Dr. Jakub Szymkowiak

Current Projects

1. Social learning of risk recognition in wild birds (National Science Centre grant no. 2018/31/D/NZ8/00080, Principal Investigator)
2. Information use in habitat selection decisions in songbirds
3. Effects of mast seeding on population dynamics of forest birds

Completed Projects

1. Behavioral mechanisms of habitat selection process in small songbirds: the Wood Warbler Phylloscopus sibilatrix as a case study (National Science Centre grant no. 2012/07/N/NZ8/00129; 2013-2016)

Career History

• 2016 – to date: Assistant Professor at the Population Ecology Research Unit, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University
• 2016: PhD in ecology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University
• 2012: MSc in biology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University
• 2010: BSc in biology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University

Honors & awards

• AMU scholarship for the most scientifically productive young research staff (2020)
• 4th Marcin Antczak Award for the most inspiring ornithological paper published in 2017 (2018)
• Team Award of the Rector of AMU for scientific achievements (2018)
• START scholarship awarded by the Foundadtion for Polish Science (2017)
• Ministry of Science and Higher Education Scholarship awarded in 2015
• Nomination for the 2nd Marcin Antczak Award for the most inspiring ornithological paper published in 2015
• Nomination for the 3rd Marcin Antczak Award for the most inspiring ornithological paper published in 2016

Classes

1. Statistical Methods in Environmental Protection
2. Ecological Modelling
3. Statistical analysis of biomedical data
4. Monitoring of wildlife populations
5. Modelling of ecological processes

BSc projects

1. Michalina Hertmanowska (2020) – Social learning of predator recognition in animals – current state of the art and applicability in animal conservation

2022

Szymkowiak J., Schmidt K.A. 2022. Ecology of Information enters the Anthropocene. Oikos, 2022: e09677, DOI: 10.1111/oik.09677

Szymkowiak J. 2022. Eavesdropping on conspecific alarm calls links birds across territory borders into a population-wide information network. Animal Behaviour, 192: 85–93, DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2022.07.012

Schmidt K.A., Massol F., Szymkowiak J. 2022. Resurrecting Shannon’s surprise: landscape heterogeneity complements information use and population growth. Oikos, 2022: 09305, DOI: 10.1111/oik.09305

Szymkowiak J., Schmidt K.A. 2021. Deterioration of nature’s information webs in the Anthropocene. Oikos, 2022: e08504, DOI: 10.1111/oik.08504

2021

Bogdziewicz M., Hacket-Pain A., Ascoli D., Szymkowiak J. 2021. Environmental variation drives continental scale synchrony of European beech reproduction. Ecology, 102: e03384, DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3384

Szymkowiak J. 2021. Wood warblers learn to recognise mobbing calls of an unfamiliar species from heterospecific tutors. Animal Behaviour, 171: 1–11, DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.11.004

Bogdziewicz M., Szymkowiak J., Tanentzap A., Calama R., Marino S., Steele M.A., Seget B., Piechnik Ł., Żywiec M. 2021. Seed predation selects for reproductive variability and synchrony in perennial plants. New Phytologist, 229: 2357–2364, DOI: 10.1111/nph.16835

2020

Bogdziewicz M., Szymkowiak J., Bonal R., Hacket-Pain A., Espelta J.M, Pesendorfer M., Grewling L., Kasprzyk I., Belmonte J., Kluska K., De Linares C., Peñuelas J., Fernández-Martinez M. 2020. What drives phenological synchrony? Warm springs advance and desynchronize flowering in trees. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 294: 108140, DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2020.108140

Bogdziewicz M., Szymkowiak J., Calama R., Crone E.E., Espelta J.M., Lesica P., Marino S., Steele M.A. Tenhumberg B., Tyre A., Żywiec M., Kelly D. 2020. Does masting scale with plant size? High reproductive variability and low synchrony in small and unproductive individuals. Annals of Botany, 126: 971–979, DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcaa118

