European hotspots of local plant community species richness: origin and current changes

The project, entitled “European hotspots of local plant community species richness: origin and current changes,” is led by Milan Chytrý at Masaryk University. It is funded by the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) under the number GA25-15235S.

The aims of this project are to explain the unique phenomenon of extremely species-rich plant communities in Europe. It will conduct a baseline survey of these communities in Europe, investigate the mechanisms of their origin, and analyse their current changes and key threats to their biodiversity.

My role

My contribution to this project includes fieldwork focusing on species-rich communities across Europe, till now in Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. I prepared a publication focusing on patterns of species richness in forests of Montenegro, the western Balkan diversity hotspot. Moreover, I analysed patterns of species diversity along a latitudinal gradient across the West Siberian Plain and north Kazakhstan, aiming to understand the drivers of species diversity patterns. The manuscript based on these results has been recently submitted to a scientific journal.

Friesová, K., Pustková, Š., Hubatka, P., Janišová, N., Nejeschlebová, K., Rohel, J., Sobotka, V., Šmerdová, E., Večeřa, M., Kadaš, D., Kopčan, B., Krejčová, M., Kučerová, A., Axmanová, I., Dřevojan, P., Janišová, M., Nikolei, R., Szokala, D., Stanišić-Vujačić, M., Stešević, D., Danihelka, J. & Chytrý, M. (2026). Forest herb-layer species richness in the western Balkan diversity hotspot. Journal of Vegetation Science 37: e70167. – Data and code: