Agnieszka Majer and Kamila Karpicka-Ignatowska received PRELUDIUM grants financed by the National Science Centre in Poland. Agnieszka will study competition-dispersal trade-off in phytophagous mites. Kamila will find out whether passively dispersed herbivores rely on semiochemical cues when undertaking dispersal and how the ability to detect kairomones depends on the level of host specialization and environmental heterogeneity.
Congratulations!
Our recent paper describes a novel experimental approach for studying life-history traits of minute phytophagous arthropods
More info:
Karpicka-Ignatowska et al. 2019. A novel experimental approach for studying life-history traits of phytophagous arthropods utilizing an artificial culture medium. Scientific Reports 9, 20327
Kamila Karpicka-Ignatowska and Ania Radwańska, MSc students in our Lab, have been awarded Educational Scholarship of Greater Poland Voivodeship Marshal. Furthermore, Kamila, Ania, Kasia Markowska (MSc student), and Monika Stefańska (BSc student) have been awarded the Rector of Adam Mickiewicz University scholarships for outstanding students. Congratulations!
Alicja Laska has been awarded Adam Mickiewcz University Foundation scholarship dedicated to outstanding PhD students. Congratulations!
Our recent paper published in Animal Behaviour describes how behaviour, morphology and environment influence passive dispersal in phytophagous wheat curl mite.
The paper is part of Alicja’s PhD thesis. Congratulations!
More info:
Laska A., Rector B. G., Skoracka A., Kuczyński L. 2019. Can your behaviour blow you away? Contextual and phenotypic precursors to passive aerial dispersal in phytophagous mites. Animal Behaviour 155, 141-151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.07.003
Alicja Laska received ETIUDA grant from National Science Centre in Poland to study evolutionary trade-offs in host specialization and dispersal in phytophagous mites, and for 6-months scholarship in the University of Ghent (Belgium). Congratulations!
Jakub Szymkowiak received SONATA grant from National Science Centre in Poland to study social learning of auditory risk recognition in wild birds. Here you can read the lay summary highlighting main objectives of the project.
The wood warbler. © Jakub Szymkowiak
The article about the effects of local climate on the correlation between weather and seed production in sessile oak (Quercus petraea) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica), co-authored by Jakub Szymkowiak, has been published in Agricultural and Forest Meteorology!
© Jakub Szymkowiak
Weather is believed to play a key role in triggering mast seeding in plants. However, while the relationships between weather and seed production are well-recognized for some species, there is also a range of species for which there seems to be no consistent links between meteorological conditions and seeding. Our results suggest that this puzzle can be explained by the variation in life history traits among species i.e., whether a particular species is a “flowering masting species” (= with seed production determined by variable flower production) or “fruit-maturation masting species” (= with seed production determined by variable ripening of more constant flower production). In particular, our results suggest that in case of “flowering masting species” (in our study: European beech), the meteorological cuing is spatially-consistent. In contrast, in “fruit-maturation masting species” (in our study: sessile oak) the effects of weather cues on seed production are mediated by the local climate, which leads to spatial variation in meteorological conditioning of seed production.
More info:
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, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2019.01.016
MSc Agnieszka Majer, MSc Alicja Laska, BSc Kamila Karpicka-Ignatowska, and Anna Radwańska have been awarded individual scholarships of the Minister of Science for the academic year 2016/2017 for their outstanding achievements. Congratulations! 
