Functional Ecosystems

• Pollinator research focuses on solitary bees and bumblebees. These species contribute significantly to fruit production and reduce the risks resulting from dependence on the honeybee as the main pollinator.

• However, the actual exposure of wild bees to pesticide residues in their diet and the impacts on their health are currently not sufficiently known.
• In contrast to the honeybee, wild bee species are more dependent on local food sources due to their limited effective foraging range (with solitary bees only a few hundred meters from the nest) and nesting for a limited period of several weeks.

In cooperation with partner institutions, within the framework of the projects we are working on, we focus on:

1. monitoring the diversity of bees depending on the intensity of agricultural management
2. detecting the amount of pesticides in the food stores of solitary bees and bumblebees
3. testing the impacts of real exposure to pesticides on the health and development of solitary bee larvae
4. using solitary bee (mason bee) species for pollination in orchards
5. describing the causes of the disappearance of rare bumblebee species and on their breeding and reintroduction into the wild
6. proposing measures to support solitary bees and bumblebees in the landscape.

• Watercourses are dynamic ecosystems that shape the landscape while simultaneously providing a wide range of benefits to society. Their functioning is driven by hydrological and morphological processes and by close interactions between the channel, the floodplain and the surrounding landscape.

• In the past, however, many watercourses were significantly modified. Alterations to channel morphology, disruption of longitudinal and lateral continuity, and changes in the hydrological regime have limited their natural development, simplified the structure of channels and floodplains, and weakened their ecological functions. These changes have also been reflected in the extent and quality of the ecosystem services provided by watercourses.

• Sustainable management of watercourses therefore requires an understanding of the processes taking place within them and a systematic assessment of their condition. We focus on evaluating the hydromorphological characteristics of watercourses and on the analysis of ecosystem services.
• The aim of our work is to contribute to improve understanding of watercourse functioning and to support decision-making that respects both natural processes and societal needs.

• The Czech landscape represents a complex mosaic whose functioning depends on a delicate balance between natural processes and anthropogenic activities.

• This balance has long been disrupted by intensive land use, landscape fragmentation, and the impacts of climate change. The result is a reduced capacity of the landscape to retain water and cope with hydrological extremes, to resist soil erosion, and to support rich communities of organisms across diverse habitats.

• In order to address these challenges, we have applied advanced methods of landscape vulnerability assessment. Our goal is to identify areas where susceptibility to degradation is at the highest and to propose targeted adaptation measures. We emphasize on an integrated approach that combines environmental data analysis with socio-economic factors, enabling the early identification of risks related to the loss of key ecosystem functions.
• We consider biodiversity as a fundamental element supporting the stability of the entire landscape. Therefore, our analysis focus on the functional connectivity of ecosystems and on promoting spatial arrangements of landscape elements that enhance the resilience of both rural and urban areas in the Czech Republic under the conditions of climate and environmental change.

• Forests are key terrestrial ecosystems that play an irreplaceable role in climate regulation, soil protection, and the transformation of precipitation water in the Czech Republic. They represent an important pillar for mitigating the impacts of changing climatic conditions, particularly due to their ability to effectively store carbon in both biomass and forest soils.

• However, the current state of forests stands in some regions reflects the historical burden of inappropriate management practices. The conversion of original mixed forests into coniferous monocultures has led to a weakening of their natural resilience. In combination with extreme drought waves and subsequent disturbances, the capacity of forests to provide both provisioning services (timber production) and non-provisioning services, such as biodiversity protection and water management functions, is now at risk.

• Our activities in this sector focus on the transfer of scientific knowledge into practice in order to support forest adaptation to a changing climate. We strive to promote close-to-nature management approaches that enhance the retention capacity of forest landscapes, increase their stability, and ensure the long-term sustainability of all ecosystem benefits that forests provide to society.

• Mountain and submountain areas are increasingly threatened despite their great importance for preserving biodiversity, due to their extreme vulnerability, especially under climate change conditions, and increasing anthropogenic pressures, particularly tourism. At the same time, these areas are marginalized because of difficult infrastructure development, harsher climate, and unfavorable conditions for agriculture.
• Land degradation leads to loss of agroecosystem productivity with environmental impacts and financial consequences.
• Main drivers of degradation, besides global climate change, include increasing human pressures such as population density growth, urbanization, disproportionate tourism growth, agricultural intensification, and pollution levels.
• Manifestations of land degradation include increasing landscape drying, soil fertility depletion, hydrological instability, and loss of landscape structure diversity and biodiversity. These manifestations can be further accelerated by ongoing climate change, significantly reducing the quality of ecosystem services provided.
• Ecological stability at the landscape scale depends on the state of individual ecosystem components, their interactions, the degree of disturbance, and their resilience (ability to return to functional state after disturbance).
• Factors influencing ecological stability (drivers) include not only anthropogenic pressures but also fundamental ecosystem and landscape attributes that support stability (called stability prerequisites), considering ecosystem condition as well as their resistance and resilience.

• Identification of natural and anthropogenic factors that reduce ecological stability and cause loss of ecosystem functions significantly contributes to planning sustainable use of natural resources in the landscape (forests, flower-rich meadows, and water sources) in marginalized areas.

• Floodplains represent a unique environment formed by alluvial sediments, shaped over a long-time horizon along rivers and smaller watercourses.
• Since these are flat and therefore easily accessible areas, often naturally very fertile soils, they perform a number of ecosystem functions and thus provide long-term benefits to human society in the form of ecosystem services.

• Accessibility and attractiveness of floodplain ecosystems in terms of the amount of benefits provided by nature also represent the primary cause of their significant degradation.
• Among the most significant impacts of anthropogenic activities on floodplain ecosystems are urbanization, which increases the share of impermeable surfaces, negatively affecting the soil water retention capacity, hydrological regime, and sediment balance in the catchment.
• Important causes of floodplain degradation also include technical modifications of watercourses, construction of transport infrastructure, building of flood protection embankments, or intensification and changes in land use.