Michał Ciach

University of Agriculture in Krakow | UR · Department of Forest Biodiversity

The engineering activities of the Eurasian beaver Castor fiber have far-reaching effects on the components of an environment and therefore modify the functioning of the ecosystem. The wetlands thereby created are the most conspicuous effect of beaver activity and attract water-related species. However, there is some evidence suggesting that beavers...

Urban environments may offer certain species diverse and abundant food resources of natural and anthropogenic origin. However, the local-scale configuration of habitats and urban infrastructure may influence foraging decisions regardless of the availability of food. In recent years, the expansion of wild boar Sus scrofa into areas significantly tra...

The features of the urban landscape encouraging large ungulates expansion are not known. However, prevalence and abundance of wild boar Sus scrofa has been steadily increasing over the years, and nowadays the species has become a recognized component of urban wildlife in many parts of its range. The aim of this work was to select habitat and human-...

Although urban landscapes are regarded as unsuitable for dead wood dependent organisms, some species, including woodpeckers, commonly occur in cities. As the availability of trees and dead wood resources is a primary dimension of the habitat-niche for most woodpeckers, we hypothesized that increasing habitat specialization (decreasing habitat-niche...

The study underscores the susceptibility of the wych elm Ulmus glabra to infection by Botryodiplodia hypodermia, the causal agent of elm canker. Mycelia of the fungus were implanted on saplings in two variants (scoring the bark surface and drilling holes in the wood) and compared with a control group. Botryodiplodia hypodermia was not found to have...

There is increasing awareness of the ecosystem engineering services provided by recovering populations of Eurasian beaver. By modifying aquatic environments, this species has a significant, positive influence on biodiversity. Beaver activity affects not only aquatic ecosystems but also terrestrial habitats and organisms. Our study compares and eval...

Popularnonaukowa monigrafia zagadnień związanych z bilansem, rolą i ochroną martwych drzew w w ekosystemach, głównie (ale nie tylko) leśnych. Przedstawia m. in. zagadnienia: Co to jest drewno. Jakich rozmiarów dorastają i jak długo żyją drzewa? Pochodzenie, bilans i cechy martwego drewna, w lasach, poza lasem: w parkach, zadrzewieniach i innych śr...

Tree-related microhabitats (TreMs) are among the most important structural components of a forest, and have a significant impact on biodiversity and influence ecosystem functioning. Although forests that depend on natural lowland water regimes are severely endangered worldwide, and floodplain forests are considered to be the most complex and biolog...

The physiological and behavioural activities of animals have far-reaching impacts on the characteristics and functioning of soil. This includes vertebrates, which are capable of modifying the physicochemical and biochemical properties of soil. To date, however, no species is known to be responsible for the entire process of soil formation, modifica...

Birds with plumage colour aberrations are of interest to both the general public and scientists. However, due to their rarity in nature, information on the presence of colour aberrations is rarely found in the peer‐reviewed literature. Exploration of public observations using modern information technologies such as Internet‐based search engines cou...

Canopy gaps produced by natural disturbances are an important source of structural and functional heterogeneity within forest ecosystems. However, the effect of natural, small-scale canopy gaps, caused by the mortality of a single tree or a group of trees, on bird assemblages has not been adequately addressed in temperate deciduous forests. We stud...

Rupicapra rupicapra - IUCN reassessment 2020

Natural disturbances are a major source of spatial stand heterogeneity, initiating forest community turnover. Besides large-scale events like fires, landslides or windthrows, small-scale canopy gaps resulting from the mortality of a single tree or a group of trees represent a distinct structure within a stand. Although the role of canopy gaps is we...

Global monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem change can be aided by the effective use of indicators. Tree-cavity excavators, the majority of which are woodpeckers (Picidae), are known to be useful indicators of the health or naturalness of forest ecosystems and the diversity of forest birds. They are indicators of the latter due to shared associ...

Populations of saproxylic organisms, i.e. species that are dependent on dead or decaying wood, in urban ecosystems are limited because dead wood is regularly removed for safety and aesthetic reasons. However, depending on management policies and property ownership, a small amount of dead wood debris may be occasionally left in situ during maintenan...

The presence in wood of saprotrophic fungi is crucial for xylophagous insects, as they modify its chemical composition, moisture content and structure, and thus govern the survival and growth rate of larvae. Little is known about the mycobiota colonising the breeding material of saproxylic species. This paper focuses on the mycobiota of dead wych e...

Dead wood provides important ecosystem services and has a positive effect on biodiversity. However, urban environments have limited resources of coarse woody debris (CWD). The presence of CWD depends on both progressive tree mortality and the frequency and intensity of CWD removal for safety or aesthetic reasons, which can lead to variations in CWD...

