Włodzimierz Meissner

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• Professor
• Professor at University of Gdańsk

The great snipe Gallinago media, as a long-distant migrant wintering in Africa, faces the challenge of accumulating sufficient energy reserves before departing from European breeding grounds. Despite possible trade-offs in resource allocation, this species additionally initiates moult of flight feathers before southward migration. Here, we discuss...

Monitoring of Birds of Poland has been carried out since 2006 by the Chief Inspectorate for Environmental Protection and financed by the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management. The programme implements the provisions of the Birds Directive, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the European Biodiversity Strategy. Duri...

Flight feather moult is an energetically expensive stage of the annual cycle of birds. Its timing is adjusted to other important time-and energy-demanding activities, including migration. In the vast majority of migratory birds, primary moult occurs before or after migration or moulting is suspended during migration. The Black-headed Gull is an exc...

Rivers and other freshwater ecosystems have been severely changed by humans. This resulted in a distinct decline in the abundance of many aquatic organisms, as well as those living in water‐dependent habitats. Our work aimed to study the habitat selection of breeding common sandpipers ( Actitis hypoleucos ) and the impact of river regulation on the...

The possibility of sex identification of birds has substantial importance for studies on different aspects of bird ecology and behaviour. Using discriminant functions is becoming increasingly popular in studies of bird species that are monomorphic in plumage characteristics because they are cheap, hardly invasive and may be applied to data collecte...

Predation is an important factor limiting bird populations and is usually the main factor influencing nest survival. In riverine habitats, flooding poses an additional significant challenge. Our study aimed to elucidate the influence of nest location and incubation timing on the survival of common sandpiper nests in a large, semi-natural, lowland r...

We analysed primary and secondary feather moult and fat reserves in 539 Common Snipes captured in the middle Pripyat River Valley, an important stopover site for waders in Central Europe, between 2002 and 2022. The average daily rate of feather growth was 1.89% in primaries and 2.27% in secondaries, being one of the highest documented in waders. Th...

Long-distance host movements play a major regulatory role in shaping microbial communities of their digestive tract. Here, we studied gut microbiota composition during seasonal migration in five shorebird species (Charadriiformes) that use different migratory (stopover) habitats. Our analyses revealed significant interspecific variation in both com...

Although urbanization poses various threats to avifauna, some bird species, including Mallards, are attracted to towns and cities as their winter habitats due to favourable temperatures and abundant anthropogenic food. In this study, we investigated how population dynamics changed in relation to winter harshness and intensity of supplementary feedi...

In 2022, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) virus clade 2.3.4.4b became enzootic and caused mass mortality in Sandwich Tern Thalasseus sandvicensis and other seabird species across northwestern Europe. We present data on the characteristics of the spread of the virus between and within breeding colonies and the number of dead adult Sa...

In monomorphic species, like in the Black-headed Gull, both sexes look alike in breeding plumage. With large sets of data on captured and photographed birds and using the Underhill–Zucchini moult model, we provided a detailed pattern of breeding plumage development in this species by age and sex. This study, similar to other studies, documented fir...

The Great Snipe as a long-distant migrant wintering in Africa, faces the challenge of accumulating sufficient energy reserves before the departure from European breeding grounds. Despite possible trade-offs in resource allocation, this species additionally initiates moult of flight feathers before southward migration. Here we discuss the strategy o...

Abstrakt: W niniejszej pracy przedstawiamy charakterystykę ugrupowania ptaków wodnych prze-bywających na obszarze Portu Gdynia w okresie pozalęgowym. Port ten jest największym portem obsługującym przewóz produktów rolnych na Bałtyku, a wielkość ich rocznego przeładunku w la-tach 2019-2022 wyniosła od 3,2 do 6,7 mln ton. Zimujące ptaki wodne liczono...

Survival of adult individuals is a key demographic parameter, that is critical for conservation programs of species and evolutionary research focused on life-history traits. Here, we present the estimates of the apparent annual survival of lekking male Great Snipes of the lowland population, breeding in wet meadow habitats in the valley of the Prip...

A bstract In 2022, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) virus clade 2.3.4.4b became enzootic and caused mass mortality in Sandwich terns and other seabird species across northwestern Europe. We present data on characteristics of the spread of the virus between breeding colonies and the number of dead adult Sandwich terns recorded at bre...

