News

Research of the role of trees in hillslope processes and soil evolution. Read here.

The 4th tree census (1975, 1995, 2011, 2024) in Zakova hora Natural Forest (17,44 ha) was accomplished. Both alive and dead stems with diameter of 100mm+ have been revisited.

We finished 4th tree census (1975, 1997, 2008, 2022) in Zofin Primeval Forest (74,20 ha) on late spring. Both alive and dead stems with diameter of 100mm+ have been revisited.  Also 3rd tree census (2012, 2017, 2022) on ForestGEO Zofin Dynamics Plot we did within this campaing. All stems with diameter of 10mm+ are under registration.

Having had successful PhD thesis defense Spatio-temporal patterns of woody regeneration in natural temperate forests, Jan Holík finished his doctoral studies in the field of Forest Ecology at Mendel University in Brno. Congratulations!

Soil age and denudation rates were studied in extremely species-rich steppe ecosystems, Romania. The soils started to form prior to the Last Glacial Maximum. The average, long-term erosion rates varied between 0.18 and 0.63 t ha-1 yr-1. During the last few decades, the erosion rates increased by a factor of 5–10. Large differences are caused by changes in human management of the soils. The biodiversity-rich forest-steppe landscapes are now under threat.

Tomáš Přívětivý has its contribution in Science Magazine. Congratulations!

New reserearch plot Doutnac was established at the area of 5,00 ha inside the unmanaged forest (est. 2005). Now we made the first dendrometry census here to fill forest types spectrum of detailed research.

The Blue Cat Team member Pavel Daněk defended his PhD thesis Tree-soil interactions in natural temperate forests in space and time at Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Sciences, Masaryk University Pavel succesfully finished his doctoral studies this day. Congratulations!

We are developing repeated detailed measurements in Praděd National Nature Reserve at permanent reasearch plots Eustaška (4.5 ha, 4th census), Bílá Opava (3.0 ha, 3rd census). All trees with 10mm of diameter in breast height have been registered.

Check a recent Blue Cats' contribution (DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwaa244) to National Science Review Oxford Academic (Oxford University Press) on how the predictions of tree survival and growth can be substantially improved once we take into account higher-order interactions among trees.