Jan Frouz

Charles University in Prague | CUNI · Institute for Environmental Studies

Microarthropods such as mites (Acari) and springtails (Collembola) play a key role in the functioning of nutrient‐poor ecosystems. They contribute to the comminution of organic matter and they are likely to affect the structure and function of soil microbial communities through grazing and by changing substrate availability. However, the precise ef...

Premise Despite the high functional importance of endophytes, we still have limited understanding of the biotic and abiotic factors that influence colonization of plant hosts along major ecological gradients and lack quantitative estimates of their colonization extent. In this study, we hypothesized that the developmental stage of the ecosystem wil...

Despite being an important ecosystem engineer, earthworms cannot form soil alone. The role of earthworms in soil formation occurs through interactions with other soil-forming factors namely parent material, climate, topography, vegetation, and time. I begin by exploring questions about how earthworms interact with these soil-forming factors, namely...

Globally soil fauna consumes about half of the annual litter fall. An important question is how this activity affects the mineralization and stabilization of soil organic matter. Here we explore how much earthworms influence the decomposition of litter and the stabilization of organic matter in soils at various stages of soil development (various s...

Sewage sludge, a byproduct of wastewater treatment, poses serious environmental and health risks due to its content of organic contaminants, heavy metals, and pathogenic microorganisms. With the growing global production of municipal wastewater, finding effective methods for managing and disposing of sewage sludge has become increasingly urgent. Tr...

Planting nitrogen-fixing plants in post-mining sites and similar degraded areas is a common approach to speed up soil development and buildup of the nitrogen pool in soil organic matter. The aim of this study was to explore if slower growth of alder seedlings in initial post-mining sites results from adverse soil conditions or lack of microbial sym...

Companies increasingly view soil degradation in their supply chains as a commercial risk. They have applied sustainability standards to manage environmental risks stemming from suppliers' farming operations. To examine the application of supply chain sustainability standards in soil protection, we conducted a study using global data on existing sus...

Fauna is highly abundant and diverse in soils worldwide, but surprisingly little is known about how it affects soil organic matter stabilization. Here, we review how the ecological strategies of a multitude of soil faunal taxa can affect the formation and persistence of labile (particulate organic matter, POM) and stabilized soil organic matter (mi...

Plant species affect key ecosystem processes like nutrient cycling and overall ecosystem productivity through their litter. The outcome of litter effects is largely determined by its decomposability, which directly effects soil properties. If litter remains standing or unshed (i.e. marcescent), its final decomposability can be increased by photodeg...

Aims: We introduce ReSurveyEurope — a new data source of resurveyed vegetation plots in Europe, compiled by a collaborative network of vegetation scientists. We describe the scope of this initiative, provide an overview of currently available data, governance, data contribution rules, and accessibility. In addition, we outline further steps, includ...

In autumn, temperate herbs begin to senesce and gradually shed their litter. However, surprisingly large amounts of dead biomass remain standing, that is, marcescent. The consequences of marcescence for the decomposition of biomass once it finally reaches the soil are largely unknown. Here, we aimed to determine whether marcescence affects subseque...

Balázs Deák 52 | Guillaume Decocq 53 | Iwona Dembicz 54 | Jürgen Dengler 55,56 | Valter Di Cecco 57 | Jan Dick 58 | Martin Diekmann 59 | Hartmut Dierschke 60, † | Thomas Dirnböck 61 | Inken Doerfler 62 | Jiří Doležal 63,64 | Ute Döring 65 | Tomasz Durak 66 | Ciara Dwyer 67 | Rasmus Ejrnaes 68 | Inna Ermakova 69 | Brigitta Erschbamer 70 | Giuliano F...

Drainage is often used to increase agriculture production, but it has adverse effects on biodiversity and water retention. Here, the effect of subsurface pipe drainage on peat meadows near Senotín (Czechia), which were drained from the mid-1980s to 1990s, was studied. Attempts were made to restore the peat meadows by damming drainage pipes using cl...

Citation: Badraghi, A.; Novotná, B.; Frouz, J.; Krištof, K.; Trakovický, M.; Juriga, M.; Chvila, B.; Montagnani, L. Temporal Dynamics of CO 2 Fluxes over a Non-Irrigated Vineyard. Land 2023, 12, 1925. https://doi. Abstract: Some knowledge gaps still remain regarding carbon sequestration in non-irrigated agroecosystems, where plants may experience d...