Deforestation for agricultural purposes and logging over centuries has resulted in a significant loss of forest cover and the deep structural and functional simplification of persistent European woodlands, which has led to a large-scale decline in biodiversity. Despite recent reforestation efforts in many regions of Europe, populations of numerous...

We present here a revised version of Fig. 1 from our paper as it lacked some information used for the species distribution modeling as the original might be found misleading by some readers. This omission did not influence the results of our modeling process, for which the full set of observations was used. It does not therefore compromise our conc...

Globally, tree-holes are important ecological component of forest and woodlands. Numerous microorganisms rely on cavities, both natural and those excavated by primary cavity nesting birds, mainly by woodpeckers, for their survival and reproduction. However, the fungi occurring in cavities are not well characterized. Specifically, very little is kno...

This study describes the first observation of Botryodiplodia canker in the Western Carpathians in south‐eastern Poland caused by Botryodiplodia hypodermia (Sacc.) Petr. (syn. Sphaeropsis hypodermia, S. ulmicola). The canker occurred on an approximately 17‐year‐old Ulmus glabra sapling in a mixed conifer/deciduous stand with elm trees severely damag...

Although large and medium-sized herbivorous mammals avoid urbanized areas, they have recently begun to colonize towns and cities. In general, ungulates continue to avoid the centres of urban areas, and utilize mainly their thinly built-up outskirts. While extension of urban development is preventing ungulates from penetrating the urban landscape, t...

Habitat loss and fragmentation are listed among the most significant effects of urbanization, which is regarded as an important threat to wildlife. Owls are the top predators in most terrestrial habitats, and their presence is a reliable indicator of ecosystem quality and complexity. However, influence of urbanization on owl communities, anthropoge...

Migratory animals are affected by various factors during their journeys, and the study of animal movement by radars has been instrumental in revealing key influences of the environment on flying migrants. Radars enable the simultaneous tracking of many individuals of almost all sizes within the radar range during day and night, and under low visibi...

Woodpeckers are relatively often recorded in an urban environments. However, their habitat preferences and habitat quality of territories located in an urban matrix are not studied in details. Urbanization potentially contribute to the limitation of dead wood resources, which are crucial for woodpeckers occurrence. However, an urban matrix may cont...

The Black Grouse Tetrao tetrix populations in Europe have become fragmented and reduced in numbers. These processes affected genetic diversity of the species, altering patterns of gene flow and genetic structure. In Poland, the Black Grouse is one of the most endangered bird species, however very little is known about diversity of this native popul...

Radar is without alternatives for the study of broad‐scale aerial movements of birds, bats and insects and related issues in biological conservation. Radar techniques are especially useful for investigating species which fly at high altitudes, in darkness, or which are too small for applying electronic tags. Here, we present an overview of radar ap...

Global warming is considered as a phenomenon having a negative effect on animals living in cold climate. However, herbivorous species inhabiting cold zones may potentially benefit from increase of temperature as this influence duration of vegetation period and increase food resources. In this study, we analyze the impact of climate factors on the l...

Nocturnal avian migration flyways remain an elusive concept, as we have largely lacked methods to map their full extent. We used the network of European weather radars to investigate nocturnal bird movements at the scale of the European flyway. We mapped the main migration directions and showed the intensity of movement across part of Europe by ext...

Environmental factors have strong influence on activity of alpine ungulates. However, the presence and activities of people in high mountains have been growing rapidly and have led to the advent of human-induced factors, which may modify the time budget. In this study, we examined the influence of natural and human-induced factors on the daytime bu...

Habitat use and preferences may be subject to spatial and temporal changes. However, long-term studies of species-habitat relationships are the exception. In the present research, long-term trends in habitat use by an alpine ungulate, the Tatra chamois Rupicapra rupicapra tatrica, were analysed. We examined how environmental changes attributable to...

Although the negative impact of timber stacks on populations of saproxylic beetles is a well-known phenomenon, there is relatively little data concerning the scale of this impact and its spatial aspect. Beech timber stored in the vicinity of the forest can act as an ecological trap for the Rosalia longicorn (Rosalia alpina), so in this study we hav...

The natural world is now receiving more and more food of anthropogenic origin, which is widely used by a large number of animal species. Among intentional supplementary feeding, one of the most common activities is the winter feeding of game animals, affecting the size, structure and behaviour of their populations. There is a lack of information, h...

Waterfowl (Anatidae) are a group of birds in which parental care is performed by both parents (a pair) or, less often, by females only. Alternative social systems in this group have been recorded only occasionally. This paper describes three unusual cases of prolonged association between a pair and an additional male (the offspring or sibling of th...

At present, urban areas cover almost 3% of the Earth's land surface, and this proportion is constantly increasing along with human population growth. Although urbanisation leads to biodiversity decline, at the same time it creates a novel and extensive environment that is exploited by whole assemblages of organisms. These include predators, which u...

