The Laboratory of Plants Ecological Physiology is engaged in a study of plant physiological processes in the scale from enzyme activity and processes on the level of individual plant organs (roots, stem, leaves), up to a measurement of total energy and substances fluxes between the ecosystem and the atmosphere. These processes are studied with the aim to describe the production under the conditions of changing environment.
An increase of atmospheric CO2 concentration in last decades, caused by human activities, resulted in an enhancement of the greenhouse effect. Therefore the following questions have appeared: Will the green plants be able to act as a sufficient carbon pump? Will they be able to assimilate all the extra atmospheric carbon into their biomass? Will they be thus able to decrease the risk of the global climate change?
The aims of our Lab are to evaluate the capacity of different ecosystem types for the carbon storage and to propose the suitable management practices leading to an increase of carbon pools. We are studying the plant response under the condition of both present and future atmospheric composition. We are using a special experimental device, i.e. glass domes, at our Experimental research site Bílý Kříž(Moravian-Silesian Beskydy Mts.) where we plant trees under the impact of doubled CO2 concentration. Bílý Kříž belongs to the international programs and networks (CarboEurope, CARBOMONT, MERCI) of study sites monitoring CO2 fluxes.