of 2009-2015 a gradual increase followed by a rapid decrease in species richness and diversity in 2015 was recorded. There was also an increase in the cover of species of open habitats, in light-demanding species, anemo- and zoochores, and in species with canopy heights exceeding 0.5 m (see Figs. 2-13). In contrast, the shade-tol...

Changes in the herb layer following the disturbances In our studies we focused upon analyzing the plant functional traits. A constantly high proportion of species typical for undisturbed forest interiors has been found in the herb layer of these plots. In the plot affected by tornado changes in composition of the herb layer were very dynamic (see F...

Soil bacteria and understorey plants interact and drive forest ecosystem functioning. Yet, knowledge about biotic and abiotic factors that affect the composition of the bacterial community in the rhizosphere of understorey plants is largely lacking. Here, we assessed the effects of plant species identity (Milium effusum vs Stachys sylvatica), rhizo...

The soil microbial community is essential for maintaining ecosystem functioning and is intimately linked with the plant community. Yet, little is known on how soil microbial communities in the root zone vary at continental scales within plant species. Here we assess the effects of soil chemistry, large-scale environmental conditions (i.e. temperatu...

Artificial regeneration has begun in Białowieża Forest. Foresters are planting nursery sourced seedlings on last-year's logging sites. They claim this is essential for accelerated forest regeneration. Here we present ten reasons why the reality is very different, and argue that planting must be stopped immediately, especially in stands over 100 yea...

https://peerageofscience.org/conference/eccb2018/107689/

Mountain vegetation is considered highly sensitive to changes in land use, especially grazing regime and forest management. The aim of this study was to assess shifts in plant species composition in the Western Tatra Mts over the past 92 years and to determine environmental drivers that have caused changes in species composition. We resurveyed 47 v...

W Puszczy rozpoczęto akcję nasadzeń: w miejscach ubiegłorocznych wycinek leśnicy sadzą wyhodowane w szkółkach sadzonki drzew. Twierdzą, że to konieczne, by przyspieszyć regenerację lasu. Przedstawiamy dziesięć argumentów, że jest całkowicie inaczej i że nasadzeń, zwłaszcza w drzewostanach ponad stuletnich, należy natychmiast zaprzestać

Mountain vegetation is often considered highly sensitive to climate and land-use changes due to steep environmental gradients determining local plant species composition. In this study we present plant species compositional shifts in the Tatra Mts over the past 90 years and discuss the potential drivers of the changes observed. Using historical veg...

Książka przedstawia rośliny najciekawsze i najpiękniejsze w polskiej florze, charakterystyczne dla różnych typów siedlisk. Profesjonalne opisy i piękne zdjęcia zachęcają do własnej twórczej obserwacji. Zapraszamy do fantastycznego i tajemnego świata otaczających nas roślin. W książce zostały zaprezentowane gatunki charakterystyczne dla różnych ty...

Elevated atmospheric input of nitrogen (N) is currently affecting plant biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. The growth and survival of numerous plant species is known to respond strongly to N fertilisation. Yet, few studies have assessed the effects of N deposition on seed quality and reproductive performance, which is an important life‐history...

Despite the fact that only parts of the Białowieża Forest are protected as a national park and nature reserves, the forest is nevertheless as a whole considered a UNeScO Natural Heritage Site, Biosphere reserve and an integrated Natura 2000 site. in the presently ongoing debate on the conservation priorities regarding the natural value of this fore...

This account presents information on all aspects of the biology of Milium effusum L. (Wood Millet) that are relevant to understanding its ecological characteristics and behaviour. The main topics are presented within the standard framework of the Biological Flora of the British Isles : distribution, habitat, communities, responses to biotic factors...

Ecological divergence is an accepted mode of speciation in phytophagous insects such as aphids. Adaptations of ancestral populations to various feeding locations on a plant seem to be a promoted mode of such speciation. In this study we present a thesis that for obligatorily myrmecophilous aphids it is a mutualistic relationship with distinct ants...

