The authors searched the Scopus and Web of Science databases in June 2026 for English- and Polish-language original research linking Poland with public acceptance, opinion or perception of biotechnology, GMOs and NGTs. Their search returned 81 records. After 41 duplicates were removed, 40 unique records were screened; 28 did not meet the predefined criteria, leaving 12 studies for qualitative thematic analysis. The reviewed research covered 2005–2025 and surveyed the general public, consumers, students, farmers, scientists and agricultural advisers. Sample sizes ranged from 30 to 1,950, while methods included questionnaires, interviews and focus groups. This variety gave the review a broad view of attitudes but also limited direct comparisons, because populations, questions and measurements differed substantially.

One of the clearest knowledge gaps concerned genome editing. In the single study identified on NGTs, more than half of the 194 participants had encountered the term, yet few could define it correctly and nearly half said they had never heard of it before. Respondents also had incomplete knowledge of the legal status and market availability of products made with NGTs. Knowledge of GMOs was similarly uneven. In a survey of 1,021 Polish citizens, less than half could correctly define the term, although many wanted more information. Another study of 699 respondents found some improvement in GMO knowledge over time, suggesting that familiarity has increased without producing a comprehensive understanding of biotechnology’s applications or its regulatory framework.

Public opinion becomes markedly more sceptical when genetic modification is placed directly on the dinner table. In a survey of 1,008 Polish citizens, more than half supported banning the production and sale of transgenic food. Sixty-two percent believed food from animals fed with GM feed could harm human health, and more than half wanted restrictions on GM feed even if those restrictions increased the cost of milk, eggs and poultry. Only about one-third regarded cultivation of genetically modified crops in Poland as desirable for food and feed security. In another survey of 1,021 citizens, approximately 60% opposed producing and distributing GM food, citing possible health effects such as cancer and allergies, as well as environmental concerns.

Perceived benefits could increase support, but they did not usually overcome the dominant risk and safety concerns attached to food. Improved nutritional value attracted the strongest consumer response among the product attributes examined, although only about one-third of respondents in the 1,008-person survey said they would buy transgenic food with such advantages. Farmers also remained skeptical: in a study of 128 farmers, only 24% considered GM cultivation economically beneficial for their own farms, while almost half could not assess the financial consequences. Nearly 64% opposed importing GM soybeans and maize for feed. Yet these farmers recognized potential gains from higher yields, resistance to pests and diseases and lower production costs, showing that perceived advantages and perceived disadvantages could coexist.

Support rose when the same technologies were associated with purposes that did not directly involve food consumption. Biotechnology applications in environmental remediation and wastewater treatment received the highest backing in the 1,008-person survey, while research connected with vaccines and medicines was also viewed more favorably than agricultural applications. Scientists in one qualitative study were generally more supportive of GM technologies used in medicine, pharmaceuticals and industrial production, although their views of GM food and feed remained divided. Biofuel production was also among the more accepted non-food uses. These contrasts indicate that opposition cannot be interpreted as a simple rejection of genetic manipulation itself. Acceptance appears tied to the visible purpose of an application and to whether its benefits seem concrete while its risks seem remote.

Trust was another major influence. Polish respondents in several studies regarded scientists and teachers as more reliable sources of biotechnology information than companies or media reports. In a survey of 500 secondary-school graduates, 64% described reports about the benefits of GM crops as untrustworthy, while nearly 70% expressed distrust of GM food. Qualitative interviews linked biotechnology companies with commercial interests that were thought to shape information and undermine confidence in safety. The reviewed evidence also showed strong demand for public control: approximately three-quarters of respondents in the 1,008-person study wanted biotechnology and genetic-engineering research and applications regulated by public authorities. Mandatory labelling drew similar support, with many consumers seeking detailed information about genetically modified ingredients.

Transparency alone did not necessarily determine purchasing behaviour. In the study of 699 respondents, nearly 54% said they did not consider GMO information on labels when making purchases. A four-country survey of 1,950 consumers found that Polish participants were especially likely to regard GMO-free labels as a health signal and relatively willing to pay a premium for them. These results distinguish two forms of acceptance: the desire for oversight and transparent information, and the practical choice of whether to buy a labelled product. Consumer trust may therefore be shaped by more than the presence of a label, including whether the regulatory system, communicating institutions and product claims are regarded as credible.

Demographic and occupational differences added to the complexity, although the findings were not uniform. Women more often associated GM food with health risks, while men more often emphasized agricultural advantages such as pest resistance. Younger respondents were generally more supportive of GM crop cultivation: 61% of people aged 20–35 held favorable attitudes, compared with 14% of those aged 60 or older. Higher education was associated in one study with greater willingness to use NGT-derived products, but another found only minor educational differences in support for transgenic food. Students were more positive than consumers, farmers were the most skeptical stakeholder group, and scientists were generally more supportive. The review’s central conclusion is therefore not that any single group holds a uniform view, but that knowledge, values, trust, perceived control and the application’s purpose interact to shape acceptance.

Against this backdrop, proposed European rules for genome-edited plants may alter what consumers see on the market without necessarily changing underlying attitudes. The review notes that a 2023 European Commission proposal established separate pathways for NGT plants. Plants meeting specified criteria could be treated as conventional and exempt from GMO risk assessment, while others would remain subject to existing GMO authorization, detection and monitoring requirements. The authors emphasize that legal change alone is unlikely to resolve public uncertainty because confidence also depends on transparent and legitimate governance. The evidence instead points to a need for direct, evidence-based communication involving scientists, policymakers, industry representatives and consumers, together with longitudinal and theory-driven studies that can separate effects of knowledge, trust and values. For now, the most defensible conclusion is that Poland’s biotechnology debate is driven less by resistance to one method than by how each application is presented, regulated and understood.

Subject of Research: Public perceptions and acceptance of agricultural biotechnology in Poland

Article Title: Public perception and acceptance of biotechnology in agriculture: insights from Poland

Article References: Ewa, W.-G., & Agata, T. (2026). Public perception and acceptance of biotechnology in agriculture: insights from Poland. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 14, Article 1983759. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2026.1983759

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2026.1983759

Keywords: agricultural biotechnology, genetically modified organisms, new genomic techniques, public acceptance, Poland, genome editing, food safety, risk perception, institutional trust, consumer attitudes, Public, perception

Published in Frontiers in Environmental Science, the research treated Polish agricultural soils as an example of Central European pedoclimatic conditions. Researchers selected 73 environmental covariates from 157 candidates, including mapped soil properties, 30-metre terrain variables, vegetation indices derived from five years of Sentinel-2 imagery, historical climate data and land-cover information. They then mapped soil indicators across the country and combined these layers with one million proportional random samples for statistical analysis. The resulting regulating soil ecosystem service, or rSES, index ranged from zero to five and integrated the four individual services through their geometric mean.

