Lukasz Dylewski

Polish Academy of Sciences | PAN · Institute of Dendrology of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Background A particular type of site fidelity is faithfulness to the nest site, where birds are not only reoccupying breeding territories but also reusing nests built in previous breeding seasons. Staying faithful to the nest site is believed to be an adaptive strategy, and based on the ability to predict an individual's own breeding success, a hyp...

Long-term bird monitoring brings vital information on the effects of environmental changes on wildlife. However, covering a large area with direct observations in the field is time-consuming and economically costly. New technologies, such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), are effective and often noninvasive tools successfully used in bird monitori...

Transformation of natural habitats into farming lands and spread of built up areas has a pervasive effect on wildlife, especially for birds. Also, plastic pollution is affecting wildlife on a global scale. Discarded plastic is ubiquitous and accessible for birds, which can be incorporated in the nest structure. By now, a large collection of studies...

Climate change is an important driver of the spread of apiary pests and honeybee predators. These impact on one of the economically most important pollinators and thus pose serious threats to the functioning of both natural ecosystems and crops. We investigated the impact of the predicted climate change in the periods 2040-2060 and 2060-2080 on the...

Rapidly increasing resources of citizen science databases (CS) collecting information on species occurrence are increasingly useful as a data source for global biodiversity research. The photos attached to records allow to verify the species identification and identify its phenological phase. We assessed CS data's usefulness in large-scale phenolog...

We investigated potential information content in red carotenoid-based undertail coverts of 28 pairs of breeding Great Spotted Woodpeckers by comparing plumage reflectance to measures of body condition and reproductive success. Plumage coloration was not significantly associated with sex or age, and did not correlate with body condition or the numbe...

Solid waste pollution (garbage discarded by humans, such as plastic, metal, paper) has received increased attention given its importance as a global threat to biodiversity. Recent studies highlight how animals incorporate anthropogenic materials into their own life-cycle, for example in avian nest construction. While increasingly monitored in natur...

Agricultural landscapes are characterized by a variety of habitats resulting from man-made transformations of the natural environment. Progressing agricultural intensification is leading to a reduction in natural and semi-natural habitats, resulting in turn in a loss of biodiversity. In farmland, natural habitats such as field margins, hedgerows, a...

Animal and meat inspections in abattoirs are important in the surveillance of zoonotic diseases. Veterinary inspections in abattoirs can provide useful data for the management of health and welfare issues of humans and animals. Using the network analysis and ordination technique, in this study, we analyzed the data from 11 years of veterinary inspe...

Pollinating insects are under high human pressure due to agricultural intensification and urbanization. Although many research and conservation projects have been applied worldwide, there is still a need for a comprehensive approach that meets local conditioning and capabilities. This paper investigated the composition, abundance, richness, alpha,...

Food resources are one of the important components of high quality habitat. One way to better understand the behavioral decisions made by animals to select foraging patches is focusing on the important forest stand structure characteristics. In this study we investigate the relationship between red squirrel habitat preferences, forest characteristi...

We previously demonstrated that small mammals impact plant recruitment globally via size‐dependent seed predation, generating a unimodal pattern across ecosystems. Chen et al. (2021) critiqued our seed removal analysis, advocating corrections for exposure time. We show such manipulations are unwarranted and argue for increased emphasis on plant rec...

The cover image is based on the Technical Note Seed predator effects on plants: Moving beyond time‐corrected proxies by Łukasz Dylewski et al., https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13747.

Access to food is crucial in the life of birds and affects reproduction, survival and, consequently, population size. In the case of bird species inhabiting villages, poorer food conditions now exist, mainly because of changes in the lifestyle of rural residents and a reduction in the number of farm animals traditionally housed in backyards. Recent...

cologists and wildlife managers require useful tools to reduce the human-wildlife conflict. So far, little attention has been paid to the damage caused by avian nesting on man-made structures. We weighed 145 occupied nests of the white stork (Ciconia ciconia) in eastern Poland and applied general linear models (multiple regressions) to predict a ne...

Food wastes are among the factors with the greatest effects on animal populations. The white stork is among bird species that clearly profit from feeding at landfills, at least in Western Europe and North Africa. However, the rate and the consequences of this feeding are still unknown in the Central-Eastern European population, which differs from t...