Our knowledge of the ecology of non-marine Ostracoda inhabiting endorheic wetlands (pans) of the semi-arid regions of South Africa is very scarce. The present study investigates the distribution of ostracod species in grass, open, and salt pans in the central part of the North West province and tests ostracod response to abiotic and biotic predicto...

In Mallard, as in other ducks of the northern hemisphere, males outnumber females in wintering flocks and the temperature seems to be one of the most important factors shaping the sex ratio at a given site. In this study, we checked the influence of winter harshness on the sex ratio of Mallards overwintering in urban waterbodies with an emphasis on...

The natural valleys of large rivers provide suitable nesting and foraging sites for many bird species. In this study, we assess the effects of water fluctuations during the breeding season on Common Sandpipers’ nest survival on a semi-natural section of the Vistula River, and evaluate which tactics this species can adopt to minimise the effects on...

The field studies were conducted in three ephemeral river islets of the middle Pripyat River, southern Belarus in 2006–2007. Nestlings of the Northern Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) were ringed soon after hatching, and reencountered during subsequent visits. Post-hatching survival was estimated by capture-mark-recapture models. Daily survival rates of...

Our review of the literature showed that since the beginning of the socio-economic transformation in Poland in the 1990s, the downward trend in Hg emissions and its deposition in the southern Baltic Sea was followed by a simultaneous decrease in Hg levels in water and marine plants and animals. Hg concentrations in the biota lowered to values that...

To improve understanding of the pathobiology of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) infections in wild birds, pathogenicity and transmissibility of HPAIV H5N8 subtype clade 2.3.4.4b was evaluated in ~ 8-week-old herring gulls (Larus argentatus) divided into 3 groups: naïve birds (group A), birds previously exposed to low pathogenic avia...

W styczniu 2020 roku przeprowadzono liczenie zimujących w Polsce ptaków wodnych obejmując kontrolami 2 390 różnego rodzaju zbiorników wodnych. Łącznie zaobserwowano 1 289 455 osobników, w tym 1 180 513 ptaków oznaczonych do gatunku, które przebywały na kontrolowanych obiektach, 39 634 os. w locie oraz 69 308 ptaków o nieustalonej przynależności gat...

This paper investigates the effectiveness of phenol derivatives removal from bird organisms via claws and remiges, and performs a preliminary assessment of the usefulness of these epidermal products for environmental biomonitoring and estimating bird exposure levels. Concentrations of bisphenol A (BPA) and alkylphenols: 4-tert-octylphenol (4-t-OP)...

Survival of adults is a key demographic parameter affecting avian population dynamics. In urban areas, e.g., city parks, birds stay in winter in large numbers where they have access to a multitude of food sources due to human activities, which is one of the key factors that attract birds into the cities. Our study estimates apparent survival of mal...

The aim of the present study was to determine the concentrations of nonylphenols (NPs) and 4-t-octylphenol (4tOP) in the muscles, liver, and kidneys of selected waterbird species. Three species with different feeding habits were selected, i.e., greater scaup (Aythya marila), great crested grebe (Podiceps cristatus), and great cormorant (Phalacrocor...

River development and dam construction alter ecological conditions by changing geomorphologic processes affecting the nutrient and biogeochemical cycles in riverine ecosystems. Changes to the food chain might thus harm the quality of migratory shorebirds’ stopover sites. In this study we compare the abundance of potential prey and the foraging beha...

The display of lekking Great Snipe males is an energetically demanding activity and therefore, access to the rich feeding sites in the proximity of their leks is essential. During the breeding season, Great Snipes mostly prey on earthworms, whose availability is affected by moisture and penetrability of the soil. In this study, we investigated the...

Protected area networks help species respond to climate warming. However, the contribution of a site's environmental and conservation‐relevant characteristics to these responses is not well understood. We investigated how composition of nonbreeding waterbird communities (97 species) in the European Union Natura 2000 (N2K) network (3018 sites) chang...

Wild birds can be colonized by bacteria, which are often resistant to antibiotics and have various virulence profiles. The aim of this study was to analyze antibiotic resistance mechanisms and virulence profiles in relation to the phylogenetic group of E. coli strains that were isolated from the GI tract of wildfowl. Out of 241 faecal samples, pres...

