Paweł Mirski

University of Białystok · Faculty of Biology

In trioecious plant populations, the role of hermaphroditism is often uncertain. We investigated the advantages of hermaphroditism in the dioecious shrub Salix myrsinifolia. The sex ratio of 30 S. myrsinifolia populations in northeastern Poland (secondary range) and Lithuania (primary range) was investigated in 2010–2011. Measures of reproductive (...

Wetlands in the Biebrza Valley, north-east Poland, are inhabited by two closely related Aquila species: the more numerous Lesser Spotted Eagle A. pomarina prefers human-transformed landscapes, whereas the very rare Greater Spotted Eagle A. clanga is associated with natural marshy landscapes. At least since the last decade of the 20 th century, thes...

Foraging sites of Aquila clanga compared to Aquila pomarina are characterized by a considerably longer duration of flooding within the year and higher mean and maximum depths of flooding. A. clanga is particularly associated with shallow (approx. 20 cm) spring flooding, lasting at least up to the beginning of May (on average up to 90 days per year)...

Mirski P., Białomyzy P. 2024. How forest structure and naturalness affect the smallest avian predator: the case of Pygmy Owl in the north eastern Poland. Poster, Bialowieza Ecology Conference 15-20.09.2024, Bialowieza

Natal dispersal is a multi-step process. It commences when a juvenile departs from its natal site and concludes when it settles to breed for the first time. During this interim period, dispersing individuals of long-lived species undergo a wandering phase, which may span years. This phase remains one of the least studied aspects of species’ life hi...

Human-induced direct mortality affects huge numbers of birds each year, threatening hundreds of species worldwide. Tracking technologies can be an important tool to investigate temporal and spatial patterns of bird mortality as well as their drivers. We compiled 1704 mortality records from tracking studies across the African-Eurasian flyway for 45...

Introduction Inbreeding depression (ID) in food-deceptive plants have been reported previously, however, it has not been often proven that selfed seeds germinate better than outbred ones or that selfing affects ID. To resolved these issues, food-deceptive related Dactylorhiza majalis, D. incarnata var. incarnata and D. fuchsii orchids were investig...

Global agricultural landscapes are witnessing a concerning decline in biodiversity, and this trend is predicted to persist. To safeguard these biodiversity-rich areas, it is crucial to pinpoint hotspots effectively. In doing so, we used various species of avian predators as suitable sentinel animals due to their mobility and dependence on prey dive...

Space utilization by animals is vital for species ecology but also a valuable predictor of habitat conditions and environment capacity for a given species. We investigated the ranging behavior of the white-tailed eagle, an apex predator experiencing a significant population increase and saturation. Comparing five adult floaters and two breeding mal...

Awifaunie lęgowej Doliny Biebrzy, jednej z najcenniejszych ostoi ptaków w Polsce, poświęcono dziesiątki publikacji. Brak jest jednak aktualnych danych o zmianach liczebności wielu gatunków. W pracy podsumowano wyniki inwentaryzacji wybranych gatunków ptaków przeprowadzonych w latach 2015-2022. W omawianym okresie stwierdzono pewne lub prawdopodobne...

Monitoring of biodiversity in expanding urban areas is an essential part of wildlife conservation. There is evidence that raptors, such as Northern Goshawks (Accipiter gentilis), are effective bioindicator species in urban areas, however, their relationship with other bird populations is not clearly established. We asked whether activity patterns o...

The White-tailed eagle, an apex predator, is currently recovering its populations across Europe and has already reached high numbers in many countries. This led to the saturation of eagles in optimal habitats and their encroachment on suboptimal ones. We aimed to compare the diet of White-tailed eagles in optimal and suboptimal conditions in northe...

Plant species evolution is driven by many factors that have different roles in space and time. Using different field and laboratory methods, we studied reproductive patterns and their determinants in pure and mixed P. bifolia and P. chlorantha populations in different habitats. We also considered the probability of hybridisation between these two s...

We are pleased to offer the book, which is the result of two-day virtual the 1st International Discussion Forum - Science in Practice: Wildlife Conservation in the Urban Environment. The forum was organized by the Faculty of Biology of the University of Bialystok, the Polish Society for the Protection of Birds and the City Hall in Bialystok and was...

Species coexist only when occupying different ecological niches. We evaluated habitat and trophic niches in two recently diverged hybridising avian apex predators, the declining Greater Spotted Eagle Clanga clanga (mainly found in contracting wetlands) and the more numerous Lesser Spotted Eagle Clanga pomarina (inhabiting mosaic farmlands). We trac...

