Jiří Doležal

The Czech Academy of Sciences | AVCR · Institute of Botany

Effective restoration of meadows requires seeds of local provenance to preserve not only the species diversity but also the genetic identity of plant communities. We compared three different methods of seed harvesting from local meadow communities and assessed their efficiency in meadow restoration on ex-arable land. These methods were: brush harve...

Through litter decomposition enormous amount of carbon is emitted to the atmosphere. Numerous large-scale decomposition experiments have been conducted focusing on this fundamental soil process in order to understand the controls on the terrestrial carbon transfer to the atmosphere. However, previous studies were mostly based on site-specific litte...

Although research has demonstrated that spontaneous succession of vegetation can be useful for the restoration of post-mining sites, spontaneous succession has only rarely been taken advantage of because of its low predictability. Spontaneous succession is difficult to predict because it depends, especially in the first stages, on many stochastic p...

High mountains are some of the most vulnerable regions to climate change and therefore a matter of global concern. Here, the climatic growth factors of conifers and their course in time and space along an elevational gradient in the northwestern Himalayan part of India were studied. Increment cores of Juniperus semiglobosa and Cedrus deodara (xeric...

Upward migration of plants to barren subnival areas is occurring worldwide due to raising ambient temperatures and glacial recession. In summer 2012, the presence of six vascular plants, growing in a single patch, was recorded at an unprecedented elevation of 6150 m.a.s.l. close to the summit of Mount Shukule II in the Western Himalayas (Ladakh, In...

Rhinanthus minor L. is a root hemiparasite with known effects on community productivity and species composition. It is unclear, though, how these effects operate on functional trait composition and functional diversity. To fill this gap we established an experiment in a meadow community with a natural Rhinanthus population, where Rhinanthus presenc...

Vascular plants in the western Tibetan Plateau reach 6000 m-the highest elevation on Earth. Due to the significant warming of the region, plant ranges are expected to shift upwards. However, factors governing maximum elevational limits of plant are unclear. To experimentally assess these factors, we transplanted 12 species from 5750 m to 5900 m (up...

In coppice-with-standards, once a common type of management in Central European lowland forests, selected trees (standards) were left to grow mature among the regularly harvested coppice stools to obtain construction wood. After the underwood was harvested, the forest canopy opened rapidly, giving standard trees an opportunity to benefit from reduc...

Moderate (blue) or major releases (red columns) detected using the BL method displayed in 5-year intervals. Years of coppicing recorded in archives are marked by black arrows. The green line indicates sample depth. (TIF)

Site characteristics (XLSX)

Data used in the analysis. (XLSX)

Differences in competition of neighboring trees up to 10 m from the cored standards (ANOVA followed by Tukey HSD test). DWBA = distance-weighted basal area. Values in bold are significant at p < 0.05. (XLSX)

Summary of archival sources. (FM—forest map, FMP—forest management plan, FS—forest survey SOA—State Regional Archive, PLA—Protected Landscape Area) (XLSX)

It is predicted that rising temperatures and extreme summer droughts will adversely affect the growth of pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) and contribute to local population decline. Furthermore, such oaks may become prone to infestation with mistletoe (Loranthus europaeus) and competition from neighbouring trees. We tested these predictions in the w...

Efficient conservation management must be applied in protected areas in order to slow the loss of biodiversity in Europe. Regarding forests, a conservation approach based on minimal intervention prevails in most protected woodlands, thus facilitating the expansion of closed-canopy forests at the expense of open forests. To identify effective conser...

The analysis of anatomical variations within annual rings of trees and shrubs has great potential for reconstructing past environmental conditions. However, detailed wood anatomical analysis has rarely been applied to long-term reconstructions mostly because of methodological constraints and time-consuming procedures of data collection. We develope...

The environment of high-altitudinal cold deserts of Western Himalaya is characterized by extensive development of biological soil crusts, with cyanobacteria as dominant component. The knowledge of their taxonomic composition and dependency on soil chemistry and elevation is still fragmentary. We studied the abundance and the phylogenetic diversity...

Carbohydrate storage enables plants to both tolerate seasonally unfavourable conditions and recover from disturbance. Although short-term changes in storage levels due to disturbance are fairly well-known, less is known about long-term changes in storage levels, especially in response to cessation of repeated disturbance. Additionally, whereas it i...

