Researchers from around the world, including AMU biologist Jonathan Parrett, have analysed data from 127 studies to reveal ‘thresholds’ for when logged rainforests lose the ability to sustain themselves. The results, published today in Nature, could widen the scope of which forests are considered ‘worth’ conserving, but also show how much logging degrades forests beyond the [...]
Institute of Environmental Biology was established on 1st June 1984, hence this years XII Session (program) was the opportunity to celebrate this! See photos https://envbiol.web.amu.edu.pl/en/30-th-anniversary-scientific-session/.
A recent paper of Michał Bogdziewicz and collegues on mast seeding in perennial plants presents a model that integrates proximate factors (environmental variation, weather cues, resource budgets) with ultimate drivers (predator satiation, pollination efficiency). This model illustrates how the relationships between mast seeding and weather influence species' responses to climate warming, ranging from no change [...]
A new publication by Agnieszka Majer, Anna Skoracka and Lechosław Kuczyński (Population Ecology Lab) in cooperation with Jürg Spaak (Institute for Environmental Sciences, Landau, Germany) showing, on the basis on Modern Coexistence Theory, how biotic interactions change over time. As a result of higher-order interactions, species switch rapidly between facilitation and competition. Read more: https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14428. [...]
The new paper published in Nature Plants explores how seed production in perennial plants, like European beech (Fagus sylvatica), synchronizes across vast distances, affecting ecosystem functions. The study reveals that the summer solstice serves as a celestial cue, triggering synchronized responses to weather conditions among widely separated populations of European beech. This ‘starting gun’ initiates [...]
Article in Nature co-authored by Beata Messyasz reveals that lakes ecosystems play a key role in the plastic-pollution cycle. Read more here https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06168-4
The journal Biological Reviews has published a paper authored by Anna Skoracka, Lechosław Kuczynski and Jacek Radwan and colleagues from the University of Lisbon and the University of Montpellier (https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.13018). It is a review publication that explains the evolutionary and ecological relationships between dispersal and host specialization using herbivorous arthropods as a model group. The [...]
The journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution (https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.14176) has published a paper by Katarzyna Malinowska, Katarzyna Markowska and Lechoslaw Kuczynski. The paper describes a new algorithm for generating so-called "virtual species." Virtual species are synthetic data structures that replicate the spatial distribution of real organisms. They are used to test various statistical tools, as well [...]
Climate change continues to reshape our natural ecosystems, and its impact on tree populations is a topic of great concern. Recent study (link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.16730) led by Michal Bogdziewicz investigating the response of European beech (Fagus sylvatica) to climate warming has uncovered intriguing insights into the complex relationship between tree reproduction, climate change, and forest dynamics.
We present the current program of the XIth Scientific Session of the Institute of Environmental Biology, which will take place this Friday, May 12, 2023.