This study determined the distribution of phenol derivatives in the organisms of waterbirds and the factors influencing their bioaccumulation and affinity to specific tissues. Concentrations of bisphenol A (BPA), 4-tert-octylphenol (4-t-OP) and 4-nonylphenol (4-NP) were determined in the brains, subcutaneous fat, kidneys, livers and pectoral muscle...

Climate warming is driving changes in species distributions, although many species show a so-called climatic debt, where their range shifts lag behind the fast shift in temperature isoclines. Protected areas (PAs) may impact the rate of distribution changes both positively and negatively. At the cold edges of species distributions, PAs can facilita...

Sexing monomorphic birds by DNA and morphometrics allows researchers to study behavioural differences between the sexes. We aimed to verify the utility of the carpal spur to sex the monomorphic Blacksmith Lapwing or to determine a more suitable method. The Blacksmith Lapwing is a widespread resident of central and southern Africa. We used biometric...

Climate warming is driving changes in species distributions and community composition. Many species have a so‐called climatic debt, that is, shifts in range lag behind shifts in temperature isoclines. Inside protected areas (PAs), community changes in response to climate warming can be facilitated by greater colonization rates by warm‐dwelling spec...

Numbers and distribution of the Northern Lapwing Vanellus vanellus and European Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria in autumn 2020 in Poland. Abstract: National autumn count of Northern Lapwings Vanellus vanellus and Golden Plovers Pluvialis apricaria was conducted for the fourth time. In October 2020 we recorded a total of 171,000 Lapwings and 47,00...

Analysis of coordinated Greater Scaup (Aythya marila) count data from the last 30 years showed a 38.1% decrease in wintering numbers in North-West Europe, from 309,000 during 1988–1991 to c.192,300 individuals during 2015–2018. Annual trends in wintering numbers differed throughout the range. Numbers decreased in the UK, Ireland, and in the Netherl...

The Curlew Sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea) displays sexual dimorphism in size and in breeding plumage. We analysed biometric and plumage characteristics in adult Curlew Sandpipers and proposed a protocol for sexing individuals, with the use of the discriminant function analysis. We measured 222 females and 164 males captured during autumn migration...

The blackcap Sylvia atricapilla shows a complex migratory pattern and is a suitable species for the studies of morphological migratory syndrome, including adaptations of wing shape to different migratory performance. Obligate migrants of this species that breed in northern, central, and eastern Europe differ by migration distance and some cover sho...

Aquatic birds found at the top of the trophic chain are exposed to xenobiotics present both in food and inhaled air. The aim of this study was to indicate and assess the routes and levels of exposure of aquatic birds to bisphenol A (BPA), 4-tert-octylphenol (4-t-OP) and 4-nonylphenol (4-NP). The birds constituting the study material (Clangula hyema...

The great reed warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus is a common migrant through the Western Palearctic. However, its migration strategy, especially the spatiotemporal pattern of accumulation and utilisation of energy stores en route, is poorly known. Using ringing data collected at distant stopover sites located from Central Europe to Asia Minor, we o...

The nominate subspecies of the white wagtail is a common taxon occurring in almost all of Europe. It shows no sexual dimorphism in juvenile and winter plumages and some dimorphism regarding size. The aim of the present study was to propose a method for sexing birds of this species using linear measurements. Through a discriminant function analysis,...

Internationally coordinated censuses of Whooper Swans Cygnus cygnus across continental northwest Europe were undertaken in mid-winter 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015. The estimate of 138,500 birds in 2015, the highest to date, represented a more than doubling of the population size (at an annual increase of 4.1%) since the first census total of 59,...

Fatty acid and alcohol components of preen oil were determined in three gull species that belong to two systematic genera: herring gull Larus argentatus, common gull Larus canus and black-headed gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus. All gulls were captured in winter, in Gdańsk, Poland. All gulls produced monoesters composed of C 7-C 16 saturated fatty a...

Lead is one of the non-essential metals that can become a serious environmental threat to the human population and wildlife causing various toxic impairments and pathologies. Waterfowl are especially sensitive to lead expo- sure as they stay in areas with a high risk of lead pollution due to hunting and fishing pressures. This study aims to determi...

