I examine the impact of habitat loss and fragmentation on plant diversity in its various forms, from genetic to species diversity as well as plants' interactions with pollinators, with an aim to integrate this knowledge in nature conservation. Pollinating insects play a significant role in the short- and long-term wellbeing of flowering plants. Hence, my scientific interest has broadened towards understanding various ecological and evolutionary aspects of plant-pollinator interactions. To explore these topics, I have used various research approaches, ranging from conducting classical vegetation surveys to applying genetic tools and citizen science. My research interests encompass the following closely intertwined subjects:
- Biodiversity patterns and ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. My research path began with studying the impact of agricultural land use intensity and landscape structure on plant species diversity and composition of small-scale natural and semi-natural landscape elements found in agricultural landscapes. Together with European colleagues, we demonstrated that these land use factors also affect biodiversity-related ecosystem services, such as biocontrol.
- Plant dispersal in changing landscapes. During the studies of plant diversity patterns, I became interested in the ecological processes and mechanisms underlying these patterns. Learning and applying landscape genetics methods provided the opportunity to investigate how landscape characteristics influences gene flow between fragmented plant populations. Landscape genetic approaches have also helped understand how habitat restoration, i.e., de-fragmentation, affects gene flow, genetic diversity, and fitness of native and restored plant populations.
- Adaptability of fragmented plant populations. With significant advances in landscape genetics methods, my interest encompasses understanding the impact of habitat fragmentation on the adaptive genetic diversity of plant populations. Using plant populations from calcareous grasslands as an example, we investigate whether the reduction in the area of these habitats has led to changes in the adaptive genetic diversity of plant populations, and how this process may, in turn, affect the ability of populations to adapt to changing environmental conditions.
- Plant-pollinator interactions. As plants lack the ability to actively move across and perceive landscapes, they depend on other, more mobile organisms for seed and pollen dispersal, be it animals that disperse seeds or insects that act as pollen vectors. For gene dispersal through pollination to be as effective as possible, flowering plants have evolved fascinating adaptations, including floral polymorphisms, which we are also studying in our research group. We aim to understand what happens to the genetic diversity and fitness of plant populations, as well as pollination-related reproductive traits, in situations where the diversity and abundance of pollinating insects are declining. At broader scale, we are also interested whether and how the structure and diversity of plant-pollinator interaction networks shift in response to landscape changes.