Conversion of primary forest into oil palm plantations is common in tropical countries, affecting soil properties, ecosystem services and land-use management. However, little is known about the short-range spatial soil distribution that is important for soil scientists, ecologists, entomologists, mycologists or microbiologists. In this study, seven...

Re-vegetation or natural succession of plant species is an important factor of soil development in postmining overburden dumps. As the parent material (sedimentary rocks and regolith) is more or less uniform in the dump, the topographic position and vegetation are the major factors that affects the mine soil quality. Accordingly, this study was des...

Companies increasingly view soil degradation in their supply chains as a commercial risk. They have applied sustainability standards to manage environmental risks stemming from suppliers’ farming operations. To examine the application of supply chain sustainability standards in soil protection, we combined global data on existing sustainability sta...

The plant economics spectrum (PES) drives nutrient cycling through effects on soil decomposers. However, dead phytomass may remain standing or unshed (marcescent), hardly accessible to decomposers and be photodegraded. In arid zones, the significant part of marcescent phytomass can be decomposed without touching the ground. In temperate zones, phot...

Restoration of nutrient-enriched heathlands and similar dry habitats via topsoil removal requires the re-assembly of above and belowground communities to attain fully functional ecosystems. Top-soil removal provides unique opportunities to study the assembly processes, but research has traditionally focused on succession of the aboveground part of...

Post-mining sites are characterised by unfavourable soil conditions which limit the recovery of ecosystem functions. The growth of legumes, which are able to increase soil nitrogen content and accelerate the primary succession, can be limited by soil conditions as well as by grass competition. We performed a greenhouse pot experiment using various...

Central European coniferous forests are facing the most significant bark beetle outbreak in history. The consequence is the creation of large clearings, which are associated with changes in environmental parameters. We studied how these changes affected the survival of wood ant nests. Specifically, we monitored the relationship between mound occurr...

The role of microbial communities from soil aggregates in grasses and herbs’ development during plant succession is not clear. We isolated microbial communities in micro- (<250 μm) and macro-aggregates (>250 μm) and investigated their inoculation on plant communities. Microbial inoculums were added to sterilized soil substrates from primary and sec...

The study aimed to assess the influence of high sulfur (S) contamination and the properties of the reclaimed (e.g. neutralization/liming of contamination) soil on the regeneration of soil vegetation and fauna in the example of the former sulfur mine. An attempt was also made to assess minimal conditions for the development of soil microorganisms an...

Heathland restoration using topsoil removal requires the re‐colonization of above‐ and belowground communities. Oribatid mites play a key role in the comminution of organic matter and are frequently early colonizers during succession despite their limited mobility. Whereas the assembly of their communities may take decades, passive dispersal likely...

A set of pictures of natural vegetation in protected areas and urbanized ecosystems were shown to respondents. Protected areas were ranked as natural. Perceived naturalness of ecosystems was positively correlated with the sense of beauty and preference for recreational use, but negatively with the feeling of security. When the respondents rated eco...

Terrestrial isopods and millipedes are key drivers of a litter decomposition in terrestrial ecosystems but the effects of litter chemistry on feeding preference and litter consumption rate as well as on the diversity and composition of gut and faecal microbiome still entails several challenges. We established a mesocosm experiment with terrestrial...

Ants and termites reach high abundances in the tropics and substantially affect the environment through a range of their activities. Because of foraging and decomposition of organic matter at their nesting sites, these locations show fundamentally altered soil properties compared to the adjacent soil. However, such changes are typically studied onl...

A better understanding of factors controlling the distribution of soil organic matter (SOM) in differently stabilized pools in soils during ecosystem development is essential to more efficiently manage soil as a C sink and aid global warming mitigation. We, thus, investigated C and N stocks in bulk soil and differently stabilized soil fractions (fr...

Soil invertebrates (i.e., soil fauna) are important drivers of many key processes in soils including soil aggregate formation, water retention, and soil organic matter transformation. Many soil fauna groups directly or indirectly participate in litter consumption. However, the quantity of litter consumed by major faunal groups across biomes remains...

Willow (Salix caprea), birch (Betula pendula) and aspen (Populus tremula) are common pioneer woody species, however little is known about colonization strategies in large-scale disturbances. Here we have compared the strategies of establishment of these pioneer woody species in unreclaimed sites on a large (1957 ha) spoil heap in Czechia. For all s...