Ecological niches of organisms vary across geographical space, but niche shift patterns between regions and the underlying mechanisms remain largely unexplored. We studied shifts in the pH niche of 42 temperate forest plant species across a latitudinal gradient from northern France to boreo–nemoral Sweden. We asked (i) whether species restrict thei...

Despite the fact that only parts of the Białowieża Forest are protected as a national park and nature reserves, the forest is nevertheless as a whole considered a UNESCO Natural Heritage Site, Biosphere Reserve and an integrated Natura 2000 site. In the presently ongoing debate on the conservation priorities regarding the natural value of this fore...

W ostatnich miesiącach odżyły wieloletnie spory pomiędzy zwolennikami ingerencji w naturalne procesy zachodzące w lasach Puszczy Białowieskiej oraz prowadzenia w niej gospodarki leśnej a rzecznikami traktowania Puszczy jako lasu unikalnego, bezcennego skarbu natury, postulującymi zwiększenie zakresu jego ochrony. Domagając się utrzymania obecnie ob...

A survey of the development of the stand structure and the recovery of the herb layer in 16-year-old forests that appeared spontaneously after a forest fire was undertaken in southern Poland where the forests were burnt in 1992. Stand structure and its natural regeneration were surveyed in thinned and unthinned forests. The heights and diameters of...

Ecological niches of organisms vary across geographical space, but niche shift patterns between regions and the underlying mechanisms remain largely unexplored. We studied shifts in the pH niche of 42 temperate forest plant species across a latitudinal gradient from northern France to boreo-nemoral Sweden. We asked 1) whether species restrict their...

Article 2(2016): 1 Dispute over the future of the Białowieża Forest: myths and facts. A voice in the debate [English version of the article published in Polish as Wesołowski T. et al. 2016. Spór o przyszłość Puszczy Białowieskiej: mity i fakty. Głos w dyskusjiwww.forestbiology.org (2016), Article 1: 1-12.

The studies, which were conducted in southern Poland, focused on the recovery of the herb layer in 17-year-old post-fire silver birch and black alder forests. Although both types of stands, which are of the same age, developed spontaneously, the alder stands occupied damper sites (with thicker A horizons that survived the fire) than those in the bi...

...chęć uporządkowania rozproszonej wiedzy o przyrodzie ożywionej i nieożywionej województwa śląskiego stały się bodźcem do stworzenia regionalnego systemu informacji i baz danych o środowisku województwa śląskiego. Zadanie to podjęto w ramach projektu pt. „Ogólnodostępna baza danych bio- i georóżnorodności Województwa Śląskiego – integralna część...

Role of decaying wood in migration of herbaceous woodland plants. One of the hypotheses trying to explain why plants migrate, i.e. a hypothesis of directed dispersal, states that seeds reach microsites suitable for germination and favorable for survival, often rich in nutrients and free from competitors. Decaying wood belongs to this type of microh...

Most range shift predictions focus on the dispersal phase of the colonization process. Because moving populations experience increasingly dissimilar nonclimatic environmental conditions as they track climate warming, it is also critical to test how individuals originating from contrasting thermal environments can establish in nonlocal sites. We ass...

Abstract: The study was conducted on six sites that are dominated by Japanese knotweed (Reynoutria japonica) and that vary in the level of industrialization and habitat transformation by humans. The aim of the research was to investigate the chemical-physical features of soil under a closed and dense canopy of R. japonica, the chemical composition...

Black alder, an N-fixing tree is considered to accelerate the availability of phosphorus in soils due to the increased production of phosphatase enzymes, which are responsible for the P release from the litter. Acid phosphatase activity plays a pivotal role in organic P mineralization in forest soils and in making P available to plants. In order to...

