Plant ecology
Plant ecology workgroup aims its forces in studying arctic plants, their ecology and physiology. We focus on the following topics:
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We investigate the vegetation in the central part of Svalbard and the main focus is on plant interactions, ecosystem services and a response to global changes at both species and ecosystem levels (e.g. through microclimate manipulation using OTCs).
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We monitor effects of herbivores on vegetation.
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Continuously we gather data to form a vegetation map of Billefjorden. Simultaneously, we collect plant functional traits to create a database of traits of Svalbard plants.
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We established several long-term manipulative experiments to study succession on glacier foreland, and effects of climate on plant communities. As a main method we use measurements of plant functional traits with a stress on ecophysiological traits. We are open also for foreign students.
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These topics together with functional traits of soil fauna and soil microorganisms form also a part of our ongoing project (GACR 7-20839S: Linking functional traits of three organism levels as driving mechanisms of ecosystem functionsin the Arctic)
