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During the early 21st century, the Carpathian Basin was recognised as one of the world's most important migratory area for the Common Crane, but it is not completely clear, what was its status during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Between 1897 and 1916, a total of 1487 field observation data were published in the journal Aquila from the Carpathian Basin. Our work analysed the timing of the spring migration, how it differed between years and geographical regions, and how the temperature and geographical variables reported above influenced the timing of the migration. The results show that the migration routes of the species have changed significantly over the last century. During the study period, the migration concentrated in the eastern part of the Carpathian Basin, and was particularly rare in the Great Hungarian Plain. There was on average a two-week difference in the timing of migration between the western and eastern parts and between different years. The start and peak of migration were weeks later than today, and this change is mainly due to the effects of climate change. Geographical factors did not influence the migration of the species, whereas higher air temperatures advanced the timing of the migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural intensification has affected wildlife across Europe, triggering steep declines and regional extinctions of farmland birds. Effective conservation activities are essential for the preservation of biodiversity in an agricultural landscape, but current efforts have not succeeded in halting these declines. Here we investigate a ground-nesting shorebird, the collared pratincole Glareola pratincola , which has shifted its habitat use in Central Europe over the last 20 years from alkaline grasslands to intensively managed agricultural fields. We show that nesting success was different between three agricultural habitat types, with the highest nesting success in fallow lands and the lowest in row crops. Nesting success was also associated with the timing of breeding and breeding density, as nests produced early in the breeding season and those in high-breeding-density areas hatched more successfully than those produced later in the season and at low density. We implemented direct conservation measures including marking nests and negotiating with farmers to avoid cultivating the field between nest markers, controlling nest predators and, most recently, creating suitable nesting sites and foraging areas for pratincoles. As a result of these conservation actions, nest survival increased from 11.2% to 83.5% and the size of the breeding population increased from 13 to 56 pairs during 2012–2021. Thus, we show that agricultural landscapes can continue to provide suitable habitats, and targeted conservation actions have the potential to reverse the declines of farmland species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Body metrics are considered as master traits that regulate physiological, behavioural and life history features of planktic cyanobacteria and microalgae. Although the distribution of their morphological traits reflects the various trade‐offs and strategies needed for survival in pelagic habitats, previous methods for quantifying phytoplankton body shape do not adequately represent the intricate details of surface variation that are so important for their nutrient‐ and light‐harvesting capabilities. Therefore, here we provide a new framework to quantify and illustrate the morphological diversity of cyanobacteria and microalgae.Essential components of formulae used for surface area (A = Cs × d2) and volume (V = Cv × d3) calculations are provided by the shape‐specific surface area and volume constants (Cs, Cv). Cs, the surface shape factor, characterises the coarseness of the object surface, and Cv, the volumetric shape factor, characterises the shape deviation from a sphere. Using these morphologically and biologically relevant variables, we defined a two‐dimensional morphological space, in which all three‐dimensional objects have well‐defined positions.By analysing morphologies of taxa representing various forms in major cyanobacterial and microalgal groups, we demonstrated that these groups show considerable differences in the area occupied within the morphospace and these differences are not affected by evolutionary relatedness. We showed that the ratio of surface and volume constants correlated with organism size, suggesting that the development of basic morphologies is constrained by their linear dimensions.Using surface and volumetric shape factors, we created a two‐dimensional Euclidean morphospace in which all three‐dimensional objects have a specific position. Positioning uni‐ and multicellular cyanobacteria and microalgae of various shapes into this morphospace allows their geometrical and ecological limitations to be understood. Because of the close linkage between phytoplankton morphology and ecology, the proposed morphospace may serve as a proxy for an ecospace. Thus, in future the proposed morphospace can be used to visualise current ecological processes such as eutrophication or seasonal succession of phytoplankton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]