Justyna Kubacka

Big data and small brown birds: how whole-genome sequencing can inform conservation of the threatened aquatic warbler? The ERGA-BGE case study led by Dr Justyna Kubacka of Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences, is drawing to an end. You can read about the project here. In a nutshell, the study re...

🪶 Last year, @justynakubacka.bsky.social launched a project to support the #conservation of the threatened aquatic warbler.
Now the results are in, offering key insights into its past & present to help safeguard its future.
🔗 www.erga-biodiversity.eu/post/big-dat... #Conservation @mizpas.bsky.social

06.11.2025 08:59 — 👍 9    🔁 5    💬 0    📌 0

We are live with DAY 2️⃣ - Genomics for Biodiversity Conference
Join us: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR7I...

30.10.2025 09:25 — 👍 4    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

💡 New paper co-auth. by MIZ!
By altering the physical and chemical properties of the soil, soil-nesting ants can shape the biodiversity of soil microarthropods — a key role for conserving urban biodiversity. 🐜More info 👉 www.mdpi.com/3547020
#UrbanEcosystems #Ants #SoilMicroarthropods #Conservation

30.10.2025 11:37 — 👍 4    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0

Hidden in museum drawers for 100+ years, Africa’s mysterious Eurynotina beetles finally tell their story - uncovered by our researchers, Marcin Kamiński and Ryan Lumen, using DNA from century-old specimens. 🧬🪲
🔗 doi.org/10.1111/syen...
#taxonomy #beetles #ancientDNA

22.10.2025 14:37 — 👍 7    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0

Photos: C. Hicks & E. Mpaka, courtesy C. Hicks

Join the upcoming hybrid MIZ PAS seminar!
"Nonhuman Culture: An Overview of Behavioral Diversity in Our Primate Cousins"
📅When: 24th Oct (Friday), 12:00 pm CET
📍 in-person: Twarda 51/55, Warsaw
🔗on-line: tinyurl.com/38k8p33s
👉Speaker: Dr Thurston Cleveland Hicks
#behaviour #primates #nonhumanculture

15.10.2025 09:43 — 👍 3    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 1

Global meta-analysis shows action is needed to halt genetic diversity loss - Nature A comprehensive meta-analysis of global terrestrial and marine genetic diversity covering more than three decades of research demonstrates rapid loss of genetic diversity and identifies conservation interventions that could mitigate this process.

🔎 Robyn Shaw shares key insights from a global meta-analysis: Within-population genetic diversity is declining on timescales shaped by human activity, but #conservation can help mitigate the loss.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... @coalitioncongen.bsky.social @robynshaw.bsky.social

01.10.2025 09:16 — 👍 5    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0

Sexual selection drives sex difference in adult life expectancy across mammals and birds | www.science.org/doi/... | Science Advances | #ornithology 🪶

07.10.2025 07:59 — 👍 10    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0

MIZ PAS seminar on bird studies in the Białowieża Forest, Poland, today, at 12:00 CET! Don't miss it! @iseapas.bsky.social @mripas.bsky.social

10.10.2025 09:21 — 👍 0    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

Białowieża Forest, Poland

Join the upcoming on-line MIZ PAS seminar!
👉When: 10th Oct (Friday), 12:00 pm CET
👉Speaker: Dr Grzegorz Neubauer, MIZ PAS @mizpas.bsky.social
👉Title: "50 years of Białowieża Forest bird studies: past, present, future”
👉Link: tinyurl.com/3jztwhyk
Everyone is welcome!
#ornithology #forest

06.10.2025 10:09 — 👍 5    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 1

Learned use of an innate sound-meaning association in birds - Nature Ecology & Evolution Over 20 species of geographically and phylogenetically diverse bird species produce convergent whining vocalizations towards their respective brood parasites. Model presentation and playback experiments across multiple continents suggest that these learned calls provoke an innate response even among allopatric species.

Darwin posited that innate and learned signals could be evolutionarily related. A new paper in @natecoevo.nature.com, co-authored by Alfredo Attisano, Roman Gula & Jörn Theuerkauf of @mizpas.bsky.social, demonstrates that a learned brood parasite vocalisation induces an innate response in the host.

06.10.2025 09:59 — 👍 4    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0

An Aquatic Warbler from Western Pomerania, Poland, a previously nearly extinct population that is now under restoration. Photo: J. Kubacka

Temporal changes in the effective population size of two Aquatic Warbler populations: a large core metapopulation, represented by the Biebrza Valley subpopulation (sampled in 2018), and a small westernmost declining population, West Pomerania (sampled in 1999). The analysis was run with the GONE software.

The current effective population sizes in the three populations sampled.

Long runs of homozygosity (>1Mb) in the three sampled populations: Biebrza in 1997; Biebrza in 2018; and West Pomerania in 1999. Long ROHs are indicative of recent inbreeding.

My WGS🧬project on Aquatic Warbler shows:
👉 Recent genetic bottleneck and low diversity
👉 Elevated inbreeding in declining westernmost population
👉 Growing inbreeding in core population
@biogeneurope.bsky.social @sib.swiss @ergabiodiv.bsky.social @otop-birdlife.bsky.social @peenefvp.bsky.social

01.10.2025 14:21 — 👍 17    🔁 5    💬 0    📌 3

Join the upcoming on-line MIZ PAS seminar!
👉When: 25th April (Friday), 12:00 pm CET
👉Speaker: Dr. Stephen Venn, Łódź University, Poland
👉Title: "The functional diversity of beetle assemblages of park habitats in Warsaw”
👉Link: tinyurl.com/a4ssayb8
Everyone is welcome!
#entomology #diversity #urban

23.04.2025 19:07 — 👍 5    🔁 4    💬 2    📌 0

Agonistic song rate positively correlates with male breeding success and avian malaria infection in Acrocephalus paludicola (Aquatic Warbler), a promiscuous songbird with female-only parental care ABSTRACT. The link between male song and reproductive success has been explored at length in socially monogamous birds, but results were inconsistent and u

Happy to share my recently published paper! In male aquatic warblers (Acrocephalus paludicola) males that more frequently sang aggressive songs used to deter other males had more nestlings and were more likely to contract avian malaria, and males with more diverse song were in better condition.

26.03.2025 15:46 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0