The clearest relationship appeared between soil texture and the overall index. Mean rSES values were highest in very heavy soils, at 2.75, and heavy soils, at 2.62. Light and very light soils had the lowest means, at 1.84 and 1.90, respectively. The category containing mainly organic and organic-origin soils reached 2.15. The pattern did not mean that every function improved with heavier soil: nutrient provision and water regulation rose more consistently with clay content, whereas carbon sequestration remained comparatively variable and erosion control showed weaker links to texture alone.

Water regulation displayed one of the most pronounced gradients. The median increased from 1.26 in both very light and light soils to 2.15 in medium soils, 2.92 in heavy soils and 3.68 in very heavy soils. Available water capacity followed the same broad direction, with median values of 35.9, 42.5, 69.3, 188 and 601 millimetres per metre from the lightest to the heaviest category. Saturated hydraulic conductivity moved in the opposite direction, declining from 226.1 millimetres per hour in very light soils to 0.37 in very heavy soils. The contrast reflects the capacity of fine soils to store plant-available water while conducting water more slowly.

Nutrient provision also became stronger as soils became heavier. Median nutrient-service values were 2.35 for very light soils, 2.70 for light soils, 2.93 for medium soils and 3.57 for both heavy and very heavy soils. Cation exchange capacity, a measure of soil exchange capacity, had a median of 12.4 millipositive charge per 100 grams in light soils and 26.6 in very heavy soils. Available potassium and magnesium also tended to rise across the texture classes, whereas available phosphorus did not follow a simple gradient. Its median declined from 21.5 milligrams per 100 grams in the organic-origin group to 15.3 in very heavy soils, underscoring the combined influence of texture, pH and biological processes.

Land cover produced a different ordering. Pastures and meadows had the highest median carbon-sequestration value, 3.04, compared with 2.82 for forests, 2.26 for arable land and 2.48 for built-up areas. Forests recorded the highest median erosion-control value, 3.0, while arable land and orchards or plantations each had a median of 1.0. No clear dependence on land use was detected for water regulation. The researchers therefore interpreted the results as evidence that land use modifies ecosystem services but cannot explain their spatial patterns by itself. Local differences in soil properties, management and vegetation cover remained important.

Principal component analysis identified a strong multivariate structure linking the services and their environmental controls. The first component explained 27.22% of total variance and was associated with soil organic carbon stocks, cation exchange capacity, available water capacity and vegetation indices. It also placed nutrient provision and carbon sequestration near measures of vegetation density. The second component accounted for 17.66% and was dominated by climatic and topographic variables, including maximum temperature, isothermality and relief-related measures. Erosion control aligned most strongly with this second gradient, while water regulation aligned more closely with soil texture. Together, the first two components explained nearly 45% of the variance.

A correlation-based alluvial analysis then traced relationships among the integrated index, individual services, soil indicators and environmental variables. Water regulation and erosion control had the strongest statistical connections with the overall rSES index, followed by carbon sequestration; nutrient provision showed the weakest overall connection. At the soil level, carbon sequestration was closely associated with organic carbon stocks and net ecosystem production, while nutrient provision was linked to its direct indicators: available phosphorus, potassium and magnesium, cation exchange capacity and pH. These are spatial associations rather than direct causal effects, and the researchers assessed them alongside sensitivity tests using Pearson and Spearman correlations, principal components, grid-based subsampling and alternative aggregation methods.

The maps nevertheless reveal an important trade-off within organic soils. This group had a mean carbon-sequestration value of 3.12, the highest among the texture categories, but its mean water-regulation value was only 1.74, below the 2.36 recorded for medium soils. The authors associated low water yields and high saturated conductivity with the hydrological vulnerability of organic soils, noting that altered drainage and water-regime changes can promote organic-matter mineralization. The findings therefore suggest that carbon-rich organic soils can support substantial carbon functions while remaining sensitive to hydrological disturbance. They do not, however, demonstrate that the mapped services have changed over time or establish the effects of a particular intervention.

Several limitations constrain the national picture. The analysis focused on agricultural land, so forest estimates were derived from relatively small patches or agroforestry areas and may underestimate forest regulatory services. The assessment was also largely static, using multi-year vegetation imagery and historical climate normals rather than repeated observations through time. Uncertainty in individual mapped soil properties was not fully propagated into the service calculations, and national soil-biological indicators were limited. The study consequently identifies spatial relationships rather than a temporal trend, direct causal mechanism or locally validated prescription. Future work could combine repeated soil monitoring, detailed records of tillage, fertilization, crop rotation and land use, additional biodiversity variables and external validation to determine how the network changes under climate and land-use scenarios.

Subject of Research: National mapping of connections among regulating soil ecosystem services, soil properties, vegetation, climate and terrain in Polish agricultural land

Article Title: Connectivity between regulating soil-based ecosystem services, soil properties, and environmental factors within agricultural land

Article References: Pindral, S., Wnuk, A., Coblinski, J. A., & Smreczak, B. (2026). Connectivity between regulating soil-based ecosystem services, soil properties, and environmental factors within agricultural land. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 14, Article 1923878. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2026.1923878

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/fenvs.2026.1923878

Keywords: soil ecosystem services, soil texture, soil organic carbon, water regulation, erosion control, nutrient provision, agricultural land, Poland, digital soil mapping, multivariate analysis, Connectivity, between

The 14 taxa included seven dry-grassland species and seven wetland species, and the historical material came from the Herbarium of the Faculty of Biology at the University of Warsaw. Researchers sought to relocate each historical collection site, searching the original location when descriptions were precise and expanding to a radius of no more than 10 kilometres when necessary. Each historical–contemporary pair was analysed for the nitrogen isotope composition of leaves, carbon isotope composition and total nitrogen content.

Contemporary samples consisted of two to five leaf fragments, usually from several individuals at a locality, and were collected from April to September 2024. Calibration precision was below 0.1‰ for δ13C and below 0.2‰ for δ15N. Historical carbon-isotope values were adjusted for the progressive depletion of atmospheric carbon-13 caused by fossil-fuel emissions, known as the Suess effect.

The initial comparison showed a persistent separation between the habitats. In contemporary samples, mean leaf δ15N was −1.91‰ in dry-grassland species and 5.73‰ in wetland species, a difference of 3.83‰. The historical means were 1.24‰ and 4.45‰, respectively, producing a smaller but still significant difference of 3.22‰.

