Piotr Skórka

• PhD
• Researcher at Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences

Farmland birds, key biodiversity indicators, are declining across Europe. Singular point elements in a landscape (SPEL; e.g., singular trees, shrubs, pylons) provide essential resources for birds, thus may increase species diversity. We assessed the relationships between the number and types of SPEL and bird diversity and species composition across...

Although the discourse on land use planning is frequently framed as a dichotomy between land sparing and land sharing, it is important to recognize the presence of numerous nuances. Understanding the role of land abandonment in land use strategies is crucial for optimizing its contribution to the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services....

We examined how urban environments affect the abundance, proportion, and diversity of plumage color morphs in feral pigeons. Five major plumage color morphs (black, blue, white, red, and mixed) were counted in sixty 25-ha plots in Poznań City (Poland). Generalized additive models were used to study the correlations among abundance, proportion of mo...

Invasive species pose a significant threat to global biodiversity, impacting ecosystems’ health and agriculture systems. Among these invaders, goldenrod (Solidago spp.) stands out as a prolific colonizer with detrimental effects on native flora and fauna. This study investigates the integration of remote sensing technology and machine learning algo...

Man-made linear structures, such as railway embankments, highway verges, and flood barriers, can serve as habitats for pollinating insects.

Struktury stworzone przez człowieka, takie jak nasypy kolejowe, pobocza autostrad i wały przeciwpowodziowe, mogą być siedliskiem życia owadów zapylających.

Tramways in urban areas for mass transit has been suggested to have a lower environmental footprint than roads. However, studies on the impact of tramways and the surrounding infrastructure on biodiversity is extremely rare despite the potential ecological effects associated with this anthropogenic feature. Surprisingly, we found fewer than 10 pape...

Urbanization is a major land use change across the globe with vast effects on wildlife. In this paper, we studied (1) the territorial displays of Little Owls in urban and rural landscapes, analyzing also (2) the size and habitat composition of the territories, and (3) the factors affecting territory size in both landscapes. To do that, we used t-te...

Alien plant species regularly and simultaneously invade agricultural landscapes and ecosystems; however, the effects of co-invasion on crop production and native biodiversity have rarely been studied. Secondary metabolites produced by alien plants may be allelopathic; if they enter the soil, they may be transported by agricultural activities, negat...

Habitat loss and fragmentation are the main factors driving the occurrence and abundance of species in the landscape. However, the local occurrence and abundance of species may also depend on conspecific and heterospecific social information e.g. clues of animals’ presence or their voices. We investigated the impact of the interaction between diffe...

Biological invasions threaten global biodiversity and can have severe economic and social impacts. The complexity of this problem challenges effective management of invasive alien species as the contribution of many factors involved in the invasion processes across different spatial scales is not well understood. Here, we identify the most importan...

Predators affect prey by killing them or inducing changes in their physiology and behaviour through a fear effect associated with predation risk. In birds, perceived predation risk influences reproductive decisions, such as the reduction of parental investment in offspring during both egg production and nestling rearing. Visual and vocal cues of pr...

COVID-19 expanded rapidly throughout the world, with enormous health, social, and economic consequences. Mental health is the most affected by extreme negative emotions and stress, but it has been an underestimated part of human life during the pandemic. We hypothesized that people may have responded to the pandemic spontaneously with increased int...

Invasive alien species are among the most concerning threats to native biodiversity world‐wide, and the level of landscape heterogeneity is considered to affect spatial patterns of their occurrence and spread. However, as previous studies on these associations report contrasting results, the role of landscape heterogeneity on its susceptibility to...

This review gathers the majority of foregoing information about the red mason bee (Osmia bicornis, syn. rufa) (Apoidea: Megachilidae) and elaborates on the following issues: taxonomy and morphology, distribution, reproduction and sex ratios, nesting, life cycle, and daily activity, metabolic changes, accompanying organisms (including parasites), fl...