A vast majority of angiosperms are pollinated by animals, and a decline in the number and diversity of insects often affects plant reproduction through pollen limitation. This phenomenon may be particularly severe in rare plant species, whose populations are shrinking. Here, we examined the variability in factors shaping reproductive success and po...

Background Long-term ringing and telemetry studies show that the Osprey ( Pandion haliaetus ) is a broad-front migrant following different migratory flyways, depending on the geographical location of their breeding populations. We have investigated two distinct and declining populations of Osprey in Poland, separated by only a few hundred kilometre...

Nectar is one of the most important flower traits, shaping plant–pollinator interactions and reproductive success. Despite Orchidaceae including numerous nectariferous species, nectar chemistry in this family has been infrequently studied. Therefore, the aim of this study is to compile data about nectar attributes in different orchid species. The s...

We conducted a pilot study to investigate breeding dispersal and ranging behaviour of two adult female Great Grey Owls in central Belarus. The females stayed within a few kilometres of their breeding site and ranged only 2–3 km on average and at night.

Wetlands are often exposed to reed and shrub expansion that dominate their heterogeneous landscape and threaten species inhabiting open wetlands. The alternative to heavy-machine mowing is grazing, which should be carried out without fencing in high-value protected areas. To evaluate the effectiveness of semi-free-ranging cattle in sustaining and r...

The greater spotted eagle (Clanga clanga) is a flexible migrant raptor species exhibiting both short- and long-distance migration patterns. Its breeding range stretches across Eurasia from the Baltic Sea in the west to the Pacific Coast in the east; the winter distribution stretches along a wide belt across the entire southern Eurasia and extends t...

The Eurasian buzzard (Buteo buteo) is the one of the commonest Western Palaearctic raptors and an obligate soaring migrant avoiding crossing of large water surfaces. This flexible raptor species exhibits various migration strategies, which are largely attributed to subspecies. Westerly distributed Common buzzard B. b. buteo is partial, short-distan...

We investigated temporal changes in diet composition of the Montagu's Harrier Circus pygargus breeding in natural habitat (calcareous peat bog) in SE Poland. We characterized diet composition in a three-year period (2007–2009), based on pellet analyses. We investigated whether diet composition was affected by years or stage of breeding. We compared...

Context Small woody features (SWF; tree lines and small woods) in agricultural landscapes provide a substitute for forest conditions for a wide range of species and a suitable edge habitat for ecotone species. The importance of SWF for biodiversity is usually inferred from presence or abundance data for small animals. Although large animals, due to...

Plant-pollinator interactions significantly influence reproductive success (RS) and drive the evolution of pollination syndromes. In the context of RS, mainly the role of flower morphology is touched. The importance of nectar properties is less studied, despite its significance in pollination effectiveness. Therefore, the aim of this study was to t...

Background: Long-term ringing and telemetry studies show that the Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) is a broad-front migrant following different migratory flyways, depending on the geographical location of their breeding populations. We have investigated two distinct and declining populations of Osprey in Poland, separated by only a few hundred kilometres...

Agriculture intensification drives changes in bird populations but also in the space use by farmland species. Agriculture in Eastern Europe still follows an extensive farming model, but due to policy shifts aimed at rural restructuring and implementation of government subsidies for farmers, it is being rapidly intensified. Here, we aimed to documen...

Animal home‐ranges are expressions of the biology and ecology of a species and their size is often considered a proxy for habitat quality. Understanding the factors affecting variation in home‐range size may aid prediction of the impact of local or global environmental change on studied populations. To this end, we established an international coll...

Urban forests are important hotspots of biodiversity in the environment of cities and their surroundings but may also stand out from neighbouring forests by greater tree species diversity, higher tree age and greater share of deciduous species. However, they are usually not connected with nesting of rare birds of prey, especially dietary specialist...

Context Biodiversity is closely related to landscape heterogeneity, but both are difficult to evaluate directly. Apex predators, such as raptors, are potential surrogate indicators of diversity, but previous studies using a correlative approach have been heavily criticised. Objectives We evaluated whether space use by a generalist avian predator, t...

The Honey Buzzard is known as a species difficult to monitor and count. Here we report results of a pilot GPS-tracking study aiming to reveal details of its ecology, that could help in optimization of the species monitoring methods. Five breeding adult Honey Buzzards males were caught and equipped with GPS loggers in Podlasie region, NE Poland: thr...