Plants are used by many bird species as structural elements and as lining materials for nests. In building their nests, birds not only use plant stems, but also transport seeds attached to them. This may lead to dispersal of seeds from the parental population into heterogenic environments. In this study, we investigate the role of nests of the whit...

We examined site patterns in bee species for diversity and functional diversity in urban, suburban and rural areas. We sampled bees from all three habitat types and compiled a database of functional traits for each species. While species diversity decreased with urbanization, as expected, components of functional diversity showed differences betwee...

Due to their falling cost, unmanned aerial vehicles, often called drones, are increasingly used as a tool in birdresearch and conservation. However, behavioural responses of birds to flying drones are still not well understood, for example do birds recognize drones as predators, as benign, or as neutral elements? How do they react to drones? We ans...

Capsule: The Crested Lark Galerida cristata as an example of a species which selects habitats which have undergone agricultural intensification. Aims: To describe habitat preferences of the Crested Lark in western Poland. Methods: We surveyed 30 randomly chosen study plots (1 km²) in western Poland to detect breeding pairs of Crested Larks. Sentine...

Human’s activities dominates many aspects of the Earth’s environment; thus animals are forced to adapt and respond to the resulting changes in habitat structure and functioning due to anthropogenic pressure. Along with the growing human population and the associated amount of waste produced, the amount of different type of physical contamination co...

Urban green areas are an important part of the cities that provide ‘novel ecosystem’ for the preservation of many plants and animals. Pollinators are the one animal group that are well adapted to live in the urban environment. However, not all green areas in the city affect pollinators equally, which is associated with management practices, vegetat...

Prostitution is an exchange of sexual services for economic profit which predominantly reflects men’s desire for sexually attractive women. These preferences could be shaped by sexual selection, as a woman’s sexual attractiveness is believed to be a cue of fertility. Using data from Polish prostitutes, we investigated whether cues of fertility are...

Urban areas attract birds during the winter when cities provide a predictable source of food and relatively stable weather conditions. However, many other factors determine the occurrence of birds in cities. This study analysed the relationship between corvids wintering in the city of Poznań, in western Poland and habitat features. Each of 32 resea...

Recent studies demonstrate that by focusing on traits linked to fundamental plant life-history trade-offs, ecologists can begin to predict plant community structure at global scales. Yet, consumers can strongly affect plant communities, and means for linking consumer effects to key plant traits and community assembly processes are lacking. We condu...

1. This account presents information on all aspects of the biology of Quercus rubra L. (Red Oak, Northern Red Oak; syn. Q. borealis, Q. maxima) 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; habit...

In 2016, we studied the occurrence of amphibians in 231 selected ponds in the city of Wrocław (Lower Silesia, Poland) and confirmed the occurrence of 10 species: Bombina bombina, Bufo bufo, Bufotes viridis, Hyla arborea, Pelobates fuscus, Pelophylax esculentus complex, Rana arvalis, Rana temporaria, Lissotriton vulgaris and Triturus cristatus. Amon...

Choosing an appropriate nest site is essential for successful breeding. Changes in land use cause populations of many species to decline although some species adapt to anthropogenic changes. The white stork Ciconia ciconia commonly uses artificial nest sites. Recently, white storks from Western Europe have been using landfills as feeding sites; the...

When alien plant species arrive in a new environment, they develop novel interactions with native biota that can range from negative to positive. Determining the nature and strength of these interactions is integral to understanding why some aliens are suppressed and others become highly invasive pests. For introduced terrestrial plants, seed and s...

1. Urban ecosystems create suitable habitats for many plant and animal species, including pollinators. However, heterogenic habitats in city centres and suburban areas have various effects on pollinators due to variations in the composition of vegetation and in landscape management by humans. 2. This study compared the abundance and species richnes...

Human pressure exerts a significant influence on animals and the environment. One of its consequences, plastic pollution is considered one of the major threats to fauna as well as a significant conservation issue. In this research, we examined the global pattern of one example of avian behavior in response to pollution-namely, the incorporation of...

Citizen science has emerged as an important tool in biology, ecology, and conservation studies. In this paper, we examined YouTube (YT) videos featuring the behaviour of red (Sciurus vulgaris) and grey (Sciurus carolinensis) squirrels in Europe, in both urban and forest habitats. Our study shows that specific behaviours of these squirrels, such as...

