Dr. Daniel Lewanzik
Postdoctoral researcher
Department of Evolutionary Ecology
Tel: 0049 (0) 30 5168 712
E-Mail: lewanzik@izw-berlin.de
Short curriculum vitae
Finding sufficient food is a matter of life and death faced by any animal. Thus, foraging dictates the daily routine particularly in species that have high energy turnover rates, such as bats. I am interested in how bats interact with prey and with each other when foraging using echolocation and how urbanization and light pollution interfere with bat foraging.
Currently, I am teaming up with citizen scientists to investigate a) large-scale species dominance and habitat use dynamics in urban environments and b) how to improve citizen scientist projects such that citizen scientists actually benefit from participation.
Before, as postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, I focused more on the sensory ecology of bat foraging. How do some bats prevent eared moths from performing evasive escape maneuvers, although eared moths can hear the ultrasonic echolocation frequencies of bats (Lewanzik & Goerlitz, 2018, Functional Ecology)? Under which circumstances and in which way do bats make use of the omnipresent public information in bat communities (Lewanzik et al., 2019, Journal of Animal Ecology)?
During my doctorate I studied the influence of ubiquitous artificial light on bats (Rowse & Lewanzik (equal contributors) et al., 2016, in: Voigt & Kingston (eds.) Bats in the Anthropocene: conservation of bats in a changing World). I found that Neotropical fruit-eating bats refrain from harvesting fruits if they grow in the sphere of street lights. Thus, street lighting might impact important ecosystem services such as seed dispersal (Lewanzik & Voigt, 2014, Journal of Applied Ecology). Further, I asked if temperate zone insectivorous bats are similarly averse to street light and if there are differences between traditional mercury vapor and emerging LED lights (Lewanzik & Voigt, 2017, Journal of Applied Ecology).
- Behavioural and sensory ecology
- Citizen science
- Light pollution
- Effects of urbanisation and other anthropogenic impacts on wildlife
- Echolocation
- Intra- and inter-specific interactions
Lewanzik D, Sundaramurthy AK, Goerlitz HR (2019): Insectivorous bats integrate social information about species identity, conspecific activity and prey abundance to estimate cost–benefit ratio of interactions. J Anim Ecol 88: 1462-1473.
Lewanzik D, Goerlitz HR (2018): Continued source level reduction during attack in the low-amplitude bat Barbastella barbastellus prevents moth evasive flight. Funct Ecol 32: 1251-1261.
Voigt CC, Azam C, Dekker J, Ferguson J, Fritze M, Gazaryan S, Hölker F, Jones G, Leader N, Lewanzik D, Limpens HLGA, Mathews F, Rydell J, Schofield H, Spoelstra K, Zagmajster M (2018): Guidelines for consideration of bats in lighting projects. EUROBATS Publication Series No. 8. UNEP/EUROBATS Secretariat, Bonn, Germany, 62 pp.
Lewanzik D, Voigt CC (2017): Transition from conventional to light-emitting diode street lighting changes activity of urban bats. J Appl Ecol 54: 264-271.
Rowse EG, Lewanzik D (Rowse EG and Lewanzik D: equal contributors), Stone EL, Harris S, Jones G (2016): Dark matters: the effects of artificial lighting on bats. In: Voigt CC, Kingston T (eds.) Bats in the Anthropocene: conservation of bats in a changing World, pp 187-213, Springer International Publishing, Cham, Switzerland.
Lewanzik D, Voigt CC (2014): Artificial light puts ecosystem services of frugivorous bats at risk. J Appl Ecol 51: 388-394.
Voigt CC, Lewanzik D (2012): 'No cost of echolocation for flying bats' revisited. J Comp Physiol B 182: 831-40.
Voigt CC, Schneeberger K, Voigt-Heucke SL, Lewanzik D (2011): Rain increases the energy cost of bat flight. Biol Lett 7: 793-795.
Voigt CC, Lewanzik D (2011): Trapped in the darkness of the night: thermal and energetic constraints of daylight flight in bats. Proc R Soc B 278: 2311-2317.