Wetland foliage also contained more total nitrogen in both periods: contemporary means were 3.78% for wetlands and 2.72% for dry grasslands, compared with 3.47% and 2.92% in the historical samples. These contrasts establish that the habitats differed in nitrogen-isotope composition and tissue nitrogen content before as well as after the period of widespread fertiliser use. The most striking temporal result was the reversal in the direction of the δ15N change.

Contemporary dry-grassland samples had a mean δ15N difference of −3.14‰ relative to their historical counterparts, indicating significantly lower values in modern leaves. All seven dry-grassland taxa showed negative mean changes, although the difference for Carex flacca was not significant. Wetland species moved in the opposite direction, with a pooled increase of 1.28‰, but that increase was not statistically significant for any individual wetland species.

The wetland group also showed greater within-group variation in δ15N change, which limited the precision of species-level comparisons. Multiple linear regression identified habitat type and the surrounding agricultural landscape as significant factors in the historical–contemporary difference in δ15N. The difference was greater in wetlands than in dry grasslands and increased with the proportion of farmland within a 10-kilometre radius of the collection site.

Nitrogen oxide deposition was also positively related to the δ15N difference, although at a lower level of significance. For changes in total nitrogen, habitat type was the only significant predictor in the model. The observational design links these patterns to land use and atmospheric inputs, but it does not independently establish which nitrogen source caused each change.

Total leaf nitrogen did not increase consistently across all habitats. The researchers found no significant overall historical–contemporary difference when dry-grassland species were pooled, although individual taxa differed. Carex praecox had significantly less total nitrogen in contemporary samples, while Silene otites had significantly more.

Among wetland plants, the pooled mean rose by 0.31 percentage points, a significant increase. Cardamine amara, Elodea canadensis and Stuckenia pectinata each showed significant increases, and their relative rises exceeded 20%. The result supports an increase in leaf nitrogen among the sampled wetland taxa, rather than a general century-long rise in nitrogen content across all of the plants examined.

Carbon isotopes separated the habitats even more sharply. After historical samples were corrected for the Suess effect, contemporary leaves had significantly lower δ13C in both environments, but the mean changes were −0.51‰ for dry grasslands and −3.85‰ for wetlands. Five wetland taxa—Alisma species, Cardamine amara, Elodea canadensis, Sagittaria sagittifolia and Stuckenia pectinata—showed significant declines.

Only one dry-grassland taxon, Carex praecox, had a significant carbon-isotope change. The largest differences occurred in the submerged plants E. canadensis and S. pectinata, with mean changes of −8.38‰ and −7.55‰, respectively. The authors considered several possible mechanisms for the divergent patterns.

Dry grasslands may have been affected primarily by changes in atmospheric composition, including deposition of combustion-derived nitrogen that is generally depleted in nitrogen-15. The abandonment of grazing and the resulting disappearance of livestock dung from many Polish grasslands may also have removed a comparatively nitrogen-15-enriched source. Wetlands can receive nitrogen and carbon through sewage, manure, fertiliser runoff, peat disturbance and other organic inputs transported by water.

The simultaneous movement in wetland δ15N and δ13C was consistent with increased inputs of organic matter, although the study did not directly reconstruct the sources responsible for each paired change. Water conditions provide a further context for the contrast. Dry soils limit microbial processes that can enrich nitrogen-15, potentially allowing atmospheric deposition to influence plant nitrogen more directly.

Wetland environments support more extensive processing of organic matter, and their carbon-isotope values can also be influenced by dissolved inorganic carbon produced during microbial decomposition. The study’s additional carbonate check found no measurable effect for S. pectinata and only a minor possible effect for E. canadensis that did not change the overall interpretation. Nevertheless, changes in drainage, drought, water chemistry, ecosystem management and surrounding land use may have affected the plants alongside direct pollution inputs.

Several limitations constrain how broadly the findings can be applied. The study covered 14 selected C3 plant taxa in one country, excluded species that fix nitrogen through symbiotic bacteria, and used relatively few observations for each species. Contemporary plants were not always recoverable at the exact historical locations because wetlands had disappeared or their trophic state and surroundings had changed.

Paired comparisons were strongest for dry-grassland δ15N, while no individual wetland species showed a significant nitrogen-isotope increase. The results therefore document contrasting measured responses in selected Polish habitats rather than prove a single universal pathway of industrial pollution. They show that wetland plants carried the more pronounced carbon-isotope and total-nitrogen changes, whereas dry-grassland plants mainly recorded a decline in δ15N.

Subject of Research: Comparative stable-isotope analysis of historical and contemporary wetland and dry-grassland plants in Poland

Article Title: Contrasting isotopic responses of dryland and wetland plants to a century of global anthropogenic changes in nutrient cycling

Article References: Dembicz, I., Chojnowska, N., Chibowski, P., & Kozub, Ł. (2026). Contrasting isotopic responses of dryland and wetland plants to a century of global anthropogenic changes in nutrient cycling. Biogeosciences, 23(20), 7375-7396. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-23-7375-2026

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.5194/bg-23-7375-2026

Keywords: plant isotopes, wetland plants, dry grasslands, nutrient cycling, nitrogen isotopes, carbon isotopes, herbarium specimens, eutrophication, land use, Poland, Contrasting, isotopic

Seven of the 11 universities offered optional transgender-health teaching, while four had no identifiable transgender-related content in either compulsory or optional courses. Optional provision was generally limited: six universities offered only one elective course. The researchers therefore found marked variation among institutions and concluded that transgender health was not systematically embedded in the undergraduate medical curricula examined. The results describe documented provision rather than what students learned during classes, clinical placements or informal teaching.

Most of the transgender-related teaching identified by the review was placed in departments of psychology, psychiatry, sexology, ethics and the medical humanities. There was little evidence of integration into biomedical or clinical disciplines. The study classified courses by their relevance to transgender and intersex health, whether they were compulsory or optional, and their disciplinary placement. It did not directly assess students’ knowledge, teaching quality, course depth, duration, assessment or the influence of the content on graduates’ subsequent clinical practice.

No explicit intersex-related content was identified in any of the available compulsory or optional course syllabuses reviewed. This absence applies to the curricula that could be identified through the systematic documentary search; it does not prove that every classroom session, clinical placement or teaching activity omitted intersex health. Content without an explicit transgender or intersex label, teaching delivered outside formal syllabuses or material that differed between catalogue versions could also have escaped identification. The analysis therefore establishes gaps in visible, formal curriculum documentation, not a complete inventory of all teaching that may have occurred.