Pesendorfer M.B., Bogdziewicz M., Szymkowiak J., Borowski Z., Kantorowicz W., Espelta J.M., Fernández-Martinez M. 2020. Investigating the relationship between climate, stand age, and temporal trends in masting behavior of European forest trees. Global Change Biology, 26: 1654-1667, DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14945

2019

Szymkowiak J., Thomson R.L. 2019. Nest predator avoidance during habitat selection of a songbird varies with mast peaks and troughs. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 73: 91, DOI: 10.1007/s00265-019-2702-z

Szymkowiak J. 2019. On resolving the selective interspecific information use vs. owner aggression hypothesis dilemma—a commentary. acta ethologica, 22: 149-154, DOI: 10.1007/s10211-019-00317-7

Bogdziewicz M., Szymkowiak J., Fernández-Martinez M., Peñuelas J., Espelta J.M. 2019. The effects of local climate on the correlation between weather and seed production differ in two species with contrasting masting habit. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 268: 109-115, DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2019.01.016

2017

Bogdziewicz M., Szymkowiak J., Kasprzyk I., Grewling Ł., Borowski Z., Borycka K., Kantorowicz W., Myszkowska D., Piotrowicz K., Ziemianin M., Pesendorfer M.B. 2017. Masting in wind-pollinated trees: system-specific roles of weather and pollination dynamics in driving seed production. Ecology, 98: 2618-2625, DOI: 10.1002/ecy.1951

Szymkowiak J., Thomson R.L., Kuczyński L. 2017. Interspecific social information use in habitat selection decisions among migrant songbirds. Behavioral Ecology, 28: 767-775, DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arx029

Szymkowiak J., Kuczyński L. 2017. Song rate as a signal of male aggressiveness during territorial contests in the wood warbler. Journal of Avian Biology, 48: 275-283, DOI: 10.1111/jav.00969

2016

Szymkowiak J., Thomson R.L., Kuczyński L. 2016. Wood warblers copy settlement decisions of poor quality conspecifics: support for the tradeoff between the benefit of social information use and competition avoidance. Oikos, 125: 1561-1569, DOI: 10.1111/oik.03052 (Editor’s Choice)

Bogdziewicz M., Szymkowiak J. 2016. Oak acorn crop and Google search volume predict Lyme disease risk in temperate Europe. Basic and Applied Ecology, 17: 300-307, DOI: 10.1016/j.baae.2016.01.002

Królikowska N., Szymkowiak J., Laidlaw R.A., Kuczyński L. 2016. Threat-sensitive anti-predator defence in precocial wader, the Northern Lapwing Vanellus vanellus. Acta Ethologica, 19: 163-171, DOI: 10.1007/s10211-016-0236-1

2015

Szymkowiak J., Kuczyński L. 2015. Avoiding predators in a fluctuating environment: responses of the wood warbler to pulsed resources. Behavioral Ecology, 26: 601-608, DOI: 10.1093/beheco/aru237

Szymkowiak J., Kuczyński L. 2015. Predation-related costs and benefits of conspecific attraction in songbirds – an agent-based approach. PLoS ONE, 10: e0119132, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0119132

2014

Szymkowiak J., Skierczyński M., Kuczyński L. 2014. Are buntings good indicators of agricultural intensity? Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 188: 192-197, DOI: 10.1016/j.agee.2014.02.037

Szymkowiak J., Królikowska N. 2014. Mechanizmy agregowania terytoriów lęgowych przez ptaki śpiewające. Kosmos 63: 45-53, PDF [in Polish with English abstract]

2013

Szymkowiak J. 2013. Facing uncertainty: how small songbirds acquire and use social information in habitat selection process? Springer Science Reviews, 1: 115-131, DOI: 10.1007/s40362-013-0012-9

External Activities

• member of the European Ornithologists’ Union

Administrative Posts

• Erasmus+ Coordinator at the Faculty of Biology, AMU
• member of the Scientific Council for Biological Sciences at Adam Mickiewicz University
• member of the Scientific Council of Institute of Environmental Biology (2018-2019)