Alena Havrdová

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague | CULS · Faculty of Environmental Science

Background and aims: Polyploidy in plants has been studied extensively. In many groups, two or more cytotypes represent separate biological entities with distinct distributions, histories and ecology. This study examines the distribution and origins of cytotypes of Alnus glutinosa in Europe, North Africa and western Asia. Methods: A combined app...

Genetic admixture is supposed to be an important trigger of species expansions because it can create the potential for selection of genotypes suitable for new climatic conditions. Up until now, however, no continent-wide population genetic study has performed a detailed reconstruction of admixture events during natural species expansions. To fill t...

We investigated 39 previously developed Betula, Alnus, and Corylus simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers for their utility in the cross-generic amplification of two European alder species, i.e., Alnus glutinosa and A. incana. Of these markers, ten loci had successful amplification within Alnus species. Finally, we designed two multiplexes composed o...

Background/aims: Recently, new palaeoecological records supported by molecular analyses and palaeodistributional modelling have provided more comprehensive insights into plant behaviour during the last Quaternary cycle. We reviewed the migration history of species of subgenus Alnus during the last 50,000 years in Europe with a focus on (1) a gener...

Understanding the seasonal dynamics of the forest herb layer and the factors that influence it is essential for predicting how the forest ecosystem, including mutualistic interactions, will respond to global change. However, to date, no research has investigated how understorey phenological guilds respond to major environmental threats and forest i...

Floodplain forests offer a diversity of habitats and resources for a very wide range of plant and animal species. They also offer many benefits to humankind and are considered essential to the mitigation of the effects of climate change. Nevertheless, throughout the world they are suffering the most intense of anthropogenic pressures so are, of all...

Forest ecosystems are commonly characterised by a hierarchy of resources. During a disturbance of a forest community, increased light availability in the understorey can support competitive interactions at the expense of facilitation. This may overwhelm the role of belowground resource heterogeneity in maintaining species coexistence and so result...

The stress-gradient hypothesis predicts a switch from competition to facilitation, under increasing environmental stress. However, it is unclear how important is the change in competition-facilitation balance (i.e., the net outcome of plant-plant interactions) along the stress gradient in the regulation of community temporal stability (i.e., the in...

Aim Differences in local β‐diversity (i.e., within‐site β‐diversity) along climatic and biogeographical gradients may result from regional differences in the importance of local community assembly processes (e.g. dispersal limitation and habitat filtering) or from regional differences in species pool sizes (i.e. species potentially able to colonize...

In the present study, we investigate the variation of European representatives of Alnus subg. Alnus, i.e., Alnus glutinosa and A. incana, in Europe and partly North Africa. Four distinct Alnus taxa were recognized using a multidisciplinary approach based on multivariate morphometrics, karyology, flow cytometry and nuclear microsatellite analyses. B...

We reconstructed the historical pattern of postglacial biogeographic range expansion of the boreal tree species Alnus incana in Europe. To assess population genetic structure and diversity, we performed a combined analysis of nuclear microsatellite loci and chloroplast DNA sequences (65 populations, 1004 individuals). Analysis of haplotype and micr...

Abstract Aim: Formalized classifications synthesizing vegetation data at the continental scale are being attempted only now, although they are of key importance for nature conservation planning. Therefore, we aim to provide a vegetation classification and to describe themain biogeographical patterns of floodplain forests and alder carrs in Europe....

Seed banks may play a crucial role in the maintenance of community diversity, but their role on semi-natural grasslands, one of the most species rich habitats in Europe, is usually unexplored in population and community studies. We aim to clarify how local factors and topography influence seed bank successional patterns on semi-natural alluvial mea...