Because the research was a cross-sectional review of written curricula, it assessed whether these programmes formally exposed students to transgender and intersex health rather than testing the effectiveness of an educational intervention. The authors concluded that more systematic incorporation of transgender and intersex health into compulsory undergraduate medical education could help ensure that future physicians acquire a common minimum level of competence for respectful, multidisciplinary care. That conclusion is a proposed curricular direction, not evidence that adding compulsory content would necessarily change clinical behavior or health outcomes. Even with broad national coverage, the study cannot show that all Polish graduates lacked relevant competencies; it shows that documented provision remained limited, uneven and dependent largely on optional courses and local institutional initiatives across the 11 programmes reviewed.

Subject of Research: Documentation of transgender and intersex health content in Polish undergraduate medical curricula

Article Title: Transgender and intersex health in undergraduate medical education: a curriculum analysis of medical degree programmes in Poland

Article References: Doda-Nowak, E., den Heijer, M., Ruchała, M., & Ziemnicka, K. (2026). Transgender and intersex health in undergraduate medical education: a curriculum analysis of medical degree programmes in Poland. BMC Medical Education. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-026-10600-4

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12909-026-10600-4

Keywords: transgender health, intersex health, medical education, curriculum analysis, medical students, Poland, medical schools, health competencies, cross-sectional review, undergraduate curricula, Transgender, intersex

The study, which focused on facilities within Kielce in south-central Poland, examined six sandpits at elementary schools and three at the Kielce University of Technology. The school facilities ranged from 626 to 4,867 square metres and had sandpits constructed or restored at different times between 1966 and 1989. The university complex, built from 2019 to 2021, covered 30,000 square metres and included a full-size artificial-turf football pitch, a 400-metre polyurethane running track, an additional 130-metre track and several throwing and jumping facilities. The institution has about 4,500 students, most of whom participate in sporting activities.

About 1.5 kg of sand was collected from each pit. Each bulk sample was divided into three increments taken near the long-jump beam, in the central area and at the landing point, producing 27 samples in total. Following air-drying for approximately a week, each sample was manually mixed and divided into three 10 g portions. Investigators counted particles across the entire portion under a stereoscopic microscope, using polarized and unpolarized light to distinguish colored plastics from quartz and other mineral or organic material. The detectable size range was 0.01 to 5 mm, with 5 mm adopted as the upper limit for practical reasons.

The observed particles ranged from about 0.1 to 5 mm and averaged 2.7 mm in size. Red accounted for 70% of all identified particles, black for 25%, and green, blue, orange, pink, violet and other colors for the remaining 5%. Many fragments had irregular shapes and a porous texture, features consistent with material abraded from an upper track layer. The researchers identified these particles by visual appearance and selected representative groups for chemical verification with attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, or ATR-FTIR.

Spectral analysis confirmed polyether urethane in selected red particles from six sampling sites and selected black particles from four sites. Two red particles were identified as ethylene propylene diene monomer, a polymer used in some synthetic surfaces. Polyether urethane showed characteristic absorption bands associated with N–H, C=O and C–O–C stretching, while the ethylene propylene diene monomer particles produced the expected carbon-hydrogen bands. Spectral similarity with reference-library spectra exceeded 70% for the analyzed material. The study nevertheless noted an important limitation: only a small number of selected particles underwent FTIR analysis, so visual identification supplied much of the broader count.

The highest overall particle concentrations occurred in the university stadium sandpits, and a one-way analysis of variance found statistically significant differences among sites at p = 0.01. By contrast, particle numbers did not differ significantly among the three portions taken from the same sandpit. Facility size alone did not explain the pattern: there was no statistically significant correlation between the area of a sports complex and the number of particles recovered. The lowest and least variable counts occurred at a school pit far from the running track and football field and at another where a newly installed synthetic surface was used only occasionally.

These results suggest that the amount of microplastic in a sandpit may depend on local conditions such as the extent of synthetic surfacing, maintenance practices and the intensity of use, although the study did not establish which factor was responsible for the differences between facilities. The site conditions were broadly similar on the sampling day, with no rain or strong winds in the preceding days and temperatures reaching 24 °C. The investigators therefore considered local weather unlikely to account for the observed spatial pattern. The single sampling date, however, prevented the researchers from separating persistent differences among sites from seasonal or short-term effects.

The authors contend that long-jump sand can serve as a simple sampling medium for source-focused microplastic monitoring. Unlike stormwater or wash water collected from cleaning equipment, pit sand is not directly affected by the weather at the moment of collection, and it is less likely than a cleaning-machine sample to be biased by additional abrasion produced during washing. The university stadium was cleaned weekly with an industrial vacuum and intensively machine-cleaned twice a year, whereas school facilities were maintained with brooms or leaf blowers. Sand itself is already widely used for microplastic studies in beaches, dunes, playgrounds and laboratory experiments, which gives researchers an opportunity to build comparable protocols around a familiar matrix.

The study also highlights a possible pathway from sports facilities to surrounding environments. Sandpits are not necessarily permanent sinks for deposited microplastics: particles can be lifted by wind or carried in rainwater. Outdoor facilities commonly drain into municipal storm sewers, potentially delivering abraded material to river systems. The findings do not directly measure that downstream transport, nor do they establish the toxicity of the particles for people or wildlife. Instead, they identify the sandpit as a practical early-warning sampling point close to the synthetic surfaces from which the material is likely to originate.

Several limitations constrain the findings: only 10 g portions were examined, particles were identified visually before limited chemical confirmation, and nine pits were sampled on one day. The researchers call for future work addressing seasonal variability, maintenance regimes, intensity of use and the factors governing particle distribution. They also propose validating standardized sand traps filled with laboratory-cleaned sand as deposition collectors in agricultural areas, roadside soils and urban environments. Meanwhile, their results support careful management of sand removed from long-jump pits so that accumulated microplastics are not inadvertently redistributed. The case study provides a baseline for such monitoring while showing that even visibly simple sports facilities can serve as sampling points for a widespread environmental contaminant.

Subject of Research: Microplastic accumulation in long-jump sandpits near synthetic surfaces at Polish sports facilities

Article Title: Running tracks abrasion as a source of microplastics pollution: a long jump sandpit case study

Article References: Gałuszka, A., Migaszewski, Z. M., Migaszewski, A., Krzciuk, K., & Strójwąs, A. (2026). Running tracks abrasion as a source of microplastics pollution: a long jump sandpit case study. Environmental Science and Pollution Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-026-38323-5

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s11356-026-38323-5

Keywords: microplastics, sports surfaces, running tracks, long-jump sandpits, polyurethane, environmental monitoring, plastic pollution, Poland, ATR-FTIR, synthetic turf, Running, tracks

The researchers studied one rural, one suburban and one urban site around Toruń and the village of Górsk. The scope therefore covers local patterns at three disturbed sites rather than the species’ behavior throughout its introduced range.