Microbial diversity plays an important role in the decomposition of soil organic matter. However, the pattern and drivers of the relationship between microbial diversity and decomposition remain unclear. In this study, we followed the decomposition of organic matter in soils where microbial diversity was experimentally manipulated. To produce a gra...

Soil carbon (C) storage affects many ecosystem properties and, consequently, is an important measure of reclamation success in sites where soil develops de novo. In this study, we have used the chronosequence of unreclaimed heaped post-mining sites (16-56 years old) after open cast coal mining near Sokolov (Czechia) in order to study C stock on the...

Micro-sized pyrogenic carbon (PyC) is expected to interact more efficiently with soil biota such as earthworms than coarse pyrogenic carbon. Little is known about whether the micro-sized PyC poses a threat to earthworms. We investigated the effects of hydrophilic micro-sized PyC on earthworm mortality in two contrasting soil substrates from young a...

Seasonal changes in the biomass and length of fine roots and their growth into ingrowth cores were measured in a chronosequence of post-mining sites represented by 6-, 16-, 22-, and 45-year-old study sites, located on spoil heaps after brown coal mining in the Sokolov coal mining district. The depth distribution of roots differed between herbs and...

Red wood ants (RWAs) are a group of keystone species widespread in temperate and boreal forests of the Northern Hemisphere. Despite this, there is increasing evidence of local declines and extinctions. We reviewed the current protection status of RWAs throughout Europe and their International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) threat class...

Piper aduncum, a tree species native to the Neotropics, has been introduced to other tropical regions and successfully invades secondary forest in fallow land after small scale slash-and-burn agriculture in Papua New Guinea (PNG). However, the effect of P. aduncum invasion on soil chemical properties as well as soil biota remains poorly understood....

The revitalisation of soil fauna in post-mining soils is one of the ways in which we can slow down biodiversity loss. To investigate the effect of a meadow soil transplanted directly into the spoil substrate on the colonisation of a spoil heap, we used nematodes as a tool for an assessment of success in soil fauna recolonisation. Three blocks of me...

Arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) and ectomycorrhiza (EcM) are the most abundant and widespread types of mycorrhizal symbiosis, but there is little and sometimes conflicting information regarding the interaction between AM fungi (AMF) and EcM fungi (EcMF) in soils. Their competition for resources can be particularly relevant in successional ecosystems, wh...

Peatland degradation is tightly connected to hydrological changes and microbial metabolism. To better understand these metabolism processes, more information is needed on how microbial communities and substrate cycling are affected by changing hydrological regimes. These activities should be imprinted in stable isotope bulk values (δ ¹⁵N, δ ¹³C) du...

Recently, soil organic matter (SOM) fractionation has become an important tool to separate SOM pools with different stability and decomposability. Several methods have been developed for this purpose. Here, we used laboratory experiments manipulating two types of post-mining soils in the early stages of soil development to compare two fractionation...

Microbial necromass is a central component of soil organic matter (SOM), whose man- agement may be essential in mitigating atmospheric CO2 concentrations and climate change. Current consensus regards the magnitude of microbial necromass production to be heavily dependent on the carbon use efficiency of microorganisms, which is strongly influenced b...

Marcescence, the phenomenon in which plants hold their leaves after senescence, is common in nature. To date, the ecological relevance of marcescent leaves has been highlighted predominantly in arid ecosystems, where the photodegradation of recalcitrant compounds in such leaves facilitates their subsequent decomposition once shed. Marcescence, howe...

Soil properties and soil microbial communities can greatly affect plant communities, especially in disturbed ecosystems. However, their relative contribution to the final effect on plants has rarely been assessed. We manipulated the soil microbial community in microcosms by inoculating sterilized soils originating from preserved species‐rich meadow...

Heathlands are threatened habitats throughout the whole Europe, which have initiated numerous restoration programmes aimed mostly at plant community reconstruction; however, little is known about soil fauna restoration. Here we have studied newly established wet and dry heathlands in the Netherlands after topsoil removal of previously agricultural...

The mechanisms underlying microbial community dynamics and co‐occurrence patterns along ecological succession are crucial for understanding ecosystem recovery but remain largely unexplored. Here, we investigated community dynamics and taxa co‐occurrence patterns in bacterial and fungal communities across a well‐established chronosequence of post‐mi...