Nest predation is assumed to be an important factor driving avian life histories. Altitudinal gradients offer valuable study systems to investigate how avian nest predation risk varies between bird populations. In this study, a hypothesis postulating an increase in avian nest survival rate with elevation as a result of decreasing predation pressure...

Plants respond to changes in biotic and abiotic conditions by altering the allocation of biomass to organs with different functions. The degree to which this response is limited by architectural constraints and follows the rules of the allocation theory has rarely been studied at the community level for several reasons: environmental factors affect...

Plants able to resprout from roots have a potential bud bank that gets initiated after injury to overcome meristem limitation after loss of all stem parts and to facilitate regeneration. Knautia arvensis is reportedly able to sprout from its roots on arable land, but information is missing regarding such ability in serpentine populations or how it...

Although bacterial assemblages are important components of soils in arid ecosystems, the knowledge about composition, life-strategies and environmental drivers is still fragmentary, especially in remote high-elevation mountains. We compared the quality and quantity of heterotrophic bacterial assemblages between the rhizosphere of the dominant cushi...

Semi-natural meadows host a great number of species coexisting at fine spatial scales. Different assembly mechanisms, related to differences in functional traits between species, can influence such coexistence. Coexisting species could be either functionally dissimilar to occupy different niches (‘divergence’) or functionally similar due to exclusi...

Background: Due to the dry continental climate, the mountains of eastern Ladakh are unglaciated up to 6200-6400 m, with relatively large areas of developed soils between 5600 and 6000 m covered by sparse subnival vegetation. However, there are no studies on the composition of plant assemblages from such extreme elevations, their microclimates, vert...

Understanding the processes regulating population temporal stability is important to infer species coexistence and ecosystem stability patterns. It has been hypothesized that population temporal stability could be driven by functional trade-offs in resource acquisition and growth rate strategies. We tested this hypothesis by analyzing a 13-year dat...

Aim To describe the main vegetation types of the K orean zonal forests and explore their relationship with the main environmental and geographic gradients. Location Korean Peninsula. Methods A data set of 3847 relevés of zonal (semi)natural forest stands, together with environmental factors recorded in the field or derived from interpolated clima...

In contrast to the many detailed studies on succession conducted at local scales, there is still a lack of studies on succession at broad geographical scales. In this paper the following questions are addressed: Which of the components of seral old-field vegetation are associated with environmental factors at a broad geographical scale? To what ext...

Background: The detailed knowledge of plant anatomical characters and their variation among closely related taxa is key to understanding their evolution and function. We examined anatomical variation in 46 herbaceous taxa from the subfamily Campanuloideae (Campanulaceae) to link this information with their phylogeny, ecology and comparative materi...

Phenotypes of plants, and thus their ecology and evolution, can be affected by the environmental conditions experienced by their parents, a phenomenon called parental effects or transgenerational plasticity. However, whether such effects are just passive responses or represent a special type of adaptive plasticity remains controversial because of a...

Methanogens typically occur in reduced anoxic environments. However, in recent studies it has been shown that many aerated upland soils, including desert soils also host active methanogens. Here we show that soil samples from high-altitude cold deserts in the western Himalayas (Ladakh, India) produce CH4 after incubation as slurry under anoxic cond...

QuestionsWhat are the factors limiting the establishment of hemiparasitic Rhinanthus spp., ecosystem engineers promoting diversity and stability of communities, in restoration of species-rich meadows? How can these constraints be overcome? LocationCzech Republic, Central Europe. Methods Sowing of Rhinanthus seeds in grasslands of different history,...

The species richness of grasslands cannot be generally fully restored after changes in management and some species having small statures and basal leaf rosettes could be lost forever. The same species, however, seem to possess the traits necessary for successful re-colonization i.e. they produce small, easily dispersible seeds, numerous seedlings a...

Questions: To what extent do changes in management (abandonment and fertilization) affect plant functional and taxonomic diversity in wet meadow communities? To what extent do the changes in functional and taxonomic diversity depend on site productivity? Location: Zelezne hory Mts., Czech Republic. Methods: Experimental plots were established on...

Plants in arctic and alpine habitats could potentially escape the effects of climatic fluctuations by surviving in suitable microsites. We tested this hypothesis by conducting a herb-chronological analysis of the morphological growth markers retained on the rhizomes of the clonal herb Rumex alpinus—a common plant with a broad ecological amplitude f...