Specialized conifers-seed-eating animals, such as crossbills (Loxia spp.), woodpeckers (Picidae), squirrels (Sciuridae), nutcrackers (Nucifraga spp.) and many of insects (e.g., Pyralidae and Tortricidae) exert phenotypic selection on different features of the coniferous cones. In response to such selection, many conifers invest resources in various...

Jays usually store acorns at separate sites, but in some cases a part of jay’s caches consists of more than one acorn. Storing acorns separately (scatter hoarding) or in clusters (larder hoarding) seems to be an important factor for further survival of seeds and seedlings. Scatter hoarding is favorable for jays, but what would happen if jays prepar...

Synonyms Harlotry; Streetwalking; Whoredom Definition A sexual activity provided by women, men, and transsexuals in exchange for payment.

Invasive alien plant species in a new location usually lose their native enemies, but new interactions with local herbivores can also significantly influence their population dynamics. Seed predators have a strong effect on the seed banks, seedling recruitment, and establishment of a plant population. A given plant’s effective defence of its seeds...

Birds have been using anthropogenic materials for nest construction for the past few decades. However, there is a trade-off between the use of new nesting material, which is often linked to greater breeding success, and the higher risk of nestling mortality due to entanglement or ingestion of debris. Here, we investigate the incorporation of anthro...

Background: It has often been suggested that conditions in wintering grounds affect the breeding abilities of migratory birds. This is known as the carry-over effect. Heretofore, many studies have reported the relationship between conditions in wintering grounds, dates of departure from and arrival at breeding grounds, and breeding success. Howeve...

https://myrmecologicalnews.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=1516&Itemid=421 ABSTRACT: Non-native plant species can modify their environment, and their influence on food chains is well recognized. However, the phenomenon of non-nutrient dependent interaction between non-native plants and native animals has received little atte...

In their first phase of expanding into new areas, invasive plants often take advantage of the inability of existing herbivores and pathogenic species to exploit them. However, in the longer term local enemies may adapt to using these invasive species as a food source. This study assesses the use of mature acorns of two oak species in Europe (the na...

The number of species that specialize in pre-dispersal seed predation is relatively small. Examples of specialized pre-dispersal seed predators adapted to feeding on closed cones include vertebrate species like Crossbills, Squirrels, Nutcrackers and Woodpeckers. Seed predation selects against certain phenotypic features of cones and favors another...

Fascination with animals and their behaviour is one the most prominent patterns persisting in all human cultures. During the last decades, however, technological development and public access to the Internet have increased the speed and the extent of information sharing at an unprecedented rate, in some cases even challenging the traditional method...

Sex differences in the foraging ecology of monomorphic species are poorly understood, due to problems with gender identification in field studies. In the current study, we used experimental conditions to investigate the food preferences of the white stork Ciconia ciconia, an opportunistic species in terms of food, but characterised by a low level o...

Co-occurrence of birds and bats in natural nest-holes. Viewpoint available open access on: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ibi.12434/full ŁUKASZ MYCZKO,1* ŁUKASZ DYLEWSKI,1 TIM H. SPARKS,1 MACIEJ ŁOCHYNSKI,2 & PIOTR TRYJANOWSKI1 1 Institute of Zoology, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Wojska Polskiego 71 C, 60-625, Poznan, Poland 2...

Cities are habitats created almost exclusively for a single species, Homo sapiens. However, the mosaic-like character of urban environments may create favourable living conditions for various populations of bees. Due to the negative impact of intensified agriculture and landscape fragmentation on pollinator insects, interest in urban areas as refug...

The red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) is an arboreal species, relatively common in mixed, deciduous and coniferous forests and in urban parks. From autumn to early spring the main diet of red squirrels is seeds in closed conifer cones. In this study, we investigated characteristics of a habitat in western Poland where red squirrels were feeding on Sc...

Seeds are under strong pressure from seed predators. Therefore any physical seed trait increasing the chances of the seed's survival should undergo positive selection. Seed color polymorphism, varying from pale to dark seeds, occurs in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), a keystone species of coniferous forests in Eurasia. This phenomenon can be explain...