Background and aims: The deception strategies of orchids remain poorly understood, especially in regard to the chemical compounds emitted from their flowers and their interaction with various taxonomic groups of pollinators. We investigated the phylogenetic relationships and compared the variation of floral chemical compounds between food-deceptiv...

Pollinator foraging behavior plays a key role in breeding and therefore affects the evolution of the orchid reproductive strategy. Food-deceptive orchids usually implement a generalized plant pollination strategy and a relatively diverse group of pollinators visit them. Dactylorhiza majalis is a food-deceptive, early-flowering orchid that relies on...

Abstrakt. W celu zbadania przebiegu usamodzielniania się młodych bielików, pięć osobników z Wigierskiego Parku Narodowego (trzy w 2017 i dwa w 2018 roku) śledzono za pomocą loggerów GPS GSM. Po wyjściu z gniazda ptaki te nadal spędzały dużo czasu w strefi e o promieniu 500 metrów wokół niego, większość nawet powyżej 30% jeszcze na początku paździer...

Although studies on many owl species diets are common, there are only scarce data on the diet of the boreal owl from the lowlands of Eastern Europe. We have therefore studied its diet in one of the most important Polish population areas, the Knyszyflska Forest (north-eastern Poland). Pellets were gathered between February and June in 2006, 2012–201...

The relative contributions of genetic and social factors in shaping the living world are a crucial question in ecology. The annual migration of birds to their wintering grounds and back provides significant knowledge in this field of research. Migratory movements are predominantly genetically determined in passerine birds, while in large soaring bi...

The Greater Spotted Eagle is an extremely rare species which is strongly associated with wetlands during the breeding period. The winter habitats of this vulnerable species have not been extensively studied so far, although eagles spend over one third of the year there, and these are therefore also crucial for the conservation of the species. We in...

Climate change is projected to influence the genetic resources of plant species. Recent research has examined genetic diversity patterns under current climate conditions, with little attention to the future genetic consequences for species. In this study, we combined ecological niche modeling and population genetic approaches to project future chan...

The use of audio recorders in Eurasian Eagle owl monitoring in Podlasie (NE Poland). The classical Eagle owl monitoring is based on registering its vocal activity during cloudless and windless nights in March and April. The aim of this study was to check alternative method, using audio recorders. Wildlife Acoustics Song Meter SM4 devices were regis...

Movements of three juvenile White-tailed eagles Haliaeetus albicilla from two nests in Wigry National Park were followed with GPS loggers between fledgling and 23rd November 2017. All individuals fledged in the first decade of July. The rest of July and whole August they spend exploring very limited space (about 50 ha). In September, October and No...

We carried out translocations of three rare plants that inhabit mineral islands in the marshy Biebrza Valley in order to create alternative populations and facilitate connectivity between existing subpopulations. The species chosen were Iris aphylla and two orchids: Cypripedium calceolus and Cephalanthera rubra. Thirty soil monoliths with vegetativ...

The deficiency of pollinators is indicated as the main factor limiting fruit set in orchids. Nectariferous species are more successful in setting fruits than nectar-less species. In the present study, we tested whether pollinator limitation lowers reproductive success in populations of Cypripedium calceolus on environmental islands in the Biebrza N...

Polemonium caeruleum (Polemoniaceae) represents a very interesting system of compatibility transition. Studies of its biological and ecological properties in the context of the breeding system of various populations may help to understand the evolutionary mechanism of this process. We investigated some aspects of the breeding system, diversity and...

The deficiency of pollinators is indicated as the main factor limiting fruit set in orchids. Nectariferous species are more successful in setting fruits than nectar-less species. In the present study, we tested whether pollinator limitation lowers reproductive success in populations of Cypripedium calceolus on environmental islands in the Biebrza N...

Gene flow in plant populations is heavily affected by species sexual systems. In order to study the effect of sexual systems on genetic structure, we examined plastid and nuclear DNA of 12 dioecious (males and females) and 18 trioecious (males, females and hermaphrodites) populations of Salix myrsinifolia—a boreal shrub with slow range expansion. P...

The trajectories of postglacial range expansions, the occurrence of lineage patches and the formation and maintenance of secondary contact between lineages may mostly reflect neutral demographic processes, including density blocking, that may leave long-lasting genetic signatures. However, a few studies have recently shown that climate may also pla...

Capsule: The diet of the Montagu’s Harrier Circus pygargus is variable and comprises the most available prey at a given time of the season. We found no evidence for a relationship between diet and land-use in the core foraging zone. Aims: We investigated whether the diet of the Montagu’s Harrier reflects the available prey and how it changes across...

