Publications by authors named "Aleksandra Kolanek"
Article Synopsis
- * A total of 445 ticks were collected from 28 lizards, with higher tick counts found on Lacerta agilis compared to Zootoca vivipara, and the presence of Borrelia spp. was notably higher in ticks from L. agilis.
- * The findings highlighted the significance of lizards as tick hosts and their role in the persistence of pathogens in urban areas, marking the first detection of certain pathogens in these ticks.
Infectious diseases are influenced by interactions between host and pathogen, and the number of infected hosts is rarely homogenous across the landscape. Areas with elevated pathogen prevalence can maintain a high force of infection and may indicate areas with disease impacts on host populations. However, isolating the ecological processes that result in increases in infection prevalence and intensity remains a challenge.
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- Climate change significantly impacts wildlife, prompting potential rapid evolutionary changes due to strong selective pressures.
- Most research has concentrated on how climate affects the timing of events in nature, but there’s a gap in studies examining how climate influences physical traits in wild populations.
- Our study of grass snakes from 1981-2013 found that the prevalence of black morphs was negatively impacted by rising spring temperatures and increased winter severity, suggesting that climate variables play a crucial role in the survival and traits of these populations.
Ticks are important ectoparasites and vectors of pathogens that cause disease in humans and animals. The natural habitat of Ixodes ricinus ticks is forests, which are convenient habitats to search for hosts, including reservoir hosts, and therefore can be an important habitat source of tick-borne pathogens. The aim of the study was to assess the usefulness of detailed forest habitat-type maps to estimate the tick-borne risk at a local scale (Lower Silesia, SW Poland).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDepletion of free-living populations is often associated with changes in fitness-related traits, e.g., body size.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe range of D. reticulatus is discontinuous in Europe, with a gap between the Western and Eastern European populations. Recent studies have shown, however, a decrease in the gap as a consequence of D.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReptiles undergo worldwide decline driven mostly by habitat change. Detailed recognition of factors underlying spatial structure and habitat utilization is therefore a prerequisite of effective conservation of this group. While the body of data on spatial ecology of reptiles is rapidly growing, studies on social factors remain still underrepresented.
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