Development of urban agglomerations and the intensification of agriculture profoundly affect bees’ food resources, hence ecosystem services such as pollination. A solitary bee, Osmia bicornis (syn. O. rufa), is an effective springtime pollinator of crops, decorative and wild plants. However, it is largely unknown if this species is conservative or...

The anthropogenic pressure on the environment depends on the spatial scale. It is crucial to prioritise conservation actions at different spatial scales to be cost-efficient. Using horizon scanning with the Delphi technique, we asked what the most important conservation problems are in Poland at local and national scales. Twenty-six participants, P...

Farmland birds belong to the most endangered group of vertebrates in Europe. They are an important component of farmland biodiversity considering the numerous functions they perform (e.g. seed dispersal, improving germination, increasing gene flow, nutrient recycling, and pest control). Therefore, their decline imposes substantial risks on agricult...

Why do some species occur in small, restricted areas, while others are distributed globally? Environmental heterogeneity increases with area and so does the number of species. Hence, diverse biotic and abiotic conditions across large ranges may lead to specific adaptations that are often linked to a species' genome size and chromosome number. There...

Aim Mutualistic interactions between alien plants and native pollinators are needed to enable plant invasions. Although the increasing abundance of invasive plants in a habitat causes a dramatic decline of native pollinators, pollination services received by invaders are often sustained. This invader–pollinator paradox might be attributed to differ...

Habitat fragmentation is considered as major threat to biodiversity worldwide. Biodiversity can be described as taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity. However, the effect of forest fragmentation on taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity is barely understood. We compare the response of taxonomic (species richness), phylogenetic...

Biological invasions are a major human induced global change that is threatening global biodiversity by homogenizing the world's fauna and flora. Species spread because humans have moved species across geographical boundaries and have changed ecological factors that structure ecosystems , such as nitrogen deposition, disturbance, etc. Many biologic...

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has expanded rapidly throughout the world. Thus, it is important to understand how global factors linked with the functioning of the Anthropocene are responsible for the COVID-19 outbreak. We tested hypotheses that the number of COVID-19 case...

There is limited knowledge of the mechanisms that can inspire people's concern and engagement in the protection of unpopular and unappealing species. We analyzed Polish people's interest in themed internet memes featuring the proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) and the consequences of this interest for conservation marketing. We examined Google Tre...

Estimation of the population size and distribution of individuals is crucial in ecological studies. In many territorial animals, e.g., birds, territory mapping is the method believed to produce absolute and accurate estimators of population size (number of breeding territories). However, the results are highly variable among observers because inter...

Urban environments may negatively affect the development of organisms. In host-pathogen/parasite systems, this impact may lead to increased manifestations of pathogens that decrease the success of their hosts in urban environments compared to rural ones. We tested this hypothesis in the solitary bee Osmia bicornis L. We estimated the development of...

With a length exceeding 210,000 km in Europe, railways are common linear features dissecting landscapes. However, the impact of railway networks on biodiversity is equivocal. In this study, we investigated the effect of railway embankments on bird diversity components in an agricultural landscape in southern Poland. Forty transects including 20 alo...

The increased introduction of non-native species to habitats is a characteristic of globalisation. The impact of invading species on communities may be either linearly or non-linearly related to the invaders’ abundance in a habitat. However, non-linear relationships with a threshold point at which the community can no longer tolerate the invasive s...

Aim In the current Anthropocene, many ecosystems are being simultaneously invaded by multiple alien species. Some of these invasive species become more dominant and have greater environmental impacts than others. If two potentially dominant species invade the same area, the combined impact has been reported to be either (a) domination by one specie...

With the human population increasing there have been losses in biodiversity. A common feature of mankind is religious beliefs with various associated positive and negative consequences for biodiversity. Religion also has associated religious sites, many of which have a long history. The role of churches in benefitting biodiversity has not received...

Roads may have an important negative effect on animal dispersal rate and mortality and thus the functioning of local populations. However, road verges may be surrogate habitats for invertebrates. This creates a conservation dilemma around the impact of roads on invertebrates. Further, the effect of roads on invertebrates is much less understood tha...

