Dr Michal Tomasz Jezierski

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow

Contact details

Email: m.t.jezierski@bham.ac.uk

Address: School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Michal Jezierski is a biogeographer, primarily interested in the evolution of the similarity of organisms inhabiting islands. He combines phylogenetic comparative methods, field studies and evolutionary genomics to understand evolution of island endemic species/populations at both macro- and microecological scale.

Qualifications

BA in Biological Sciences (First Class), University of Oxford
DPhil in Zoology, University of Oxford

Research

His research focuses on the evolution of the ‘island syndrome’ – the similarity in biology of island organisms worldwide, thought to be brought about by shared conditions on world’s islands. He began investigating the island syndrome as part of his undergraduate research and he is now continuing it as a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in Birmingham.

His research focuses on two separate approaches:

i) using phylogenetic comparative methods on global datasets, to understand the biogeographic and phylogenetic patterns of the evolution of the islands syndrome.

ii) using field studies in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland, to understand how bird populations (St Kilda Wrens and Rock Doves) adapt to life on islands.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Smith, WJ, Jezierski, MT & van Grouw, H 2026, 'Feral Barbary dove phenotypes are lost following Eurasian Collared Dove invasions', Ibis. https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.70067

Jezierski, MT, Dunn, JC, Chagas, CRF & Smith, WJ 2026, 'Parallel evolution of island syndromes coincides with limited parallel genetic differentiation in a passerine bird', Evolutionary Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. 5, no. 1, kzag008. https://doi.org/10.1093/evolinnean/kzag008

Jezierski, MT, Benson, RBJ, Smith, WJ, Saupe, EE & Clegg, SM 2025, 'A wide range of abiotic and biotic variables leaves most variation in bird nest architecture unexplained', Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 292, no. 2057, 20252013. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.2013

Jezierski, MT 2024, 'Birds that breed exclusively on islands have smaller clutches', The Auk, vol. 141, no. 2, ukae005. https://doi.org/10.1093/ornithology/ukae005

Jezierski, MT, Smith, WJ & Clegg, SM 2024, 'The island syndrome in birds', Journal of Biogeography, vol. 51, no. 9, pp. 1607-1622. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14720

Smith, WJ, Portugal, SJ & Jezierski, M 2024, 'Use of anthropogenic landscapes in a wild Columba livia (Rock Dove) population', Ornithology. https://doi.org/10.1093/ornithology/ukae050

Smith, WJ, Jezierski, MT & Balmer, DE 2023, 'Discerning the status of a rapidly declining naturalised bird: the Golden Pheasant in Britain', Biological Invasions, vol. 25, no. 11, pp. 3341-3351. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-023-03125-0

Smith, WJ, Jezierski, MT, Dunn, JC & Clegg, SM 2023, 'Parasite exchange and hybridisation at a wild-feral-domestic interface', International Journal for Parasitology, vol. 53, no. 14, pp. 797-808. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpara.2023.06.005

Smith, WJ, Sendell-Price, AT, Fayet, AL, Schweizer, TM, Jezierski, MT, van de Kerkhof, C, Sheldon, BC, Ruegg, KC, Kelly, S, Turnbull, LA & Clegg, SM 2022, 'Limited domestic introgression in a final refuge of the wild pigeon', iScience, vol. 25, no. 7, 104620. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.104620

Smith, WJ, Quilodrán, CS, Jezierski, MT, Sendell-Price, AT & Clegg, SM 2022, 'The wild ancestors of domestic animals as a neglected and threatened component of biodiversity', Conservation Biology, vol. 36, no. 3, e13867. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13867

Review article

Matthews, TJ, Sayol, F, Soares, FC, Heinen, JH, Chu, O, Martínez-Rubio, N, Wayman, JP, Martin, TE, Rozzi, R, Bellard, C, Blackburn, TM, Borges, PAV, Borregaard, MK, Cabral, JS, Cardoso, P, Dalsgaard, B, Fattorini, S, Fernández-Palacios, JM, Helmus, MR, Hume, JP, Jezierski, MT, Kreft, H, Lapiedra, O, Lomolino, MV, Nogué, S, Rigal, F, Santos, AMC, Schrader, J, Si, X, Svenning, J-C, Triantis, KA, Valente, L, van der Geer, AAE, Weigelt, P, Whittaker, RJ & Faurby, S 2026, 'Emergent patterns of island biodiversity in the Anthropocene', Science Advances, vol. 12, no. 30, eaee1788. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aee1788

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