In September 2023, the team surveyed 78 vegetation plots, each measuring 1 × 1 m. Thirty-nine contained S. nitidibaccatum and 39 were controls where the plant was absent. Control plots were matched as closely as possible to occupied plots by habitat type, level of transformation and disturbance. The habitats included roadsides, abandoned wasteland and construction-affected soils.

The analysis combined community-weighted ecological indicator values for light, temperature, moisture and soil fertility with traits such as canopy height, seed mass, specific leaf area and leaf dry matter content. It also measured species richness, mean pairwise phylogenetic distance and standardized functional richness, dispersion, divergence and evenness. Generalized linear mixed-effects models estimated occurrence probability along these gradients, with landscape type initially included as a random effect; its estimated variance was zero in the final models.

Model predictions associated occurrence with communities containing more light-demanding, thermophilous and moisture-demanding species. At selected prediction endpoints, estimated probability rose from 33% to 65% for the light indicator and from 28% to 78% for the temperature indicator. It increased from 6% to 95% for the moisture indicator but declined from 89% to 16% as the community-weighted soil-fertility indicator increased.

Occurrence was also associated with particular plant-trait combinations. At selected prediction endpoints, estimated probability was lower in communities with greater canopy height, seed mass and specific leaf area, declining from 76% to 20%, from 74% to 9% and from 74% to 9%, respectively. It was higher where leaf dry matter content was greater, increasing from 24% to 72%.

Diversity and assembly measures showed contrasting associations. Species richness was positively associated with occurrence, with estimated probability increasing from 23% in six-species plots to 87% in 23-species plots. Probability declined with greater phylogenetic diversity and with higher standardized functional richness, divergence and evenness, but increased with functional dispersion.

The authors interpret these relationships as consistent with habitat filtering and uneven occupation of trait space jointly shaping establishment opportunities for the late-germinating species. The study did not experimentally manipulate competition, resource availability or canopy gaps, so the models cannot establish which mechanisms directly caused the observed patterns. Its geographic scope, three landscape categories, single late-season survey and use of presence rather than abundance, growth, reproduction or population expansion also limit interpretation. Some missing trait data were imputed with a random-forest method.

Within these limits, the findings associate the local occurrence of S. nitidibaccatum with the assembly of disturbed plant communities. The authors conclude that its presence in ruderal vegetation indicates substantial potential to emerge as a problematic invasive weed, while emphasizing that its continuing expansion and ecological or economic consequences require further assessment.

Subject of Research: How ruderal community assembly is associated with the local occurrence of the emerging non-native Solanum nitidibaccatum in Poland

Article Title: Community assembly shapes the performance of Solanum nitidibaccatum , an emerging ruderal non-native

Article References: Puchałka, R., & Czortek, P. (2026). Community assembly shapes the performance of Solanum nitidibaccatum, an emerging ruderal non-native. NeoBiota, 107, 63-87. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.107.179191

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/neobiota.107.179191

Keywords: Solanum nitidibaccatum, ruderal vegetation, plant invasion, community assembly, functional diversity, phylogenetic diversity, habitat filtering, Poland, Community, assembly, shapes, performance

The researchers collected both taxa from sandy substrates in the Włocławek Reservoir on the middle Vistula during spring and summer in 2023 and 2024. S. rivicola individuals were collected about 20 metres from the nearest Corbicula occurrence, with a reed belt between the sites, to reduce the possibility that their condition had been affected by competition with the invader. The clams were maintained separately in laboratory tanks at an air temperature of 19.5 °C on a 12-hour light and 12-hour dark cycle. Mean shell length was 13.9 mm for S. rivicola and 14.3 mm for Corbicula; different individuals were used in each experiment, and no clam was tested more than once.

Three laboratory experiments examined survival, horizontal migration and burrowing. In the survival experiment, water was removed from containers holding three clams until the sand surface was exposed to air, while control containers remained submerged. In the migration experiment, an inclined tank bottom represented a shore or riverbank slope, and water levels were reduced in drought treatments. A second set of tanks was twice as long to test whether S. rivicola could migrate farther to a submerged refuge. In the burrowing experiment, the researchers measured clam depth in 10 one-centimetre sediment layers after the water level reached the sand surface. Each treatment used 15 replicate containers per species.

No Corbicula mortality was recorded during the full 15-day air-exposure period, even when sediment water content fell to 2%. By contrast, a probit model corrected for control mortality estimated that half of S. rivicola would die after 5.3 days of exposure, when sediment water content was about 12%, and 90% would die after 7.9 days, at 8.5% water content. Control mortality for S. rivicola also increased from the fifth day of the experiment, so the authors cautioned that the survival estimates for this species should be interpreted carefully. The corrected mortality model could not be fitted for Corbicula because no deaths occurred during the observation period.

The migration experiment revealed contrasting escape strategies. Most Corbicula remained in the upper, first-drying zone regardless of treatment, and only two individuals moved in each treatment. In small tanks, 71% of drought-exposed S. rivicola left the upper zone, compared with 36% in twice-as-long drought tanks and 60% in small control tanks. Among individuals that migrated, 56–75% reached the lower submerged zone in drought-exposed large tanks and in both small-tank treatments, whereas no individual reached the lower zone in large control tanks. The results indicate that S. rivicola could escape drying sediment by moving toward remaining water, but the greater distance reduced the proportion able to leave the upper zone.

Burrowing produced the opposite pattern. All Corbicula burrowed into the sediment under both drought and control conditions. During drought, they more often reached depths greater than 1 cm than under control conditions, while the percentage burrowing deeper than 2 cm was marginally higher under drought, with a reported P value of 0.053. S. rivicola burrowed significantly more often under constant water levels than during drought and never reached a depth greater than 2 cm. Together, the observations indicate that Corbicula generally remained where it was and entered the sediment, whereas S. rivicola more often relied on active movement toward wetter areas.

The findings do not establish that drought will cause a particular population-level outcome in the field. This was a controlled laboratory study using clams collected from one reservoir, and its survival conditions included a fixed temperature of approximately 19.5 °C and a mean relative humidity of 54.6%. The experiments also tested the taxa separately rather than directly measuring their interactions under drought. S. rivicola can occur in deeper river sections, where water may remain during longer dry periods, while the capacity of Corbicula populations to persist or recover under extreme conditions may vary. The authors also note that Corbicula can experience mass die-offs under extreme conditions.