Raw data on butterfly and plant species Explanations are in the sheet “Explanations”.

Supplementary material 1 Additional results for butterfly and plants.

• The response of animals to the edge reveals the potential mechanism underlying the impact of invasive plants on native pollinators. Many invasive plants flower only during a part of the growing season, which creates a temporal pattern of the availability of resources. This can lead to the emergence or disappearance of the edge effect in the polli...

Although shell colour polymorphism of the land snail Cepaea nemoralis is a well-known phenomenon, proximate and ultimate factors driving its evolution remain uncertain. Polymorphic species show variation in behavioural responses to selective forces. Therefore, we estimated effects of various environmental factors (temperature, humidity, food availa...

Bee-eaters (Meropidae) are considered agricultural pests and their presence provokes conflicts with beekeepers and farmers who rely on the pollination services of honey bees. This problem is often deal with through the mass killing of the birds, even though the quantitative evidence on the impact of bee-eaters on honey bee colonies is scarce. The c...

Loss of suitable seminatural habitats and homogenization of crop types have led to the population decline of pollinating insects in farmland. As these insects support crop production, many practical efforts aim to sustain pollinator diversity which is especially challenging in intensively managed and homogeneous farmland. However, there are ongoing...

Same-sex sexual behaviour has been noted among social animals. However, because of the large number of observations necessary, data from controlled experiments are lacking. In this study, we performed experiments to evaluate the effects of male and female removal in colonies of the feral pigeon (Columba livia f. urbana). After the experimental remo...

Unpredictable resources in seasonal environments may favour innovative individuals that efficiently explore and exploit such resources. We tested the hypothesis that potential intraspecific abundance is a more powerful predictor of detection of a novel food source than interspecific abundance and predation risk. The hypothesis was tested using late...

Aim Landscape composition and spatial configuration of habitat patches are important determinants of biodiversity in fragmented semi‐natural habitats spread across agricultural landscapes. However, little attention has been paid to man‐made structures that can moderate spatial processes affecting pollinator communities. In a large‐scale study, we e...

The most negative impacts of roads on bats are increased mortality caused by collisions with vehicles, noise pollution reducing both communication and foraging, and barriers to movement. To test the effect of roads and traffic on the occurrence and foraging habits of bats in forested landscapes in western Poland we compared 53 sites located along l...

Selection of kill sites is an important part of predation. In human-modified habitats, anthropogenic landscape features may increase or decrease hunting efficiency of predators. We investigated which habitat attributes increase predation success in wolf Canis lupus hunting for ungulates in an intensively managed forest of western Poland. We used GP...

Valuable habitats in various spatial configurations are essential for maintaining biodiversity across highly fragmented urban landscapes. In a large-scale study, we explored the value of human-made structures – river levees – as valuable habitats that support large populations of plants and butterflies and affects the spatial turnover of species wi...

Metapopulation functioning in the context of landscape and habitat structure is generally well understood. However, in human-transformed landscapes, human disturbance may affect not only a species of interest but also biotic interactions in which that species is engaged, which has been rarely studied at multiple spatial scales. We tested (1) the as...

1.Plant invasions are affected by many factors that must be favourable in order for invasions to occur. Factors can be grouped into three major categories: propagule pressure, biotic factors and abiotic characteristics; all may be moderated by human activity. However, studies examining all factors simultaneously are rare, and most are limited to a...

The components of foraging behaviour and success of adult and juvenile Grey Heron Ardea cinerea were studied at the Dobczyce Reservoir (southern Poland) in July and September 2015. Juvenile and adult birds moved at similar rates during both months. Fish capture attempt rate was significantly higher for juvenile birds than for adults in July but not...

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...

The type of matrix, the landscape surrounding habitat patches, may determine the distribution and function of local populations. However, the matrix is often heterogeneous, and its various components may differentially contribute to metapopulation processes at different spatial scales, a phenomenon that has rarely been investigated. The aim of this...

