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.

These changes arise from a combination of atmospheric pollution, natural succession following the abandonment of traditional management, and local site conditions such as nutrient availability linked to bedrock and the quality and quantity of tree litter.

One of the project’s aims is the role of litter: how it shapes conditions on the forest floor, supports the spread of expansive species, and ultimately influences biodiversity loss. To tackle this, we will connect broad, landscape-scale analyses with rare long-term evidence from fifteen years of manipulative litter-removal experiments. We’re very happy to collaborate with colleagues from the Technical University in Zvolen, who run comparable long-term experiments and bring invaluable expertise to the project.