Kto groźniejszy: obcy czy swój? Negatywne oddziaływanie nawłoci późnej Solidago gigantea, pokrzywy zwyczajnej Urtica dioica i przytuli czepnej Galium aparine na gatunki runa leśnego we wtórnych lasach olszowych posadzonych na gruntach porolnych 1 Anna Orczewska Abstrakt. Celem badań było porównanie wpływu trzech nitrofilnych gatun-ków ekspansywnie...

Beavers lodges represent spe-cific, zoogenic habitats. Their flora show some distinctive features differentiating them from the species composition of the areas surrounding the lodges. Studies were conducted in the Romincka Forest, in north-eastern Poland. Although lodges and their surroundings did not differ in the total number of vascular plants...

1. Worldwide, the floristic composition of temperate forests bears the imprint of past land use for decades to centuries as forests regrow on agricultural land. Many species, however, display significant interregional variation in their ability to (re)colonize post-agricultural forests. This variation in colonization across regions and the underlyi...

A survey on the colonization of the herb layer of post-agricultural black alder woods by woodland flora and on the edaphic, hydrological and light conditions responsible for the colonization mechanisms present in such woods was carried out in the Oleśnica Plain and Żmigród Valley (SW Poland) in the habitats of an oak-hornbeam community, alderash ca...

The recovery of species compo-sition typical for ancient forests in recent woods is a very slow process and may last for decades or even centuries. It is enhanced only when post-agricultural woods are adjacent to ancient ones. However, even in such a situation of the spatial contact of both forest types, colonization of re-cent woods by true forest...

The herb layer recovery in post-agricultural woods adjacent to ancient forests has not yet been studied for the wettest European woodlands, like those with black alders (Alnus glutinosa L. (Gaertn.)). Therefore, the studies aimed at: I. checking which herbs from the Polish list of ancient woodland species that are present in the alder woods show an...

The paper is a review and it focuses on the most important factors responsible for the process of colonization of recent, post-agricultural woods by woodland species. Furthermore, it presents the results of the studies on habitat conditions and on the pace of the colonization by woodland herbs of post-agricultural black alder woods in the Ole.nica...

Abstrakt. Badania dotyczyły oszacowania ilości martwego drewna (CWD = coarse woody debris) w zbiorowisku kwaśnej buczyny niżowej w wybranych obszarach chronionych Górnego Śląska. Zostały wybrane dwa rezerwaty przyrody (" Segiet " i " Las Murckowski ") i dwa zespoły przyrodniczo-krajobrazowe (" Park w Reptach i dolina Rzeki Dramy " i " Uroczysko Buc...

Abstrakt. Celem badań było poznanie wpływu czyszczeń na pokrycie, bogactwo i różnorodność gatunkową runa oraz jego specyfikę ekologiczną w spontanicznych odnowieniach brzozowych. Badania prowadzono w Nadleśnictwie Rudziniec (RDLP Katowice), w którym w 1992 r. wystąpił rozległy pożar. Objęto nimi naturalne odnowienia brzozowe po pożarze, poddane czy...

A scientific film presenting the results of the investigations on the herb layer recovery in post-agricultural black alder woods (south-western Poland), awarded by the Chancellor of the Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry in Brno, during the 27th International Film Festival "Agrofilm", in Nitra, Slovakia

The aim of the research was to describe the former and current distribution of forests from the first topographical map available, dated 1780, until the end of the twentieth century, in two geographical regions in south-western Poland, and to present those changes as graphs. Forests differing in their continuity in the landscape, namely ancient and...

Because post-agricultural black alder woods have not been the subject of studies on forest recovery, the aim of the research was to investigate the process of colonization of their herb layer by woodland flora. Migration rates of 51 forest plant species in the herb layer of alder woods planted on abandoned meadows, bordering meso- and eutrophic for...

Little is known about the influence of former agricultural use of soils on the forest recovery process in post-agricultural black alder (Alnus glutinosa) woods – the most fertile and the wettest forest habitats among the European temperate forest types. Thus, studies focusing on edaphic, hydrological and light conditions responsible for colonizatio...