Welcome to the Plant Ecology Lab
We are a team of plant ecologists at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague studying the processes that shape plant communities and biodiversity. Our research combines field observations, vegetation resurveys, experiments and functional approaches to understand how plant communities respond to environmental change. Explore our latest research, field news, and projects.
Research
Species coexistence
We investigate the mechanisms that allow plant species to coexist, with a particular focus on wetland communities. These highly productive ecosystems provide an ideal setting for studying how competition, resource availability and environmental conditions influence plant performance and community diversity.
Floodplain forests
We study long-term vegetation dynamics in European floodplain and wetland forests, ecosystems strongly affected by changes in hydrology, land use and forest management. By comparing historical and contemporary vegetation, we explore how plant communities and biodiversity respond to environmental change over decades.
Forest biodiversity and management
We investigate how global change and the abandonment of traditional management affect biodiversity in European lowland forests. Our research also explores whether practices such as coppicing, grazing and litter removal can help maintain or restore diverse forest plant communities.
Latest Research Updates
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Effect of global change drivers on carbon fluxes and resilience of European forests
European forests play a central role for meeting the EU’s climate targets, but the declining carbon sink has left them trailing behind climate goals. Reversing this trend requires a systematic understanding of forest responses to shifting global change drivers, explicitly integrating aboveground and belowground processes.
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Forest eutrophication and biodiversity loss
We are happy to announce that our new project has been funded by the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR). It focuses on the ongoing ruderalization of temperate oak forests – habitats that host some of the highest understorey plant diversity in the temperate zone, yet are increasingly threatened by drying and eutrophication.
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2025/2 Quarterly research highlights – advancing forest plant ecology
We are excited to share the publication of three innovative articles that showcase our team’s cutting-edge research. Häusler et al. (2025) explore how managing light and nutrients can restore plant diversity in temperate woodlands, offering promising strategies for habitat recovery. Eusebio and Douda (2025) take a deep dive into ancient forests, using mid-Pliocene insights to…