Functional ecology of vegetative & generative Reproduction in Central European plant species (since 2008)

Long-term survival of plants in fragmented populations largely depends on their ability to persist in suitable patches by vegetative regeneration and clonal growth, and their ability to colonise spatially isolated patches by means of long distance dispersal of diaspores. While persistence within a patch depends e.g. on disturbance regimes in the habitats, dispersal between habitats is closely related to habitat fragmentation, which is a natural characteristic of some ecosystems and a detrimental consequence of changes in land use in others. In this project we focus on the following questions:

1. How do regenerative strategies of plants differ within and between plant communities?
2. How does plant vegetative strategies affect plant occurrence in disturbed and fragmented habitats?

1. How do habitat fragmentation and disturbance regime affect plant regenerative strategies?
2. Are there trade-offs between generative and vegetative regeneration in relation to disturbance regime?

Questions like these were so far only rarely tested for whole plant community or taxonomical group, as scholars usually specialize on either persistence traits or on traits connected with spreading by propagules (but see Maurer et al. 2003; Arnan et al. 2007). Cooperation of scholars specialized on particular problems would contribute to our understanding of plant strategies in fragmented landscape of Central Europe and would help us to improve predictions needed for conservation of biodiversity.