Specialist

My research topic is the impact of landscape changes on biodiversity, plant reproductive traits, and what are the effects of these changes on genetic diversity. I focus more on heterostyly – a genetically controlled floral polymorphism. In my doctoral thesis, I study Primula veris populations on western Estonian calcareous grasslands to find out how heterostylous species respond to habitat fragmentation and which evolutionary consequences this may have. I was also involved in the organization of the citizen science campaign “Eesti otsib nurmenukke” / “Looking for cowslips”. With the data collected from the campaign, I will study the patterns of heterostyly in cowslip populations in Estonia as well as across Europe to assess the effect of landscape changes on this interesting reproductive trait.  

In May 2025 I defended my PhD thesis (supervised by Tsipe Aavik). 

• Gibson, K., Suškevičs, M., Prūse, B., Barberis, M., Cousins, S. A., Fišer, Ž., ... Kivastik, M., ... Reinula, I., ... & Aavik, T. (2026). Engaging the public in plant science: Communication facilitators and barriers of scaling up a citizen science campaign. People and Nature. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.70248
• Kivastik, M., Castro, S., Conti, E., Jacquemyn, H., Keller, B., Lengyel, A., ... Reinula, I., ... & Aavik, T. (2025). Heterostylous plants in an era of global change: a review on the consequences of habitat loss and fragmentation. AoB Plants, plaf016. https://doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plaf016
• Aavik, T., Reitalu, T., Kivastik, M., Reinula, I., Träger, S., Uuemaa, E., Barberis, M., Biere, A., Castro, S., Cousins, S. A. O., Csecserits, A., Dariotis, E., Fišer, Ž., Grzejszczak, G., Huu, C. N., Hool, K., Jacquemyn, H., Julien, M., Klisz, M., … Zobel, M. (2025). A pan-European citizen science study shows population size, climate and landuse are related to biased morph ratios in the heterostylous plant Primula veris. Journal of Ecology, 00, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.14477