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Many native species of Czech flowering plants decline, while thermophilous and non-native species spread
A team of botanists has revealed significant changes in the distribution of species in the Czech flora. Their study, published in the international scientific journal Biological Conservation, analyzed the decline and increase of individual plant species in the Czech Republic since 1960.
In recent decades, natural ecosystems have been increasingly affected by global changes, mainly driven by human impact. Several factors with different importance over time have contributed to the changes in the Czech flora. This insight comes from a study conducted at the Faculty of Science of Masaryk University in collaboration with the Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Charles University, and the University of Vienna.
During the study period, the most significant decline occurred in species typical of nutrient-poor habitats such as peat bogs, open forests, dry grasslands, and less productive pastures. These often include species that require regular grazing or mowing, which is related to the cessation of traditional management. ‘The results also confirm the decline of species listed in the national Red List of vascular plants,’ summarizes botanist Klára Klinkovská from the Department of Botany and Zoology at Masaryk University
Over the past 60 years, there have also been various reasons for the spread of certain species in our country. In the last two decades, thermophilous plants and non-native species from warmer regions have begun to spread, which may be a consequence of climate change. In the 1960s and 1970s, the changes in flora were most influenced by disturbances caused by human activities and the increase in nitrogen and phosphorus content in the soil. Between 1981 and 2000, the effect of natural succession and increasing canopy density in forests after the cessation of traditional land management became evident.
To assess the changes, scientists used data from the Pladias Database of the Czech Flora and Vegetation, which contains over 15 million records of native and naturalized plant occurrences over more than 200 years. Pladias is a unique source of information about plant distribution in both space and time.
Currently, botanists in Brno are extending their research on changes in flora and vegetation to the European scale. Over the past three years, they have collected data from repeated sampling of plant communities in the ReSurveyEurope database. This international database will allow scientists to thoroughly assess changes in flora across all of Europe.
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