You can now read a new article in @newphyt.bsky.social co-authored by members of our group: nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/.../10.1111/... We disentangled the determinants of stability in 40 winter annual communities comprising a gradient of four climates in a dryland biodiversity hotspot in Israel.

While most species retain the same habitat preferences throughout life, some shift during ontogeny. Yearly recruits also exhibit strong interannual variation.

As part of our final fieldwork campaign of the year in the multisite experiment, we had a great opportunity to welcome Gloria (PhD student of Francesco de Bello), who visited our experimental sites with a hyperspectral camera and collected images of the plots.

The study lead by Takehiro Sasaki and published in Nature Ecology and Evolution synthesize data from 75 biodiversity experiments (of classical synthetic design) across grasslands and forests worldwide. From our group, the Benesov experiment is included. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The localities in Prachatice region are manipulative plots of @terezasvancarova.bsky.social experiment. The generative and vegetative height and leaf length of each individual were measured in the field. After weighing and drying, the samples are now awaiting further processing.

Last week, we did relevés at the multi-site manipulative experiment in the Prachatice region. The plots are located at 16 localities with similar species pools, and there are three treatments: removing the dominant and keeping one or two dominant species. @terezasvancarova.bsky.social

Looking back at articles from this year, part two: Realistic species loss has little effect on local resource depletion and competitive pressure in a temperate wet meadow in the Journal of Ecology by Eva Janíková et al.: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Last week we finished the last sorting of biomass from the Ohrazení experiments. This time, we sorted biomass from the removal experiment of Helča, which focused on minimising and maximising asymmetry in the competition for light.

A new study in Global Ecology and Conservation led by @amiravoros.bsky.social: Plant biomass allocation in a semiarid sand grassland🌧️🔆 🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2026.e04160

@terezasvancarova.bsky.social presented the relationship between plant diversity and grassland productivity across multiple sites with the same species pool. Productivity was estimated using remote sensing, and the study examined how the diversity–productivity relationship varies with plot size.

Eva‘s poster was focused on decomposition in long-term realistic species-loss experiment. It was driven by the nutrients of the remaining dominant species rather than species richness. Nutrient cycling in grasslands may remain relatively stable if dominants are maintained.

We had two posters at #IAVS2026. Helča presented first results of removal experiment minimising and maximising asymmetry in competition for light. Although removal plots initially had lower species richness, effective species richness remained high, indicating higher evenness.

Looking back at articles from this year, part one: Macek et al. in PPEES: Bidirectional competitive effects of closely related plant species with a dominant species. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Aleš showed at #IAVS2026 that the loss of plant species from a community affects biomass stability through three main mechanisms: dominance, species asynchrony, and the averaging effect of diversity. Just three species stabilised the community as effectively as 30, but via different mechanisms.

Processing of Ohrazení biomass is at its peak. Šuspa's plots were completed last week, Aleš's plots are now being sorted. While Šuspa's experiment focuses on removal of the dominant species, Aleš simulates natural species loss by removing rare species to maintain five diversity levels.

Lucka defended her bachelor’s thesis. She monitored myrmecochorous plants and their mutualistic ant partners across multiple grassland habitats. She found a positive relationship in diversity, but not in abundance. However, their ecological demands do not closely match.

Helča is investigating how vertical and horizontal structure can be quantified along a productivity gradient in grasslands. She is comparing a range of structural metrics, including fine-scale spatial patterns of species distribution, species height, light interception, and biomass distribution.

Šuspa's cacophonic orchestra (Šukas) has 30th anniversary this year! We celebrated it with a concert.

Šuspa gave a lecture on Monday at the Secondary Business School at Husova street on the topic of Papua New Guinea - nature, people, our research and our students.

A new study led by Mercedes Valerio titled Twenty-year effect of sewage-sludge fertilization in a Mediterranean grassland: Impact on species composition, functional groups and interrelation with climate is now published in in PPEES. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Photo by Vojtěch Zeisek

A conference of the Czech Botanical Society focused on Czech research abroad was held over the weekend. Šuspa and Lucka gave nice talks about their research in Papua New Guinea. Šuspa was elected an honorary member of the society. Congratulation!

Last week, we established a new seed addition experiment in the Prachatice region. We have two pairs of historically disturbed and undisturbed sites. We will observe the survival of the sown resident species in the gaps and vegetation.

In Papua New Guinea, we have focused on maintaining our permanent seedling plots and celebrated their 10th anniversary with another seedling survey and a new round of canopy photos taken above them. We were happy to welcome the first-ever female assistant, Lena, to our team!

We sampled litter for decomposition experiment at disturbed and undisturbed localities with communities with different litter decomposability in the České Budějovice and Prachatice region. Also, Reynoutria japonica will serve as easily decomposable and Calamagrostis epigejos as recalcitrant litter.

Eva conducted this year's last seedling census in the Prachatice multi-condition experiment. The survival experiment is conducted in both vegetation and competition-free gaps. The species do not perform well in competition, and the best performing species is Plantago lanceolata.

Yann Hautier from Utrecht University was visiting our working group. He gave a talk at the Ecology Seminar entitled Biodiversity and temporal stability of naturally assembled ecosystems across spatial scales. We had nice discussions about his projects, but also ours.

A new publication led by Ondra, now published in @jvegsci.bsky.social is the result of fieldwork by almost our entire working group. We examined the intraspecific trait variability of 15 Carex species across South Bohemia. You can find the article here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

Faculty of Science, USB, České Budějovice, Czechia offers a two-year research-oriented Master's study in Ecology. prf.jcu.cz/ecology Application deadline: 31 October 2025. Tuition fee: EU citizens: 500 CZK per year (≈ 20 EUR) Non-EU: 12000 CZK per year (≈ 480 EUR)