- Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Plant and animal studies
- Botany and Plant Ecology Studies
- Rangeland and Wildlife Management
- Peatlands and Wetlands Ecology
- Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies
- Land Use and Ecosystem Services
- Fern and Epiphyte Biology
- Bioenergy crop production and management
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior
- Pasture and Agricultural Systems
- Microbial infections and disease research
- Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics
- Aquaculture disease management and microbiota
- Myxozoan Parasites in Aquatic Species
- Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
- Piperaceae Chemical and Biological Studies
- Plant Parasitism and Resistance
- Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
- Plant Ecology and Soil Science
University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice
2019-2025
Abstract Revealing the role of biodiversity in ecosystem functioning (BEF) has been a major focus ecological research over recent decades. In general, results from artificially assembled communities point to important showing that loss species negative effect on various functions (mostly assessed by above‐ground peak biomass). However, evidence manipulations natural is scarce, and are often contradictory between these two approaches. particular, importance dominance for remains poorly...
ABSTRACT Traditionally managed grasslands are among the most species‐rich communities, which threatened by land use changes—management intensification or abandonment. The resistance of their species composition to mismanagement and ability recover after re‐establishment traditional management is prime conservational interest. In a manipulative experiment in wet meadow, we simulated factorial combination abandonment mowing fertilization. dominant Molinia caerulea was removed half plots assess...
Abstract Many biodiversity–ecosystem functioning (BEF) experiments have shown enhanced productivity with biodiversity, often explained by niche differentiation and complementarity effects. Yet, most of these results are based on artificial plant assemblages, a major focus above‐ground productivity. Consequently, our comprehension the BEF relationship in natural ecosystem for below‐ground functions remains largely unknown. In this study, we simulated long‐term non‐random species loss...
Abstract A growing number of studies have demonstrated that biodiversity is a strong and positive predictor ecosystem temporal stability by simultaneously affecting multiple underlying mechanisms stability, dominance, asynchrony averaging effects. However, to date, no study has disentangled the relative role these key in experiments. We created species richness gradient mimicking loss rare assessed on community and, more importantly, quantified three stabilizing mechanisms, dominance...
Abstract In herbaceous communities which host many perennial species, belowground clonal organs and traits remain largely overlooked in ecosystem functioning studies. However, the compartment is expected to play a key role as greatest proportion of biomass allocated belowground. Our main goal was test whether including underexplored (in tandem with widely used aboveground traits) improves ability predict production soil carbon temperate grasslands. We examined relationships between five...
Abstract Aims Ecological theories predict that assembly processes shape communities so co‐existing species may either be functionally more dissimilar ("divergence") or similar ("convergence") than expected by chance. Two important factors are rarely considered in combination spatial scale and successional stage. Our aim is to identify different functional patterns during succession across scales discuss the likely underlying processes. We expect find convergence due environmental filtering...
Abstract Biodiversity loss poses a significant threat to ecosystem functioning. However, much of the empirical evidence for these effects is based on artificial experiments that often fail simulate structure natural communities. Hence, it still unclear whether diversity losses would significantly affect functioning “real‐world” ecosystems. As subordinate and rare species constitute most in communities are more vulnerable local extinction, we evaluated their contribution naturally...
Abstract Grassland ecosystems account for approximately 40% of terrestrial biomes globally. These communities are characterized by a large allocation to belowground biomass, often exceeding its aboveground counterpart. However, this biomass investment cannot be entirely attributed the acquisitive function roots. plants also allocate non‐acquisitive, stem‐derived, organs, such as rhizomes. organs responsible key plant functions space occupancy, resprouting after damage, and seasonal rest....
Theories explaining community assembly assume that biotic and abiotic filters sort species into communities based on the values of their traits are thus between-species trait variability (BTV). Nevertheless, these act individuals rather than species. Consequently, selection is also influenced by intraspecific (ITV) its drivers. These drivers may be (e.g., water availability) or competition). Although closely related should have similar traits, many them coexist. We investigated relative...
Abstract Questions The patterns in abundances of plant species and the processes which determine these have been intensively studied. While recent investigations recognized functional traits as important determinants abundances, intraspecific trait variability a driver abundance has largely ignored. objective this study was to quantify effect dissimilarity from mean community characteristics (community‐weighted [CWM]) on six widely distributed grassland species, while controlling for...
Myxozoa represent a diverse group of microscopic cnidarian endoparasites alternating between invertebrate and vertebrate hosts. Of the approximately 2,600 species described predominantly from teleost fish, only 1.8% have been reported cartilaginous fishes (Elasmobranchii). As ancestral hosts myxozoans, elasmobranchs may played an important role in myxozoan evolution, however, they are also some largest known for this parasites. We screened 50 belonging to nine seven families, various...
The relationship between species richness and productivity (SRPR) has been a long‐studied hotly debated topic in ecology. Different studies have reported different results with variable shapes (i.e. unimodal, linear) directions positive, negative) of SRPRs depending on spatial grain size sampling unit for richness), estimates study extent. In this study, we quantified the effect multiple (aboveground, belowground total biomass, various measures soil fertility) across three grains (0.04, 1 25...
Ants disperse seeds of many plant species adapted to myrmecochory. While advantages this ant-plant mutualism for myrmecochorous plants (myrmecochores) have been previously studied in temperate region mostly forests, our study system was a pasture. Moreover, we used unique combination observing the effect ant-activity suppression on ant dispersal and comparison contribution unassisted distance from mother plant. We established plots without with (enclosures). offered diaspores (Knautia...
Few studies have explored competition in fern gametophyte populations. One limiting factor is the tedious measurement of size as a proxy for biomass these small plants. Here, an alternative approach estimating number green pixels from photos was employed to measure competitive interactions among apomictic and sexual Dryopteris gametophytes.We cultivated gametophytes two (diploid triploid) one (tetraploid) species monocultures two-species mixtures ratios 1 : 3. The total cover each population...