The well-developed biological soil crusts cover up to 40% of the soil surface in the alpine and subnival zones of the Tibetan Plateau, accounting for a vast area of Asia. We investigated the diversity and biomass of the phototrophic part (Cyanobacteria) of the microbial community inhabiting biological soil crusts and uncrusted soils in their surrou...

(1) How do various mowing regimes used for the preservation of diverse meadow biota affect the occurrence of plant seedlings? (2) Does the effect of mowing regime on seedlings differ among vegetation types? (3) Are the seedlings occurring under a particular management type characterized by distinct functional traits? (4) Do the traits of seedlings...

Changes in plant species richness across environmental and temporal gradients have often been explained by the intermediate disturbance hypothesis and a unimodal diversity–productivity relationship. We tested these predictions using two sets of mountain plant communities assembled along postglacial successional and snow depth (disturbance and stres...

Nonstructural carbohydrates (NSC) are frequently studied both by ecologists and plant physiologists because they serve as fundamental carbon and energy sources in plant metabolism. Because of the rapid enzymatic hydrolysis of NSC after harvest, plants are usually placed into liquid nitrogen until subsequent analyses in the laboratory. Nevertheless,...

Coppicing was one of the most important forest management systems in Europe documented in prehistory as well as in the Middle Ages. However, coppicing was gradually abandoned by the mid-20(th) century, which has altered the ecosystem structure, diversity and function of coppice woods. Our aim was to disentangle factors shaping the historical growth...

Tree-ring data sources used in the development of boundary-line and absolute increase threshold (ITRDB = International Tree Ring Database). (DOCX)

The globally observed trend of changing intensity of tropical cyclones over the past few decades emphasizes the need for a better understanding of the effects of such disturbance events in natural and inhabited areas. On the Korean Peninsula, typhoon intensity has increased over the past 100 years as evidenced by instrumental data recorded from 190...

Mountainous areas of the Korean Peninsula are among the biodiversity hotspots of the world's temperate forests. Understanding patterns in spatial distribution of their species richness requires explicit consideration of different environmental drivers and their effects on functionally differing components. In this study, we assess the impact of bot...

Many cushion plants ameliorate the harsh environment they inhabit in alpine ecosystems and act as nurse plants, with significantly more species growing within their canopy than outside. These facilitative interactions seem to increase with the abiotic stress, thus supporting the stress-gradient hypothesis. We tested this prediction by exploring the...

Test of species-area relationships. Explained variability (adjusted R2) from the regressions of log (number of species) (inside and outside cushion) on log (sample area) (i.e. cushion size) in eight elevational sites in Nubra (4850–5250 m) and Tso Moriri (5350–5850 m), with corresponding Type I error estimate (n.s. nonsignificant, a P<0.1, *P<0.05,...

Intensity of interactions between T. caespitosum and other species. Calculated using the relative interaction index, competition is represented by negative values and facilitation by positive values. Error bars represent standard errors. (TIF)

PERMANOVA results. Permutational multivariate analysis of variance testing for the differences in species composition between the cushion habitat and open areas. (DOC)

The ability to grow clonally is generally considered important for plants in Arctic regions but analyses of clonal characteristics are lacking for entire plant communities. To fill this gap, we assessed the clonal growth of 78 plant species in the Petuniabukta region, central Spitsbergen (Svalbard), and analyzed the clonal and other life-history tr...

Community-level studies have shown that plant–pollinator interactions are much more generalized than previously expected. Consequently, many authors have questioned the significance of phenotypic complementarity between plants and pollinators and abundance effects in pollination interactions. Here, we compare the behaviour of three sunbird species...

Species-area curves are often employed to identify factors affecting biodiversity patterns. The aim of this study was to determine how model choice affects biological interpretation of SAC parameters at a small scale in wet, temperate meadows (Z ˇ elezne´ hory Mts, Czech Republic). We estimated 88 speciesarea curves in nested plots on areas ranging...

Community-level studies have shown that plantpollinator interactions are much more generalized than previously expected. Consequently, many authors have questioned the significance of phenotypic complementarity between plants and pollinators and abundance effects in pollination interactions. Here, we compare the behaviour of three sunbird species f...

Question: Trait scaling relationships involve multiple trade-offs and allometric constraints between the traits of co-existing species. Alternative trait relationships, particularly between plant size and other traits, are expected in response to combinations of different biotic and abiotic filters. To what extent does the expected convergence in p...