Coefficients of variation. Coefficients of variation (%) estimated separately for each spatial scale and each landscape are shown. (DOCX)

Model ranking estimated for the P. nausithous densities. Model ranking according to their ΔAICc values with the sum of the weights equaling 0.95. The best fitted models (ΔAICc < 2) are highlighted in bold. Factors included in the model are marked with a ‘+’. (DOCX)

Matrix composition variables predicting the densities of the investigated species on different spatial scales. Five landscape predictors in eight spatial scales are considered for Phengaris teleius (left panel) and P. nausithous (right panel). The most appropriate spatial scales are marked with dark-gray circles. (TIFF)

Model ranking estimated for the P. teleius densities. Model ranking according to their ΔAICc values with the sum of the weights equaling 0.95. The best fitted models (ΔAICc < 2) are highlighted in bold. Factors included in the model are marked with a ‘+’. (DOCX)

ContextHow do young birds achieve spatial knowledge about the environment during the initial stages of their life? They may follow adults, so gaining social information and learning; alternatively, young birds may acquire knowledge of the environment themselves by experiencing habitat and landscape features. If learning is at least partially indepe...

Background. One of the most difficult challenges for conservation biology is to reconcile growing human demands for resources with the rising need for protecting nature. Wind farms producing renewable energy have been recognised to be a threat for birds, but clear directives for environmental planning are still missing. Methods. Point counts were p...

To counteract the decline of farmland biodiversity in Europe, it is crucial to recognize habitats that are hot spots. Old rural settlements (e.g. villages) may be such important habitats, although these presumably biodiversity‐rich habitats have received little attention. Socio‐economic changes in central‐eastern Europe since 1989 mean that old hom...

Every species has certain habitat requirements, which may be altered by interactions with other co-occurring species. These interactions are mostly ignored in predictive models trying to identify key habitat variables correlated with species population abundance/occurrence. We investigated how the structure of the urban landscape, food resources, p...

One of the most difficult challenges for conservation biology is to reconcile growing human demands for resources with the rising need for protecting nature. Wind farms producing renewable energy have been recognised to be a threat for birds, but clear directives for environmental planning are still missing. Point counts were performed to study the...

Background. One of the most difficult challenges for conservation biology is to reconcile growing human demands for resources with the rising need for protecting nature. Wind farms producing renewable energy have been recognised to be a threat for birds, but clear directives for environmental planning are still missing. Methods. Point counts were...

List of all species observe List of all species observed in the wind farm during seasons of 2012 and 2013. Sum of individuals is given.

Raw data

Correlations between explanatory environmental variable Correlations between explanatory environmental variables. P values (in brackets) are corrected to take spatial autocorrelation into account. Statistically significant relations are bolded. Explanations of variable abbreviations are given in Table 1.

Best models and averaged values of function parameters Best models and averaged values of function parameters of variables correlated to Chao 1 bird species richness estimator, abundance of entire bird community, and abundance of five selected farmland species in different seasons and years.

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...

Possible environmental consequences of solar farm building in a wrongly chosen localisation

Bird feeding is one of the most widespread direct interactions between man and nature, and this has important social and environmental consequences. However, this activity can differ between rural and urban habitats, due to inter alia habitat structure, human behaviour and the composition of wintering bird communities. We counted birds in 156 squar...

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 expla...

Adapting to exploit new food sources may be essential, particularly in winter, when the impact of food limitation on survival of individuals is critical. One of the most important additional sources of food for birds in human settlements is birdfeeders. At a large spatial scale, we experimentally provided birdfeeders with four different kinds of fo...

Urban development has a marked effect on the ecological and behavioural traits of many living organisms, including birds. In this paper, we analysed differences in the numbers of wintering birds between rural and urban areas in Poland. We also analysed species richness and abundance in relation to longitude, latitude, human population size, and lan...

Roosting site selection by geese is a key factor for survival during migration and wintering. Birds should select sites that minimize thermoregulation demands and predation risk, and maximize foraging efficiency. We used data on the spatial location of geese roosting sites in Poland to compare landscape features and the conservation status of roost...