Heatwaves exert disproportionately strong and sometimes irreversible impacts on forest ecosystems. These impacts remain poorly understood at the tree and species level and across large spatial scales. Here, we investigate the effects of the record-breaking 2018 European heatwave on tree growth and tree water status using a collection of high-tempor...

This chapter summarize effect of mankind have trough agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture on world ecosystems describe development of these effects over time. Seeks for similarities in action of these human activities and describe their interactions. This chapter outlines the potential ways on how to make these activities more sustainable.

This chapter briefly describes agriculture technologies, including a brief historical overview, and explains major drivers that shape modern agriculture. It introduces major crops and domestic animals and explains why and how we domesticate them. Finally, this chapter deals with major ways by which agricultural intensification in plant production a...

This chapter briefly introduces forestry and describes the differences between natural forests and various forms of human-managed forest. This chapter also introduces tree species most commonly found in the European and North American forestry, describes the basic steps of forestry technologies, and explains how various ways of forest management af...

This chapter introduces fish biology, describes fish species and other aquatic organisms most commonly used in fisheries, describes various forms of fishing with special emphasis on comparison between self-supporting artisanal fisheries and industrial fisheries, and deals with recreational fishing. This chapter explains how human fishing differs fr...

This chapter brings a brief summary of basic knowledge from environmental sciences, ecology and interface between human society and ecosystem that is needed to understand the underplaying principles behind mechanisms and relationships that will be described in the following chapters. Those include explanation of concept of ecosystem services and me...

The formation of soil aggregates is related to the stability of soil organic carbon, which distinguishes the living conditions of microbial communities in different micro-niches. Here, we investigated fungal and bacterial community structure, networks, biomass and respiration in individual micro-niches between and within soil aggregates using seven...

This book offers a comprehensive introduction to basic ecological and biological principles underlying modern agriculture, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, and explains how these principles are used to increase the production of food and other raw materials (wood, biofuels, fibre, and other materials). The book is translated into English, origi...

Succession is a basic natural process of ecosystem recovery, it may start completely de novo (primary succession) or after serious disturbance of previous ecosystem (secondary succession). Despite most reclamation and restoration approaches depend on it and despite extensive previous research we found no worldwide review that would describe pattern...

Soil recovery is crucial for successful ecosystem restoration at post-mining sites. Water infiltration and preferential flow in soil are important but little studied soil characteristics. In this study, we explore effects of tree species on infiltration, geometry of preferential flows, size distribution and origin of pores, and related properties o...

Long-term fertilization has shown a high relevance as regards soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration, but the degree of stability of the sequestered SOC has not been widely studied up to now. Using physical fractionation combined with laboratory incubation and NMR spectroscopy, we evaluated the differences in SOC stability caused by long-term fert...

Subsurface pipe drainage was a frequently used way of agriculture intensification. Here, we present a case study of peat meadows that were drained from the mid 1980s to 1990s and were restored by interrupting drainage pipes through clay sealed trenches. This trial was subject of extensive survey of plant, soil fauna and soil chemistry, which was do...

Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFASs) represent a group of highly recalcitrant micropollutants, that continuously endanger the environment. The present work describes the geographical trends of fish contamination by individual PFASs (including new compounds, e.g., Gen-X) assessed by analyzing the muscle tissues of 5 separate freshwater...

The afforestation of sites disturbed after coal mining has shown to be a favorite technique to restore all ecosystem functions. Leaf traits of trees used in restoration may substantially affect nutrient return decomposition rates in soil and thus, ecosystem development. The aim of the study was to compare seasonal changes between the individual tre...

Soils and forest soil in particular represent important pools of carbon (C). The amount of C stored in soil depends on the input of organic matter into the soil, but also on quality of the organic matter, which determines the proportion of organic matter that remains in the soil or that is released from the soil as CO2. Here, we present a quantitat...

Elucidating dynamics of soil microbial communities after disturbance is crucial for understanding ecosystem restoration and sustainability. However, despite the widespread practice of swidden agriculture in tropical forests, knowledge about microbial community succession in this system is limited. Here, amplicon sequencing was used to investigate e...

Development of soil microbial communities along ecological succession is crucial for ecosystem functioning and maintenance. However, ecological processes mediating microbial community assembly and microbial co-occurrence patterns along ecological succession remain unclear. Here, we explored community phylogenetic structures, ecological processes dr...