The results nevertheless identify a clear difference in drought tolerance under the tested conditions. S. rivicola showed substantial mortality after relatively short exposure to air and drying sediment, while Corbicula showed no mortality during the experiment. Its greater burrowing and limited migration may have supported that result. The authors proposed that drought could filter out drought-sensitive native bivalves while favoring more resistant invasive populations, potentially intensifying competition in the remaining submerged refuges.

They also identified ways in which the two species may affect freshwater habitats. Corbicula feeds by filtration, causes bioturbation and competes for food and space. Empty shells can make burrowing more difficult for native mussels, and dense accumulations of invasive clams and their shells can simplify benthic habitat. As drought reduces the amount of submerged habitat, native bivalves may be forced into smaller refuges alongside Corbicula. The authors therefore called for studies that explicitly examine how the species interact during drought, rather than treating hydrological stress and biological invasion as separate processes.

Subject of Research: Laboratory comparison of drought survival, migration and burrowing in invasive Corbicula and native Sphaerium rivicola clams

Article Title: Clams running dry: greater drought tolerance in the non-native Asian clam ( Corbicula complex) than in the native European Sphaerium rivicola

Article References: Szarmach, D., Lichocka, K., Kobak, J., Bomba, A., Krzeszowiak, A., Terebiński, S., Wiśniewski, K., & Poznańska-Kakareko, M. (2026). Clams running dry: greater drought tolerance in the non-native Asian clam (Corbicula complex) than in the native European Sphaerium rivicola. NeoBiota, 107, 225-242. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.107.176248

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/neobiota.107.176248

Keywords: Asian clam, river orb mussel, hydrological drought, sediment drying, invasive species, clam survival, burrowing behaviour, freshwater bivalves, Poland, Włocławek Reservoir, Clams, running

The species was first documented in Europe on the Curonian Spit in Lithuania in 2007, and an early Polish record was reported before 2011. Interview participants described collecting it in northern Poland in the late 1980s, but that claim is not supported by long-term monitoring of the region’s mycobiota. The researchers therefore treated 2007 as a potential starting point for the species’ expansion in Poland. Since then, its documented range has extended more than 600 km inland and encompasses almost all 16 Polish voivodships. The cumulative number of reports rose rapidly and was represented by both exponential and curvilinear functions, a pattern the authors interpret as consistent with an invasion curve moving from establishment into rapid expansion.

Most survey records came from Pomorskie, a Baltic coastal region containing the site of Poland’s earliest known occurrence near Sasino. In 205 of 274 cases, respondents said they had gathered the fungus there. Only 53% of the people collecting it in Pomorskie lived in that region; others were visitors who had travelled specifically to collect the species or tourists who encountered it while on holiday. The fungus is associated in Poland with pine woods containing heather. These concentrations of collecting activity at a major source area have turned A. projectellus into an ingredient of foraging tourism, in which visitors travel to known mushroom sites and gather the fungi themselves.

Following its initial discovery in Poland, the bolete was collected almost exclusively along the coast, but the distance between the original locality and later collection sites increased over time. Until 2016, all observations were confined to Pomorskie except for a single inland record in 2012. From 2017 onward, it began appearing at locations progressively farther from the Baltic source, particularly in southeastern Poland. The year 2023 produced the highest number of records, with increases in northern, central and southern Poland, including sites more than 500 km from the original introduction area. Because the cumulative curve had not plateaued, the authors considered the range to be still expanding. The curve describes reported occurrences, however, and is not a direct measurement of population size or abundance.

The questionnaire added 56 new Polish localities across 28 counties where the species had not previously been reported, with the new sites concentrated especially in southeastern Poland. A notable cluster occurred in the sandy lowlands of Podkarpackie, north and northeast of Rzeszów, where extensive pine forests are present. Some collectors in the region reported travelling between Lublin and Rzeszów to gather the fungus, and it was being sold at Rzeszów’s main vegetable market. Additional localities were reported around Warsaw, where pine forests coexist with a large population, and in Lubuskie, north of Lower Silesia. The species was not collected in southwestern Poland during the survey, and no records were reported from Podlaskie.

A. projectellus has also entered Polish food culture, and the researchers recorded 52 local names, 26 of which were used by at least two people. Names such as borowik amerykański, translated as “American bolete,” referred to the fungus’s geographic origin, while borowik wrzosowy, or “heather bolete,” described the heather-rich pine habitat in which it grows in Poland. Other commonly used names included amerykaniec, borowik wysmukły, amerykanin, złotak and złotoborowik wysmukły. Interview participants and mushroom collectors posting in social-media forums described the mushroom as tasty, fragrant and firm in texture. It was used similarly to other boletes, including in sauces, soups and pickles, and it was also dried for later use. Its culinary use had expanded to include Christmas Eve meals.

Preservation practices varied among the 269 respondents who answered the relevant question meaningfully. Drying and freezing were each reported by 61%, pickling by 44%, and consumption of fresh mushrooms after processing by 26%. Only one respondent mentioned salting for lacto-fermentation. The authors identify several features that may have helped the unfamiliar fungus gain acceptance. Its sponge-like undersurface places it within a group that Polish mushroom education commonly treats as relatively safe, while it lacks the bitterness that can make similar boletes undesirable. Its colour also resembles that of several popular edible species, including Boletus edulis, Suillus species, Imleria badia and Xerocomellus species. Once experienced mushroom pickers established that it was edible, the researchers suggest, it was quickly incorporated into a familiar folk grouping of edible boletes.

The research combined occurrence information from the literature, herbaria, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and the researchers’ own field survey with active ethnomycological data collection. The researchers reduced spatial duplication by removing multiple species records within the same grid cell, retaining 325 occurrence records from 447 locations. The questionnaire and interviews then connected geographic occurrences with collectors’ origins, travel, local names, culinary practices and preservation methods. This active approach also gathered cultural information that was not available in the standard open-access occurrence repositories. Awareness of the mushroom’s exotic status was widespread among online respondents: 80% knew that the species was new and potentially invasive, whereas 19% did not.

The survey did not find a significant relationship between collectors’ place of origin and the number of records in a given region. Spearman’s rank correlation was −0.08, with p = 0.76, after Pomorskie was excluded because collectors deliberately travelled to that region. Some respondents from Śląskie and Dolnośląskie had collected the fungus in northern Poland, yet few localities were known in those regions. Conversely, numerous reports came from Podkarpackie, where the researchers encountered no people who had collected the fungus in northern Poland. These patterns provide no evidence that mushroom collectors were an important dispersal vector, although the study does not exclude their contribution alongside other mechanisms. Wind or animal vectors may be more influential, but the survey did not test those possibilities directly.