In autumn bird numbers were low. In winter the most abundant species was the Common Goldeneye Bucephala clangula, whose numbers peaked in January at 15.922 individuals. The numbers of Mallards Anas platyrhynchos and Eurasian Coots Fulica atra have been the highest in the 35-year period of waterbird counts in the Bay of Gdańsk. In contrast, the numb...

Internationally coordinated censuses of Whooper Swans Cygnus cygnus across continental northwest Europe were undertaken in mid-winter 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015. The estimate of 138,500 birds in 2015, the highest to date, represented a more than doubling of the population size (at an annual increase of 4.1%) since the first census total of 59,...

Aim Many species are showing distribution shifts in response to environmental change. We explored (a) the effects of inter‐annual variation in winter weather conditions on non‐breeding distributional abundance of waterbirds exploiting different habitats (deep‐water, shallow water, farmland) and (b) the long‐term shift in the population centroid of...

The Dunlin is one of very few wader species that moults primaries when migrating to its wintering grounds. In our study, a total of 68.2% of immatures and 26.6% of adults underwent their primary moult when passing through the southern Baltic in autumn. More than 30% of moulting birds revealed differences in moult scores of left and right wings. How...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of time of sample storage, method of analysis, and storage temperature on stability of HCT, HGB, and RBC in avian blood samples. Blood samples from mute swans were stored at 24°C or 4°C. Analyses of HCT, HGB, and RBC were carried out after 5 and 25 hours after collection of blood using both...

In this study, we investigatedfattening strategies of juvenile Sedge and Reed Warblers during their autumn migration. We analysed fat scores of birds captured at five ringing sites situatedbetween the southern Baltic Sea coast andAsia Minor. In Eastern Europe these two species hadsimilarly low fat reserves. Their fat loadincreasedin the Balkans. Re...

This series summarizing current knowledge on ageing and sexing waders is co-ordinated by Wlodzimier Meissner. See Wader Study Group Bulletin vol. 113 p. 28 for the Introduction to the series.

We studied the advancement of the spring migration in a 28-year period in two groups of blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla) differing in wing length, which is known to be a proxy for migration distance. We related this advancement to the numbers of captured blackcaps. Short-winged birds (short-distance blackcaps), in the period preceding their increase...

Fat is the main source of energy during bird migration, and the visual fat scoring is widely used in the studies on, e.g., stopover ecology of migratory species. Yet, visual fat scoring can lead to wrong conclusion due to potentially different pattern of fat distribution in species that differ in size or even individuals being during active migrati...

The Redshank is a wader species that shows no sexual dimorphism in plumage, but some dimorphism in size. To propose a method for sexing birds of this species by linear measurements, a discriminant function analysis was applied to a set of morphometric traits in birds captured during the spring migration in southern Belarus. In total, 113 males and...

The common gull is a widespread species, occurring in almost the whole of Europe that shows no sexual dimorphism in plumage and some dimorphism in size. To propose a method for sexing birds from this species by linear measurements, a discriminant function analysis was applied to a set of morphometric traits in birds captured in northern Poland duri...

1. Assessment of leukocyte profiles has become an increasingly popular tool in the fields of ecology and ecophysiology. The ratio of heterophils to lymphocytes (H/L ratio) is of special utility, as it reflects physiological adaptation of an organism to cope either with an infection through injury (via heterophils) or a communicable disease (via lym...

Lowland grasslands of Eastern Europe support strong populations of several species of ground-nesting waders, including the Northern Lapwing Vanellus vanellus. This species has experienced strong population declines in most of the continent, owing to habitat loss and impaired productivity, the latter being likely a result of predation on chicks. The...

The preen gland produces oily secretion, which smeared onto a bird’s plumage improves its maintenance. The main components of the secretion are waxes, and its composition often changes during the year. The aim of this study was to determine the differences in the chemical composition of preen waxes in adult herring gulls Larus argentatus, captured...

Gulls were assessed as sentinels of contamination in the coastal zone of the Southern Baltic, research material being obtained from dead birds collected on Polish beaches and near fishing ports in 2009–2012. In feathers and blood of four gull species: herring gull (Larus argentatus), common gull (Larus canus), black-headed gull (Chroicocephalus rid...