Noise, an obvious effect of urbanization, has a negative impact on animal vocalizations and the hunting efficiency of acoustic predators. However, the influence of noise pollution on the spatial distribution of populations remains understudied. The aim was to assess the factors shaping the distribution pattern of an acoustic predator (long-eared ow...

Migratory animals provide a multitude of services and disservices-with benefits or costs in the order of billions of dollars annually. Monitoring, quantifying, and forecasting migrations across continents could assist diverse stakeholders in utilizing migrant services, reducing disservices, or mitigating human-wildlife conflicts. Radars are powerfu...

At present, urban areas cover almost 3% of the Earth’s terrestrial area, and this proportion is constantly increasing. Although urbanization leads to a decline in biodiversity, at the same time it creates extensive habitats that are exploited by an assemblage of organisms, including birds. The species composition and density of birds nesting in tow...

Ornamental traits in birds (plumage/bare part colours) have been shown to provide information on diverse aspects of individual quality and behaviour. In bird species with achromatic plumages (uniformly white, grey or black), signals encoded in bare parts are the major mode of visual communication. In this study we analysed the influence of sex, age...

Abstrakt: Postępujące w ostatnich latach przekształcenia w rolnictwie prowadzą do zmian awifau-ny. Jednym ze zmieniających się elementów krajobrazu rolniczego są osady ludzkie, które zaczy-nają pełnić głównie funkcje mieszkaniowe, co skutkuje zanikiem tradycyjnego rolnictwa. Celem pracy było określenie struktury zgrupowania ptaków zimujących wśród...

Hiking may have a negative effect on vertebrates, but the impact on insects is unknown. Large-scale hiking may lead to habitat degradation, the introduction of alien species and the killing of insects occurring in places visited by people. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of hiking on the mortality of insects. Randomly selected...

Ecological traps are serious, anthropogenic threats to animal populations. However, in certain cases it is difficult to determine whether they really act in the expected manner. This applies to the harmful effects of beech timber stacked in forests on the endangered saproxylic beetle Rosalia longicorn Rosalia alpina, which have been mentioned in nu...

Urban environments cover vast areas with a high density of humans and their dogs and cats causing problems for exploitation of new resources by wild animals. Such resources facilitate colonization by individuals with a high level of neophilia predicting that urban animals should show more neophilia than rural conspecifics. We provided bird-feeders...

Rocky habitats are regarded as biodiversity hot-spots. Along with high species diversity, diverse ecological relationships can be observed in these habitats. Large groups of bird species use rocks in various ways: as perching/roosting sites, breeding or foraging habitats, information exchange sites, display arenas or as sources of minerals and wate...

In central Europe, the endangered Rosalia longicorn Rosalia alpina (L.) has rarely been observed to develop in the wood of elms Ulmus sp.; however, this beetle has recently expanded into habitats formed by elms. The factors driving these changes are unknown in detail, but a potential one is the increasing amount of breeding material, namely, dead e...

Over the last century, the numbers and range of black grouse Tetrao tetrix have declined dramatically over most of Europe. The Central-European population is at present divided into small, isolated subpopulations, and Orawa (Carpathians, Poland-Slovakia) was considered until recently to be the most abundant one in the region. In 2002, it was estima...

The former range of the Rosalia longicorn Rosalia alpina in Poland probably overlapped with the range of the European beech Fagus sylvatica. In the 20th century, the species was recorded in the following parts of Poland: the Carpathians (almost the entire range), the Świętokrzyskie Mountains, the Roztocze Upland, Lower Silesia, and the northern and...

Gmina Trzebinia jest częścią ziemi chrzanowskiej, która wraz z ziemią olkuską należały do Krakowskiego Okręgu Przemysłowego. Na opisywanym obszarze początki eksploatacji rud metali można datować na schyłek epoki brązu. Udokumentowane, podziemne wydobycie rud ołowiu sięga początku XV wieku. Wielowiekowe procesy wydobycia, przerobu, wytopu rud metali...

The Rosalia longicorn Rosalia alpina is regarded as a primeval forest relict and occurs mainly in old beech woodland in mountain areas. This paper describes a locality of the species in a copse surrounded by pastures, lying in open farmland situated at some distance from woodlands. The larval host plant was Wych Elm Ulmus glabra. The trees at this...

Until recently animals inhabiting mountain areas were relatively free from disturbance by people but they are now coming under increasing pressure. Tourism, especially that involving large numbers of people, is having an ever more detrimental effect on the natural resources of high mountains, even in protected areas. We analyse the effect of touris...

Capsule The occurrence of the Syrian Woodpecker Dendrocopos syriacus in an urbanized habitat is determined by the number of trees and pollutant emissions. Air pollution may weaken trees and increase the number of insects inhabiting them.Aims To determine the habitat preferences of the Syrian Woodpecker in the highly urbanized environment of the cit...