QuestionTrait scaling relationships involve multiple trade‐offs and allometric constraints between the traits of co‐existing species. Alternative trait relationships, particularly between plant size and other traits, are expected in response to combinations of different biotic and abiotic filters. To what extent does the expected convergence in pla...

Accelerating rate of species loss has prompted researchers to study the role of species diversity in processes that control ecosystem functioning. Although negative impact of species loss has been documented, the evidence concerning its impact on ecosystem stability is still limited. Here, we studied the effects of declining species and functional...

Alpine plants growing along altitudinal gradients have been traditionally considered to have reduced flowering and growth and enhanced clonality toward higher altitudes. This pattern, however, has seldom been studied for multiple characteristics in one plant species and over several years, and thus its generality is uncertain. In the present study,...

Low temperature is considered the main limiting factor for plant growth and nutrient supply at high elevations. It has been repeatedly reported that an increase in foliar nutrient contents occurs with elevation which is interpreted as the plants' inability to use the absorbed resources for growth. However, although large data sets from various moun...

Community-level studies have shown that plant–pollinator interactions are much more generalized than previously expected. Consequently, many authors have questioned the significance of phenotypic complementarity between plants and pollinators and abundance effects in pollination interactions. Here, we compare the behaviour of three sunbird species...

Oligotrophic mountain meadows are threatened biodiversity hotspots throughout Europe. The traditional summer hay-making followed by autumn grazing is no longer economic and question is whether alternative managements can maintain both plant species and functional diversity typical of these habitats. In the Bohemian Forest Mts., we applied three tre...

In stressful environments, clonality provides plants with reproductive insurance and conservation of limiting nutrients. Hence, clonal growth is expected to be more frequent in floras of cold environments, such as the alpine and arctic regions, than in temperate regions. Evidence for this is largely based on comparisons of the ratio of clonal to no...

An important issue in plant ecology is the extent to which functional traits that explain patterns at one organizational level serve as explanatory variables at higher levels, while a related subject is the universality of relationships between traits and responses to environmental variables even at a given level. We addressed both questions experi...

Cushion plants are commonly considered as keystone nurse species that ameliorate the harsh conditions they inhabit in alpine ecosystems, thus facilitating other species and increasing alpine plant biodiversity. A literature search resulted in 25 key studies showing overwhelming facilitative effects of different cushion plants and hypothesizing grea...

To what extent does plant clonality contribute to the assemblage of species in communities? Two apparently contrasting, and largely untested, hypotheses envisage the potential role of plant clonal traits in community assembly: (i) environmental filters constrain coexisting species to have functionally similar traits (i.e. trait convergence); (ii) n...

The role of clonal traits in a plant's response to changes in management of semi-natural grasslands is poorly known and the few studies examining their importance have yielded contradictory results. For a better understanding of the role of plant functional traits in determining competitive ability and clonal growth in response to early changes in...

Th e rate of lateral spread of clonal plants is considered a plastic trait that responds directly to environmental conditions. However, this response is likely constrained by evolutionary history and other species attributes. Here we ask how the relationships between lateral spread and the distribution of herbaceous plant species in diff erent envi...

Although phototrophic microbial communities are important components of soils in arid and semi-arid ecosystems around the world, the knowledge of their taxonomic composition and dependency on soil chemistry and vegetation is still fragmentary. We studied the abundance and the diversity of cyanobacteria and eukaryotic microalgae along altitudinal gr...

Traits related to seed dispersal, clonality and bud bank affect the success or failure of plant species. Using data from 13 successional seres in various human-made habitats the spectra of traits associated with dispersal and persistence were compared to determine the traits that can be used to predict the occurrence of particular plant species at...

Earlier observations that plant clonality, i.e., production of potentially independent offspring by vegetative growth, increase in importance in cold climates such as in arctic and alpine regions, have been recently questioned. However, lack of data obtained using a comparable methodology throughout different regions limit such comparisons. Here we...

Ecological communities and their response to environmental gradients are increasingly being described by various measures of trait composition. Aggregated trait averages (i.e. averages of trait values of constituent species, weighted by species proportions) are popular indices reflecting the functional characteristics of locally dominant species. B...

We studied the effect of cessation of management on carbohydrate reserves of plants in meadows with different environmental characteristics and plant composition. We recorded storage carbohydrates and seasonal changes for 40 plant species. We asked whether there are differences in responses of carbohydrate reserves in forbs versus graminoids and in...

