Centre for Biodiversity
The Biodiversity Research Centre of the Institute of Botany belongs to the Network of Excellence consisting of eight institutions in the Czech Republic. One of the key research topics of the centre studied at the Institute of Botany is testing the hypotheses on plant diversity, population and community structures with focus on dynamic aspects of plant invasions. The research centre is focused on:
Taxonomical revision of plant names in distribution databases
Sharing and accessibility of data on distribution and biological traits of selected groups and organisms
Main aim is to standardize access to various data sources on plants followed by the multidisciplinary data analysis. The main stress is put on the database of records of vascular plants in the Czech Republic, the clonal plant database (CLO-PLA), the set of records of non-native plants and the database covering basic biological species traits.
Patterns of plants invasions
Research is aimed at case studies of individual species as well as at synthesis of available knowledge on biological invasions and naturalization processes. Attention is paid to several aspects covering wide range of questions from invasion dynamics, the role of species traits to habitat invasibility. Large scale and multidisciplinary approaches are used in participation within EU FP projects (Biostrat, ALARM) in order to analyse the risks and threats to biodiversity and to develop scientific background for national and European policy bodies and strategic documents to halt biodiversity loss.