The ecological significance of the expansion remains uncertain because available data do not yet demonstrate whether A. projectellus harms native fungal communities. Under the strict IUCN definition, which requires a proven negative effect on native biota, the authors consider it better described for now as exotic rather than invasive. European Union rules also classify it as a novel food because it was not consumed in the union before 1997, complicating its legal marketing even though its sale was observed in Rzeszów. The researchers argue that decisions about promoting its edibility should depend on studies of its effects on native mycobiota, while the present evidence supports continued monitoring of its spread and use across Europe. The immediate picture is that a North American mushroom first documented in Europe in 2007 has become widely collected, named, eaten and reported across much of Poland, although both the causes of its inland spread and its ecological consequences remain unresolved.

Subject of Research: Citizen-science mapping of the spread, collection and culinary use of Aureoboletus projectellus in Poland

Article Title: Does a citizen science project describe the biogeography of exotic Aureoboletus projectellus in Poland? An ethnomycological survey

Article References: Pietras, M., Robak, D., Terlecka, M., & Łuczaj, Ł. (2025). Does a citizen science project describe the biogeography of exotic Aureoboletus projectellus in Poland? An ethnomycological survey. IMA Fungus, 16, Article e166407. https://doi.org/10.3897/imafungus.16.166407

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/imafungus.16.166407

Keywords: Aureoboletus projectellus, citizen science, Poland, fungal biogeography, ethnomycology, mushroom foraging, bolete mushrooms, fungal dispersal, invasive fungi, Polish cuisine, Does, citizen

The study, conducted by Marlena Jolanta Piekut of Warsaw University of Technology, draws on the Polish Household Budget Survey compiled by Statistics Poland, combining annual aggregated statistics spanning 2004 through 2024 with detailed household-level microdata covering more than 28,000 households in each of 2023 and 2024. Poland is a particularly revealing case: Eurostat data show Polish households devote one of the highest shares of total spending to energy in the European Union, at 7.6 percent, reflecting both the country’s aging housing stock and its continued reliance on coal and other solid fuels for heating.

The technical core of the analysis rests on three complementary methods. Trend analysis and income elasticity calculations tracked how the energy burden evolved over twenty years, revealing that elasticity exceeded one during two crisis periods, 2008 to 2011 and 2021 to 2022, peaking at 1.77. In those windows, energy spending grew faster than income, meaning households could not easily cut back on an essential good. During calmer years, elasticity hovered near zero or turned negative, consistent with energy behaving as a necessity whose relative budgetary weight shrinks as incomes rise.

Cluster analysis of the microdata then sorted households into distinct consumption profiles. Two dominant groups emerged in both survey years: an electricity-and-gas profile covering roughly 52 to 58 percent of households, skewed toward rural areas, lower incomes, and lower educational attainment, and a district-heating profile covering about 42 percent, concentrated in cities among wealthier, better-educated households. In 2023 only, a small third cluster appeared, comprising 6 percent of households whose energy spending was 83.8 percent solid fuel, overwhelmingly coal and firewood, and these households were poorer, more rural, and less educated than the rest.

The most consequential methodological move was the construction of a multidimensional Energy Poverty Index combining four binary dimensions: an energy cost burden exceeding 10 percent of disposable income, low household income, inability to keep the home adequately warm, and arrears on energy bills. Households meeting at least two criteria were classified as energy poor. The results were striking: 11.4 percent of Polish households met the multidimensional definition, while nearly 30 percent more exhibited a single symptom, placing them at elevated risk. In total, more than 40 percent of households showed at least one manifestation of energy vulnerability.

Logistic regression identified the structural drivers behind this risk. Reliance on non-labor income nearly doubled the odds of multidimensional energy poverty, with an odds ratio of 1.78, and heating with a solid-fuel stove increased the odds by 43 percent. Education showed a steep protective gradient: relative to households whose head had at most lower-secondary schooling, basic vocational education cut the odds to 0.65, secondary education to 0.39, and higher education to 0.27. Household composition mattered sharply as well, with single mothers facing roughly double the odds and couples with four or more children about 2.1 times the odds of the reference group.

Disposable income declined monotonically with energy poverty severity, from an average of 4,359 zloty per capita among households with no symptoms to 2,718 zloty for those with one and just 1,588 zloty for the multidimensionally poor. The at-risk group sat closer to the energy-poor than to the secure on nearly every characteristic, sharing the same risk factors, including solid-fuel heating and dependence on non-labor income, which the author argues makes them a priority target for preventive intervention before deprivations accumulate.

A leave-one-dimension-out sensitivity analysis tested whether these findings were artifacts of the index’s construction. Each of the four dimensions was excluded in turn and the regression re-estimated. The core predictors, employment status, education, household composition, and marital status, remained stable in direction and magnitude across all four specifications, with model fit actually improving in some cases, indicating that no single dimension was disproportionately driving the conclusions.

Perhaps the study’s most important warning concerns interpretation. A declining expenditure share, the author cautions, should not be read as improving welfare. Energy-poor households may respond to rising costs not by spending more but by underheating their homes and forgoing essential energy services, so a low energy share can signal unmet needs rather than comfort. Expenditure-based indicators, including the single income-cost measure adopted in Poland’s draft Social Climate Plan, systematically underestimate the problem by overlooking material deprivation and housing conditions.

The policy implications point toward integration rather than any single lever. Translating the odds ratios into population effects, the study estimates that shifting all solid-fuel households to alternative heating would reduce multidimensional energy poverty prevalence by only about 0.4 percentage points, and no single-factor intervention exceeds roughly 0.6 points. Meaningful reduction, the analysis concludes, requires coordinated action combining targeted social protection with investments in residential energy efficiency, housing modernization, low-carbon heating, and labor-market activation, so that the energy transition does not deepen the inequalities it is meant to resolve.

Subject of Research: Multidimensional energy poverty and household energy expenditure patterns in Poland

Article Title: Household energy expenditures and multidimensional energy poverty in Poland: patterns, determinants, and policy implications

Article References: Piekut, M. J. (2026). Household energy expenditures and multidimensional energy poverty in Poland: patterns, determinants, and policy implications. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 14, Article 1950882. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2026.1950882

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/fenvs.2026.1950882

Keywords: energy poverty, Poland, household energy expenditure, multidimensional index, logistic regression, cluster analysis, solid-fuel heating, energy affordability, Household Budget Survey, energy transition, thermal deprivation, social policy

The research team, led by Andrzej Ciborek, combined two complementary data sources that are rarely analysed together. The first came from Statistics Poland: annual counts of live births recorded by the mother’s place of residence, which capture the true demographic behaviour of the regional population. The second consisted of delivery records from all 34 maternity facilities in the voivodeship, stratified by perinatal reference level from Level I, the smallest units offering basic obstetric care, up to Level III, the tertiary centres equipped for the most complex and high-risk pregnancies. Separating these two streams of data allowed the authors to distinguish demographic change in the population from structural change in the healthcare network itself, a distinction that many regional analyses conflate.

