Humans as nature: anthropogenic legacy in temperate forest ecosystems
Funding:
- Czech Science Foundation
Principal investigator:
Time-frame:
- 2017–2019
Project description:
The vegetation of temperate forests is a sensitive indicator of global changes in biodiversity. The goal of the project is to quantify the effects of historical management on long-term biodiversity changes in Central European temperate forests. Management history is rarely analyzed in this context, because quality data in larger amounts are not available. The project will be based on a unique connection between a database of repeated vegetation surveys and a database of historical management. The project will also examine atmospheric deposition, climate change and substrate characteristics. Special attention will be paid to the historical effects of game. Relationships between anthropogenic and natural factors will be analyzed through advanced statistical methods. Results will be independently evaluated with the help of species functional traits. The resulting models will facilitate not only a better understanding of anthropogenic legacy in forest vegetation biodiversity but will also help predict future trends.