Project title: Forest eutrophication and diversity loss: Revealing the hidden interplay between plants and litter
Registration number: 26-22812S
Provider: Czech Science Foundation (GAČR)
Programme: Standard
Project coordinator: Czech University of Life Sciences Prague
CZU Principal investigator: Ing. Jana Doudová, Ph.D.
Project manager: Michaela Rösslová
Project schedule: 01/2026 – 12/2028
Total project budget: CZK 10,990,000
Abstract:
The project aims to elucidate the mechanisms driving vegetation ruderalization and the decline of plant diversity in temperate deciduous forests of Central Europe. The relative importance of factors contributing to eutrophication remains unclear, mainly due to the complex interplay of atmospheric pollution, succession following the abandonment of traditional management practices, and interactions with local site conditions (nutrient availability determined by geological substrate and by the quality and quantity of tree litter).
The central question of the project concerns the role of litter and its influence on the spread of expansive species and the subsequent loss of diversity. The project combines a range of approaches, from broad-scale descriptive analyses to the use of fifteen-year time series from manipulative litter-removal experiments, which are rare in Central Europe. The collaboration involves colleagues from the Technical University in Zvolen, who have been conducting similar long-term experiments.