The numbers tell a striking story. Live births in Greater Poland rose from 36,561 in 2013 to a high point of 40,450 in 2017, a brief echo of the so-called mini-baby boom that followed pro-family policy announcements and a favourable age structure among women of reproductive age. Then the reversal began. By 2023, births had fallen to 27,532, a reduction of 31.9 percent from the 2017 peak. Ordinary least-squares regression over the period 2017 to 2023 confirmed that the decline was statistically robust and remarkably consistent, with a fitted slope of minus 2,118 births per year, a 95 percent confidence interval running from minus 2,429 to minus 1,807, a p-value below 0.001 and an R-squared of 0.973. In practical terms, more than 97 percent of the year-to-year variation in the region’s birth count is captured by a simple linear downward trend, indicating a steady erosion rather than a series of random shocks.

The total fertility rate in the voivodeship followed the same trajectory, sliding from 1.48 children per woman in 2017 to 1.33 in 2023. Both values sit well below the replacement level of roughly 2.1, the rate at which each generation exactly replaces the previous one in the absence of migration. The regional picture, grim as it is, still looks marginally better than the national one: Poland’s national total fertility rate fell to just 1.099 in 2024, among the lowest figures ever recorded for the country. This gap illustrates an important nuance in European demography. Greater Poland, with its mix of the Poznań metropolitan area, mid-sized cities and a broad agricultural hinterland, has historically been more demographically resilient than eastern regions of Poland, yet even this comparatively advantaged region is now aging and shrinking in its childbearing population.

The delivery network data revealed a second, equally consequential finding. Between 2017 and 2023, the number of deliveries fell by 40.3 percent at Level I facilities, by 30.3 percent at Level II units and by 29.2 percent at Level III centres. At first glance, the numbers suggest that small rural hospitals lost business far faster than the large referral centres. But the sensitivity analysis tells a subtler story. When the researchers restricted the facility analysis to units that had operated continuously throughout the study period, the Level I decline shrank to 33.0 percent, a figure much closer to the losses at higher levels of care. The gap between the raw and adjusted figures was explained by the permanent closure of four peripheral Level I units. In other words, the apparent collapse of the smallest maternity hospitals reflected not a disproportionately greater fall in demand in rural areas but the deliberate consolidation of the network, as struggling units were shuttered and their catchment populations redirected elsewhere.

This distinction matters enormously for planning. If the decline in deliveries had been genuinely steeper in peripheral areas, planners might have concluded that rural obstetric services were becoming redundant and could safely be allowed to wither. The corrected picture suggests instead that demand fell broadly evenly across the region, and that the closure of small units was a structural response to falling volumes and the economics of running low-throughput maternity wards. Each closure, however, increases the distance that a pregnant woman must travel to reach care, raising questions about access to emergency obstetric services in sparsely populated areas, particularly for time-critical complications where minutes matter for both maternal and neonatal outcomes.

The study also tested a hypothesis that dominates public debate about fertility: that economic conditions drive birth rates. Using regional income data, the researchers computed Spearman rank correlations between income and the number of births, both on the raw levels and after first-differencing, a statistical technique that removes the common time trend and asks whether the two series still move together. The answer was a clear no. On levels, the correlation was negative and statistically insignificant, with rho equal to minus 0.370 and a p-value of 0.293. After differencing, rho fell to 0.167 with a p-value of 0.668. The data, in short, did not support an independent income-fertility association once the shared downward drift was taken out. That does not mean income is irrelevant to childbearing decisions at the individual level, but it cautions against the simplistic expectation that regional prosperity alone can reverse a fertility decline shaped by deep structural forces, including the shrinking cohort of women of reproductive age, changed life-course preferences and the postponement of parenthood.

Methodologically, the paper is a model of transparency for an ecological study. The authors followed the STROBE and RECORD reporting guidelines, which govern observational studies using routinely collected health data, and ran sensitivity analyses that excluded the year 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted both healthcare utilisation and conception patterns, and restricted the facility analysis to continuously operating units. Because the study relied exclusively on aggregated administrative and publicly available statistical data, with no individual-level records, the authors note that ethics committee approval was not required under Polish law. The correspondence between the demographic series, based on place of residence, and the facility series, based on place of delivery, provides an unusually coherent picture: the population series tracked the region’s demographic reality, while the facility series tracked how that reality was absorbed by the hospital network.

The implications reach well beyond obstetrics. A region whose births have fallen by nearly a third in six years is a region whose population is aging rapidly, and the study frames its findings explicitly around the dual challenge of adaptive perinatal network planning and geriatric-care expansion. Fewer children mean fewer paediatric wards, fewer school places and, eventually, fewer young workers; more elderly residents mean rising demand for long-term care, geriatric medicine, chronic-disease management and social services. The authors are careful to characterise these as planning implications rather than tested outcomes, a scientifically honest framing, but the direction of the demographic arithmetic is not in doubt. Healthcare systems built around a growing or stable young population cannot simply be repurposed overnight, and the closures of maternity units already underway show how difficult and politically sensitive the transition can be.

For other regions of Central and Eastern Europe, Greater Poland may function as a leading indicator. The post-1990 transition intensified below-replacement fertility across the region, and Poland’s national fertility rate of 1.099 in 2024 is among the lowest in the European Union. The Greater Poland analysis demonstrates that sub-national data, properly modelled, can reveal dynamics that national statistics conceal: the uneven geography of facility closures, the timing of turning points and the degree to which economic variables do or do not track birth trends. As the authors’ collaboration between Kalisz University and Charité underscores, the questions raised here are European in scope, and the answers will shape how health systems across the continent adapt to a future in which the cradle is quieter but the ranks of the elderly grow with every passing year.

Subject of Research: Fertility decline, population ageing and perinatal care network contraction in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, 2013–2023

Article Title: Fertility decline and population ageing in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, 2013–2024: a longitudinal analysis of implications for regional health and social services planning

Article References: Ciborek, A., Chęcińska-Maciejewska, Z., Bogdański, A., & Krauss, H. (2026). Fertility decline and population ageing in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, 2013–2024: a longitudinal analysis of implications for regional health and social services planning. BMC Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-026-29263-3

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12889-026-29263-3

Keywords: fertility decline, population ageing, total fertility rate, Greater Poland Voivodeship, perinatal care network, live births, health services planning, Poland, demographic change, longitudinal analysis, maternity facility closures, public health