Most Salix species are characterized by a complex sex structure with populations that contain different ratios of male, female (dioecious populations) and even hermaphroditic individuals (trioecious populations). However, our knowledge of the temporal and spatial variability of such populations is rudimentary. I studied how sexual structure in trio...

We studied a sympatric and crossbreeding population of the Lesser and the Greater Spotted Eagle in the Biebrza Valley, NE Poland. In order to follow the dynamics of hybridisation and its possible causes we monitored these two species between 1996 and 2012, using visual and genetic species identification. Individuals in up to 51 territories annually...

Krajowy Progam Ochrony Orlika Grubodziobego. Projekt

Krajowy Program Ochrony Orlika Krzykliwego, projekt.

We investigated the phylogeographical structure of the boreal-montane orchid Malaxis monophyllos in its Eurasian geographical range. We analysed four sequences of plastid DNA (trnL, trnL–trnF, rps16 and accD-psaI), resulting in 19 haplotypes and revealing a high level of intraspecific diversity (HD = 0.702 and π = 0.196 × 10−2), but showing a lack...

Black cherry is a very successful invader in Poland with quite a short colonization history. Its impact on the native flora of a pine forest in Biebrza Valley was studied by phytosociological relevés in patches of high and low/absence density. Trail cameras were used to register fruiting phenology and the main dispersed species. P. serotina was sho...

Introgressive hybridization is a widespread evolutionary phenomenon which may lead to increased allelic variation at selective-neutral loci and to transfer of fitness-related traits to introgressed lineages. We inferred the population genetic structure of the European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) in Poland from mitochondrial (CR and cyt b) and se...

Bisexualism (and its derivatives) is a rare exception in species which already acquired the dioecious breeding system. Although it occurs in some tree species, it is still rather uncommon, except for willows, in which bisexualism occurs in at least 18 species. In most willows such unusual individuals are subdioecious, hermaphroditic or monoecious,...

GPS telemetry in studying spatial ecology of Lesser Spotted Eagle in Biebrza Valley. Spatial ecology of Lesser Spotted Eagle was studied in Biebrza Valley in 2011-2013. Three adult males were captured. Two of them was tagged with GPS GSM loger and one with satellite transmitter. Only first tagged male transmitted for the whole annual cycle. The sec...

We present current data on the occurrence of four Soricomorpha and 15 Rodentia species. The mammals were collected during trapping of common shrews and yellow-necked mice for chromosomal research and the common hamsters for phylogeography and genetic variability research. The maps of species occurrence were created in ArcGIS and each map is accompa...

In anthropogenically disturbed habitats, natural barriers still exist and have to be recognized, as they are important for conservation measures. Areas of phylogeographic breaks within a species are often stabilized in inhospitable regions which act as natural barriers. An area of contact between phylogeographic lineages of the common hamster (Cric...

The paper presents results of the Corncrake census in Białystok city (NE Poland, area of 102 km2) in 2011. The Corncrake surveys were performed at night, twice at each place. The population of the Corncrake was estimated at 38–43 calling males. Density was estimated at 0.37–0.42 male/km2 of total area and 1.25–1.42 male/km2 of open landscape. Cornc...

Abstrakt: W pracy scharakteryzowano zimowanie podgatunków kawki Corvus monedula w kilku-nastu miastach w różnych częściach Polski. Opisano także cechy identyfikacyjne przydatne przy oznaczaniu podgatunków kawki. Podczas dwóch kolejnych zim (2007/2008 i 2008/2009), we wszystkich miastach dominował podgatunek monedula, stanowiący 71–100% wszystkich o...

Hunting methods and hunting success and their associations with some environmental factors were studied in Lesser Spotted Eagle. Birds hunted mostly by patrol-flights (73.6%), secondary by perchhunting (23.8%). In the morning-noon period birds hunted using patrol flights more frequently than in the afternoon, while in the afternoon they more often...

In the reproduction period a male Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) is a centralplace forager, i.e. it transports food from hunting grounds to a central location - the nest. A centralplace forager is predicted to take larger or more prey when distance to a foraging site is longer. We studied kestrels breeding in a large Central European city (population...

To manage conservation issues, it is essential to recognize the factors determining the occurrence of endangered species. This study examined the foraging habitat and nest site preferences of the Lesser Spotted Eagle Aquila pomarina (Brehm) in the Knyszyńska Forest (NE Poland). This is a large (839 km2) protected (Landscape Park Puszcza Knyszyńska,...