Larval galleries and exit holes of adult insects in wood and bark are a conspicuous indication of the occurrence of many species. Therefore it allows the qualitative and quantitative examination of insect populations. However, evaluation of adult body size based on the size and shape of galleries and exit holes was not practiced. We analyzed relati...

In 2012 the development of the rosalia longicorn Rosalia alpina (L.) was confirmed in the sycamore maple Acer pseudoplatanus L., a new host plant in Poland. In the laboratory, one adult beetle was reared from a branch obtained from the Magura National Park (Beskid Niski Mts., Carpathians, SE Poland). The breeding material was collected at a site lo...

Capsule The Ring Ouzel in central Europe occurs in a mosaic of mountain forests and open areas. Aims To determine the habitat selection of the Ring Ouzel on a landscape scale in the western Carpathians. It was hypothesized that occurrence of the Ring Ouzel is associated with upper subalpine Carpathian forests and the presence of anthropogenic open...

Abstrakt: W latach 1986–2012 w Krakowie dokonano łącznie 225 obserwacji dzięcioła białoszyje-go Dendrocopos syriacus w 133 lokalizacjach, z czego 89 obserwacji dotyczyło ptaków lęgowych lub prawdopodobnie lęgowych. Ptaki wykorzystywały w okresie lęgowym głównie zieleń miejską (parki, drzewa towarzyszące zabudowie i szlakom komunikacyjnym), zadrzewi...

The body size of xylophagous beetles is determined by the host plant species, as well as by the amount and quality of breeding material. Consequently, the biometric traits of adults can be used as an indicator of the attractiveness of the breeding material and the quality of a habitat. The paper presents selected biometric traits of rosalia longico...

Praca przedstawia aktualne problemy ochrony nadobnicy alpejskiej Rosalia alpina (L.). Ten rzadki i zagrożony przedstawiciel chrząszczy z rodziny kózkowatych (Cerambycidae), wymieniony w Załączniku II i IV Dyrektywy Siedliskowej jako gatunek priorytetowy, jest przedmiotem ochrony w kilku ostojach sieci Natura 2000 w Karpatach. W pracy podano najważn...

WeagreewithOrłowskiinsomepointsraisedbutdisagreewith his assumptions because he ignores explanations in our study. We also take exception to the fact that he wrongly presents certain ideas as ours. We agree that the age of the bird is important. However, no less important are a host of other parameters (sex, subspecies, habitat) and that influence t...

Maniarski R. & Ciach M. 2012. Plumage aberration in Northern Goshawk Accipiter gentilis. Ardea 100: 211-213. The subspecies of Northern Goshawk Accipiter gentilis present clinal plumage variation. However, aberrant plumages are exceptional. On 2 February 2012, in Sedziszow (southern Poland), a dead Northern Goshawk with aberrant plumage was found....

Rosalia longicorn Rosalia alpina (L.) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) uses roadside European ash trees Fraxinus excelsior L. - an unexpected habitat of an endangered species The paper reports the discovery of the rosalia longicorn Rosalia alpina on European ash trees Fraxinus excelsior in the Magura National Park (Beskid Niski Mts, SE Poland) in August...

The current problem in farmland ecology is the change in the character of rural development in areas neighbouring cities and towns. Progressive urbanization and the predominance of housing estates over agricultural aims led to a change in the bird community. During 2005-2010, a survey of birds wintering within densely populated built-up rural areas...

Egg size of the spur-winged lapwing Vanellus spinosus was studied in the Nile Delta, Egypt. Nests were located in three habitat types: on fish pond dykes, on dry fish pond bottoms, and in urban areas. Although clutch size did not differ between these habitat types, eggs from nests located on pond dykes were significantly smaller than those from nes...

As the importance of the Black Sea for wintering waterbirds is poorly known, the species composition and abundance of waterbirds wintering on the Crimean Peninsula coast (Northern Black Sea) was investigated in two habitat types: urban areas and open sea coast. Of 27 waterbird species, 25 were recorded in urban areas, and the dominants were Coot (F...

The Common Buzzard Buteo buteo presents high plumage variation, but individuals in aberrant plumage are recorded extremely rarely. In August 2005, near Templewo (western Poland), a dead Common Buzzard with aberrant plumage was found. Another individual with aberrant plumage was observed on 14 August 2011 near Minoga (southern Poland). Both birds we...

The unknown natural habitat of Rosalia alpina (L.) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) and its trophic association with the mountain elm Ulmus glabra in Poland - a change of habitat and host plant A unique natural habitat of Rosalia alpina (L.) located in the Beskid Niski mountain range (Carpathians) and consisting of a forest clearing community in the stag...

Owing to the extensive development of road networks, millions of animals are killed annually. This impact on the natural environment has been questioned: is there a selection of victims in the car collisions? and do road-kills, as do predators, influence a population by eliminating individuals in poor condition? We compared road-killed individuals...