Wojciech Solarz

Polish Academy of Sciences

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Kamil Najberek

Institute of Nature Conservation

Sven Bacher

University of Fribourg

Wolfgang Rabitsch

Environment Agency Austria

Montserrat Vilà

Estación Biológica de Doñana

Tadeusz Zając

Polish Academy of Sciences

Tim Adriaens

Research Institute for Nature and Forest

Helen E. Roy

UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

Franz Essl

University of Vienna

Wojciech Bielański

Institute of Nature Conservation

Piero Genovesi

Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale

Cooperative Institutions

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Natural History Museum

American Museum of Natural History

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas

Real Jardín Botánico

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Polish Academy of Sciences

Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Botany

Sorbonne Université

École Pratique des Hautes Études

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The influence of phenology on double-brooding and polygyny incidence in the Sedge Warbler Acrocephalus schoenobaenus

Journal of Ornithology (2015)

Tadeusz Zając Wojciech Bielański Adam M. Ćmiel Wojciech Solarz

There is growing evidence that the fitness of birds in temperate zones depends strongly on the match between the timing of breeding and local phenology. We have analysed data collected from a 15-year study on a Sedge Warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus) population in its natural habitat. The highly skewed distribution of arrival dates of males indicated that they competed intensely to be the earliest arrivals. The distribution of mating dates, unlike arrival dates, was not skewed, rather it formed a bell-shaped distribution. Because females arrived much later, they could not base their mating choices on the arrival dates of males. Females, however, could use male song repertoire, a trait we found to be correlated with male arrival date. Double-brooded females mated early in the season, exactly within the peak of mating date distribution. Polygynous females, on the other hand, mated later in the season, choosing high-quality older males which had arrived significantly earlier. Male territory quality did not differ between double-brooded and polygynous females, nor did the quality of the territories occupied by an individual female change during her lifetime. Although longer lifespan and double-brooding influenced a female’s fitness over the course of her lifetime, polygyny had no significant effect. We conclude that Sedge Warbler females do not compete for territorial resources, but they do prefer to mate with high-quality early-arriving males. Polygyny is an effective strategy used by females to compensate for their late arrival and breeding onset, since they pair with high-quality males.

Acrocephalus

Polygyny

Warbler

10.1007/s10336-015-1181-x

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Citations (5)

Territory choice during the breeding tenure of male sedge warblers

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology (2011)

Tadeusz Zając Wojciech Bielański Wojciech Solarz

A territorial male can shift the location of its territory from year to year in order to increase its quality. The male can base its decision on environmental cues or else on its breeding experiences (when territory shift is caused by breeding failure in previous seasons). We tested these possible mechanisms of territory choice in the sedge warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus), a territorial migrating passerine that occupies wetlands. This species bases its territory choices on an environmental cue: tall wetland vegetation cover. We found that the magnitude of territory quality improvement between seasons (measured as the area of tall wetland vegetation) increased throughout the early stages of a male's breeding career as a result of territory shifts dependent on the earliness of arrival. The distance the territory was shifted between seasons depended negatively on the previous year's territory quality and, less clearly, on the previous year's mating success. On the other hand, previous mating or nesting success had no influence on territory quality improvement between seasons as measured in terms of vegetation. The results imply that tall wetland vegetation is a long-term, effective environmental cue and that a preference for territories in which this type of landcover prevails has evolved into a rigid behavioral mechanism, supplemented by short-term individual experiences of breeding failure.

Acrocephalus

Animal ecology

10.1007/s00265-011-1241-z

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Blood parasites shape extreme major histocompatibility complex diversity in a migratory passerine

Molecular Ecology (2018)

Aleksandra Biedrzycka Wojciech Bielański Adam M. Ćmiel Wojciech Solarz Tadeusz Zając

Pathogens are one of the main forces driving the evolution and maintenance of the highly polymorphic genes of the vertebrate major histocompatibility complex (MHC). Although MHC proteins are crucial in pathogen recognition, it is still poorly understood how pathogen-mediated selection promotes and maintains MHC diversity, and especially so in host species with highly duplicated MHC genes. Sedge warblers (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus) have highly duplicated MHC genes, and using data from high-throughput MHC genotyping, we were able to investigate to what extent avian malaria parasites explain temporal MHC class I supertype fluctuations in a long-term study population. We investigated infection status and infection intensities of two different strains of Haemoproteus, that is avian malaria parasites that are known to have significant fitness consequences in sedge warblers. We found that prevalence of avian malaria in carriers of specific MHC class I supertypes was a significant predictor of their frequency changes between years. This finding suggests that avian malaria infections partly drive the temporal fluctuations of the MHC class I supertypes. Furthermore, we found that individuals with a large number of different supertypes had higher resistance to avian malaria, but there was no evidence for an optimal MHC class I diversity. Thus, the two studied malaria parasite strains appear to select for a high MHC class I supertype diversity. Such selection may explain the maintenance of the extremely high number of MHC class I gene copies in sedge warblers and possibly also in other passerines where avian malaria is a common disease.