1. Understanding the processes by which species sort themselves into communities remains a central puzzle for attempts to maintain biodiversity. It remains unclear whether any single assembly process is generally dominant or whether the influence of contrasting processes varies in a predictable way relative to biotic and abiotic gradients. Abundanc...

Question: The vegetation of high mountain regions in Himalaya remains poorly assessed despite the expected vulnerability of these ecosystems to global change drivers. What are the main vegetation types in East Ladakh and which environmental factors influence the species composition and growth forms distribution?Location: The south-westernmost exten...

† Background Cushion plants are commonly considered as keystone nurse species that ameliorate the harsh conditions they inhabit in alpine ecosystems, thus facilitating other species and increasing alpine plant biodiversity. A literature search resulted in 25 key studies showing overwhelming facilitative effects of different cushion plants and hypot...

Aim. To present a rare case report about 33-years-old woman with the positive history malignant melanoma and the unusual pathological uptake of 67Ga-citrate in temporal bone (os petrosum) fibrous dysplasia during restaging 67Ga-citrate whole body scintigraphy and head SPECT. Material and method. 33-years-old woman with a past history of excision of...

Mowing a meadow is an example of an equalizing process that reduces differences among species by removing aboveground biomass approximately 5cm above ground. This regular disturbance that affects all plants prevents competitive exclusion of small species and thus allows coexistence of numerous species differing in shoot size. In this paper we searc...

Transplant experiments are a useful tool both for determining species’ ranges and understanding their cause, yet such experiments have seldom been performed in areas where plants reach extremely high elevations. We examined the position of the upper elevational limits of vascular plants in E Ladakh, India, by transplanting individuals of 14 subniva...

Plant species create aggregations of conspecifics as a consequence of limited seed dispersal, clonal growth and heterogeneous environment. Such intraspecific aggregation increases the importance of intraspecific competition relative to interspecific competition which may slow down competitive exclusion and promote species coexistence. To examine ho...

Question: Does transplantation of small blocks of turfs contribute to restoration of species-rich meadows on fallow land? What is the role of vegetative spread and seedling establishment of meadow plants in the neighbourhood of the transplanted turfs? Location: Bílé Karpaty Mountains, SE Czech Republic. Methods: Twenty-five meadow blocks, 0.4 m × 0...

Pedunculate (Quercus robur) and sessile (Quercus petraea) oak, dominant species in European hardwood forests, are declining in many regions throughout Europe and extreme climatic events (summer drought, winter frost) are considered to be key factors contributing to this decline via a negative effect on wood formation. An extensive sampling of scatt...

A dense bamboo undergowth and thick layer of its slowely decaying litter belong to the main factors inhibiting the establishment of woody species in forest stands of northern Japan. The successful regeneration often hinges on bamboo dieback after mass flowering or small-scale disturbances that remove the understory cover and create open sites suita...

A 3-year experiment was conducted in Central Europe to examine the effects of three managements, viz. continuous cattle grazing from April to September, mowing once in July and abandonment of grazing, and two levels of fertilizer application, no fertilizer and 400 kg ha−1 of a NPK fertilizer, on changes in plant species composition and summer bioma...

The aim of this study is to assess the effect of different management practices on mountain meadow plant biomass, species richness and diversity. The experiment was carried out in the Bohemian Forest Mts. at the altitude of 1150–1170m for 10 years. We applied three treatments (mowing, mulching – i.e., cutting and crushing of the sward into small pi...

The shrub Buxus sempervirens and the trees Abies alba and Fagus sylvatica have recently recolonized old-pastures in the Central Pyrenees. We mapped all live and dead individuals (> 1.3 m tall) in a large forest plot in Ordesa Valley to examine the importance of density-dependent processes during recolonization. Biotic interactions were inferred fro...

Post-fire seedling establishment in relation to microsite conditions and relationships of seedlings (saplings) to older tree individuals was studied in two treatments (i.e., burned and unburned sites) in an area known as the pitch pine (Pinus rigida) ridge on Hill Island, St. Lawrence Islands National Park, Eastern Ontario. Pinus rigida is a rare t...

Aim and Background. To present four cases of false positive uptake of 99mTc-pertechnetate during Meckel's diverticulum scintigraphy in patients with lower gastrointestinal bleeding. Gastric mucosa may be presented in Meckel's diverticulum and associated with peptic ulcer disease and lower gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding. 99mTc - pertechnetate scinti...