The European breeding range of the three-toed woodpecker Picoides tridactylus overlaps with the distribution range of coniferous and mixed forests with domination of Norway spruce Picea abies or European silver fir Abies alba. The paper describes a new breeding site of the three-toed woodpecker in the Sobibór Forest, eastern Poland outside the distribution range of these two tree species and its relationship with Eurasian beaver Castor fiber. The birds occurred in dead alder forests and were recorded 3–4 years after forest started to decline due to the high level of surface waters associated with the keystone role of the beaver. The decaying cycle of trees was possible because the area settled by woodpeckers was protected as a nature reserve.

The development of protoplast derived from somatic embryos and some of their characteristics were compared with embryos from suspension and in vivo in the same B line. Embryos formed in a protoplast culture differed from others that their younger stages contained vacuolated cells, and older ones had altered morphological and histological structure. Somatic embryogenesis is more regular from suspension then from protoplasts. No distinct differences were observed in the rate of embryo development in vivo and in vitro, and in vitro embryos show a larger variation in size at the same stage. Embryos in vitro with fluorescence are generally larger than zygotic ones at each stage. The use of fluorescence is suggested for the selection of heterokariocytes after protoplast fusion

Poland is the only European country where the Osprey population is declining due to the mortality of adult birds from poaching, which impacts not only single breeding attempts but also the Lifetime Reproductive Success (LRS) of specimens. However, what if there came an extra mortality factor in the moment of the lowest numbers of Osprey, already vulnerable in the country? In the years 2018–2020, we installed 22 trail cameras and five digital cameras (live online video feeds) on the nests. The total failure level observed in cameras (18.5%) was high. We observed, using these cameras, the extra mortality of chicks (10.7% of potentially fledged chicks) and even adult birds by unexpected predation by Northern Goshawk and White-tailed Eagle. This phenomenon is also common in the national population, as we found a total of ten cases of total losses by predators (eight or nine of them were birds of prey), including nests not covered by camera monitoring. The extra adult-predation by Goshawks means an extra drop in LRS. Those adult and chick predations are an example of exceptional catastrophic phenomena, which have been described as the direct cause of the extinction of animal populations throughout history. Only active conservation and stop poaching of the Polish population could stop the decline and save the Polish Ospreys.

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The goal of this contribution is to review and to discuss the content of the publication by Janina Wildfeuer, John A. Bateman und Tuomo Hiippala (2020): Multi- modalität: Grundlagen, Forschung und Analyse – eine problemorientierte Einführung. Berlin, Boston: de Gruyter, 415 S.