Discriminant functions based on external body size measurements are widely used to sex different gull species with great accuracy. However, all of them have been derived for adult birds, which puts into question their usefulness for sexing immatures due to possible changes in size as birds mature. To address this issue, discriminant functions that...

In the common sandpiper both sexes do not participate equally in brood rearing. The attendance of females progressively declines and by the third week after hatching, most of them leave their broods. To check if this unequal parental care results in different migration phenology of males and females, adult common sandpipers were caught at four ring...

We tested wild birds in Poland during 2008-2015 for avian influenza virus (AIV). We took 10,312 swabs and feces samples from 6,314 live birds representing 12 orders and 84 bird species, mostly from orders Anseriformes and Charadriiformes, for testing and characterization by various PCR methods. From PCR-positive samples, we attempted to isolate and...

Recent climate change has a major impact on the sizes and distribution of bird populations, the phenology of their breeding/migration and migratory behaviour (migration distance, migration strategy). We documented changes in the numbers of juvenile Blackcaps migrating in autumn through the S Baltic that were paralleled by changes in wing length of...

Analysis of the biometric parameters of dunlins is based on data of 496 adult birds and 214 birds in their second year of life captured during the spring migration in the years 2002–2014 in the floodplain of the Pripyat River in southern Belarus. The average size of the dunlins caught in this area shows that the majority of birds correspond to the...

Leptin is an adipose tissue-derived hormone whose circulating levels correlate with the amount of body fat stores. The main function of this adipokine is to regulate energy metabolism. By modulating the expression of orexigenic and anorexigenic neuropeptides in the hypothalamus, leptin reduces appetite. It also increases energy expenditure, contrib...

Lead (Pb) poisoning is most commonly linked amongst anthropogenically-caused deaths in waterfowl and this is often associated with hunting and fishing activities. However, the exact identification of the source may be difficult with commonly-used techniques. We have studied isotope ratios using Inductively-Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS)...

The common sandpiper is a small wader showing no sexual dimorphism in plumage and some dimorphism in size. Discriminant function analysis was applied to a set of morphometric traits of birds captured in Poland during migration. In total, 247 males and 111 females were measured and sexed molecularly. On average, females were larger in all measuremen...

Species abundance is believed to be connected with geographical distribution and to decrease from central towards marginal parts of the distribution range. We investigated the cover-abundance of Carex chordorrhiza within varied plant communities reported from Europe, and with features that may influence sedge abundance in the ‘within’ and ‘outside’...

Consequences conferred at a distance Migratory animals have adapted to life in multiple, sometimes very different environments. Thus, they may show particularly complex responses as climates rapidly change. Van Gils et al. show that body size in red knot birds has been decreasing as their Arctic breeding ground warms (see the Perspective by Wikelsk...

Reductions in body size are increasingly being identified as a response to climate warming. Here we present evidence for a case of such body shrinkage, potentially due to malnutrition in early life. We show that an avian long-distance migrant (red knot, Calidris canutus canutus), which is experiencing globally unrivaled warming rates at its high-Ar...

This work presents the results of studies aimed at assessing the median and maximum distances covered by wild mallards (Anas platyrhynchos; n = 38), hypothetically infected with the high pathogenicity avian influenza virus (HPAIV) during spring migrations, using GPS-GSM tracking and published data on the susceptibility to HPAIV infection and durati...

Age and seasonal differences in biometrics of the dunlins caught in the Pripyat River floodplain during their spring migration were analyzed. The data were collected from late March to early June, 2002-2014. There were no significant differences in all the mean measurements (except for the wing length) between the adult and immature birds. The imma...

09.03.2015 г. Анализ биометрических показателей чернозобиков базируется на данных по размерам 496 взрослых и 214 птиц второго года жизни, отловленных во время весенней миграции в 2002–2014 гг. в пойме р. Припять на юге Беларуси. Средние размеры чернозобиков, отловленных в пойме Припяти, пока-зывают, что большинство птиц соответствует показателям но...

Biometric data on 161 adult males and 166 adult females of the Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula captured in the southern Belarus in spring between 2002 and 2014 were analysed. In males, a significant decrease in total head length and wing length occurred from April to May, while there was no such trend in females. As individuals of the C. h. tund...