Avian Malaria

Balancing selection

Haemoproteus

10.1111/mec.14592

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Invasive alien species as reservoirs for pathogens

Ecological Indicators (2022)

Kamil Najberek Agnieszka Olszańska B. Tokarska-Guzik K. Mazurska Zygmunt Dajdok

Alien plant and animal hosts play an important role as vectors of dangerous pathogens. However, the knowledge on pathogens of many host species is still limited. To bridge this gap, we collated information on pathogens carried by 118 alien species in Europe in their native and secondary range. In Europe, these species are considered as invasive. Using the dataset we determined most prevailing pathogen groups and plant and animal hosts that carried the highest number of pathogens. The most numerous pathogens were bacteria Xylella fastidiosa (plants) and Rabies virus (animals). The principal pathogen groups among plant hosts were Arthropoda (phylum), Insecta (class) and Hemiptera (order), and among animal hosts – Platyhelminthes (phylum), Trematoda (class) and Plagiorchiida/Strongylida (order). In plants, the highest number of pathogens was recorded for Ambrosia artemisiifolia; in animals, Procyon lotor was the most infested species. Hosts introduced from North America carried the highest numbers of pathogen species; in addition, unintentionally introduced hosts carried more pathogens than those introduced intentionally. We revealed also that the level of infestation differs between the habitats in which the hosts occur. It should be also stressed that in all analyses the number of pathogens increased with the number of publications on the particular host' infestation. The highest number of publications was available for species useful for human, such as Crassostrea gigas. The results demonstrated that there are still significant gaps in the knowledge on the role of other hosts, including invasive ones (e.g., Sciurus niger) in pathogen transmission.

Alien species

10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.108879

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Hybridization between native and introduced species of deer in Eastern Europe

Journal of Mammalogy (2012)

Aleksandra Biedrzycka Wojciech Solarz Henryk Okarma

Abstract A consequence of introduction of alien species can be hybridization with a closely related native species. Hybridization can have a large effect on the genetic structure and conservation status of native populations. Here, we present a study of hybridization and introgression between native red deer (Cervus elaphus) and introduced sika deer (C. nippon) from 5 regions in Poland, the Kaliningrad District (Russia), and Lithuania. With a set of microsatellite loci and a mitochondrial marker, we uncovered extensive hybridization in all regions despite different population dynamics and no reports of hybrid individuals. We propose that sika populations in Eastern Europe were established with individuals coming from at least 2 different localities in southern Japan and eastern China. Legislation designed to reduce threats posed by sika deer could help to prevent further hybridization.

10.1644/11-mamm-a-022.1

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Citations (69)

Alien Birds, Amphibians and Reptiles of Europe

Springer eBooks (2008)

Salit Kark Wojciech Solarz François Chiron Philippe Clergeau Susan M. Shirley

Alien species

10.1007/978-1-4020-8280-1_8

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Citations (29)

Adaptive settlement in sedge warblers Acrocephalus schoenobaenus—focus on the scale of individuals

Acta Oecologica (2006)

Tadeusz Zając Wojciech Solarz Wojciech Bielański

Acrocephalus

Philopatry

10.1016/j.actao.2005.07.009

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Citations (16)

Control method that may limit an invasive plant in a protected area: Stem breaking decreases alien goldenrod performance and enhances pest attack

Global Ecology and Conservation (2021)

Kamil Najberek Wojciech Solarz

Developing alternative control approaches is particularly important for reducing the impact of biological invasions in protected areas. We present a simple stem-breaking control approach for alien goldenrod, Solidago gigantea . The method was tested at the Natura 2000 site ‘Skawina meadows area’ in southern Poland, where S. gigantea threatens the co-occurring protected and rare native species. The tests were performed over 40 days in 2012 and 2013 and involved hand-breaking of stems. Control and broken plants were surveyed in terms of their performance and pest pressure, and the number of pests attacking a given control and/or broken plant was assessed. We found that stem breaking may reduce S. gigantea generative reproduction potential by preventing seed release and increasing pest pressure. The dominant pest groups were Stylommatophora and Auchenorrhyncha. Application of this method in strictly protected areas does not require virtually any equipment and can be performed by non-qualified volunteers. Thus, the proposed approach may be an economic and environmentally friendly method of alien plant species control; however, further tests at a larger scale are needed to confirm this hypothesis.

Alien species

10.1016/j.gecco.2021.e01785

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Geomorphic structure and land cover of extensively managed floodplains of the Nida River

Nature Conservation (2002)

Tadeusz Zając Joanna Korzeniak Wojciech Solarz Katarzyna Zając Wiesław Król

Land Cover

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Inwazje biologiczne jako zagrozenie dla przyrody

Progress in Plant Protection (2007)

Wojciech Solarz

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Citations (7)