Restoration Ecology Group

During the last week of June, the students of the partner Agricultural College and Agricultural Secondary School Benešov participated in the first run of the advanced course focused on the establishment of the species-rich grasslands. The week-long event called "Greening Week" took place at the Agricultural College and Agricultural Secondary School Benešov. During the first days, the students learnt the theoretical principles of ecological restoration in the urban environment and methods of establishing species-rich meadows. They also worked on an assignment in which they mapped the urban grasslands in the city of Benešov and proposed methods for improvement of the species composition, and the creation of better connectivity across the urban area for insect species. The next two days were led by the Restoration Ecology Working Group from the University of South Bohemia and were purely practical. Students first tried out mapping of a donor site for collecting a regional seed mixture. They had an opportunity to collect seed mixture using a brush harvester, as well as collect individual species by hand. They looked closely at seeds in the brushed seed biomass using binocular lenses and evaluated the success of the restoration of a demonstration site established this spring. During a one-day excursion, they saw a large-scale restoration project of a landscape park partly using regional seed mixtures, the seed production fields where regional seeds are produced, and a green roof that was sown with species-rich regional seed biomass. We closed the excursion in the Bohemian Karst with a view of the largest limestone quarry in the Czech Republic. We believe that despite the very hot days, the students gained valuable information and experience from the program, and we look forward to seeing them in the next school year. All the girls are eager to participate in the exchange excursion to Norway and will be working hard on their student projects from September.

Watch a video from the event.

Cover photo: Veronika Zikmundová

On Monday 19th May our two colleagues, Anička Müllerová and Kamča Vítovcová, successfully defended their dissertations and thus completed their PhD studies. Anička guided us through the world of succession of wetland and aquatic vegetation in post-mining sites, and Kamča shared her knowledge of the influence of environmental factors on vegetation succession at disturbed sites on broader spatial scales.

Congratulations to both of our colleagues! 

Last week, the Restoration Ecology Working Group at the Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, held a week-long intensive course that guided VET students from Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Norway through the theoretical and practical aspects of the rapidly developing field of restoration ecology. Preparations for the exchange began in each country already in autumn. During this time, the students also developed their own projects, and the best ones came to present and defend them during the exchange. The aim of the meeting in the Czech Republic was to increase education in the field of ecological restoration among a group of students who are implementing a number of measures in practice. With the recent adoption of the European Nature Restoration Regulation, it is clear that knowledge transfer is key to high-quality habitat restoration.

The students spent the first three days in the Czech Republic and took part in a day focused on the restoration of meadows in the countryside and in cities, as these are among the most endangered habitats across Europe. In addition to lectures, they had an opportunity to go through all the stages of restoring a species-rich meadow and try everything out in practice, from identifying suitable source vegetation, obtaining seeds and analysing what can be found in the collected material, to preparing the area, sowing, and evaluating the success of the restoration. Despite the unfavourable weather, the students were able to try out the various methods and activities in an improvised way. We also used the Faculty garden, where we continued with teaching using specific examples, and in the evening, we moved to the city for further measures, such as flowering strips.

The next day was devoted mainly to urban ecology, the restoration of mining areas, and the entire landscape. After a theoretical introduction, we went on an excursion to the Třeboň region and saw how spontaneous succession works in sand pits, which can even turn into small-scaled specially protected areas. In the Novohradské Mountains, we learned about landscape modifications in agricultural areas. On Wednesday, we set off to visit our colleagues in Bernburg, Germany and on the way we managed a short excursion to restored old orchard in Prague called Třešňovka, and a brief explanation and a view of the extensive ČSA quarry, which is at the beginning of a long journey to become the most extensive ecological restoration project in the Czech Republic. Before leaving the Czech Republic, we stopped to look at the Radovesická spoil heap to see how quickly the abandoned area overgrown with trees. Also, the importance of open sites for a number of specialized species was stressed and the possibilities of their maintenance only by human activity (especially during motocross).

The following day, our colleagues from Hochschule Anhalt showed us how they approach restoration in the agricultural landscape in Germany. We visited a farm that produced regional plant seeds, tried out vegetation mapping on restored salt marshes, learned about the pitfalls of grazing, experienced close contact with a herd of horses, learned to identify rare field weeds and found out about their protection and re-introduction to the landscape, and saw flowering strips and colourful flowering field margins to promote biodiversity.

At the end of the course, the students summarized what they had learned during the course in short presentations and presented and defended their projects. Next spring, another international course on ecological restoration will take place in České Budějovice, this time focused on university students, and in the autumn, a course in Norway on landscape restoration will follow.

Author of the group photo: Thomas Engst

#TeamUp2Restore

In our TAČR project Restoration of springs - retention of water in the landscape directly at the source, we are also engaged in mapping springs and evaluating their condition in cooperation with the Administration of the Šumava National Park. This week, on Monday 28th and Tuesday 29th April, we visited several drained springs on the right bank of the Lipno Reservoir. Our student Šárka Sedláčková will map the springs in her bachelor thesis with the focus on the Horský Brook catchment area.

During this field trip, two sensors were also installed to continuously measure the groundwater level in drained and preserved springs. We will therefore be able to compare how water retention is affected in a spring that has been degraded by targeted drainage. 

This project is funded with the support of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic and the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic within the Programme Prostředí pro život.

#RestoreSprings

With the beginning of spring, we started to monitor green roofs - this time in the Bohemian Karst, Prague ZOO and the Vysočina (Humpolec, Zďár nad Sázavou). We surveyed vegetation and invertebrates that inhabit these specific habitats. In Humpolec, we also established a new experimental roof - in addition to native species of Sedum sp., we sowed a seed mixture from the regional seed production system. Another interesting finding was that the semi-parasitic plants sown in autumn on one of the Prague roofs had already germinated. If they can survive here for the long term, they could help with controlling the dense vegetation and reducing its biomass. 

This project is co-financed with state support from the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic under the Programme Prostředí pro život. This project was funded under the National Recovery Plan from the European Instrument of Recovery and Resilience Facility.

#BioStřechy

With the arrival of spring, we headed to South Moravia again to continue with our monitoring of insects and vegetation on selected green roofs. Due to unstable weather last year, we missed spring sampling on several roofs in Brno and its surroundings. The spring sampling is thus now completed. In addition, we have expanded our monitoring to roofs in Zaječí and Hodonín, where we will observe vegetation development and invertebrate occurrence throughout the year.

During our visit to the House of Nature in the Hodonínská Dúbrava, we checked not only the green roof but also a nearby sand dune. This rare habitat represents an important nesting site for several species of solitary bees, such as Colletes cunicularius and Andrena sp. (see the photos below).

This project is co-financed with state support from the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic under the Programme Prostředí pro život. This project was funded under the National Recovery Plan from the European Instrument of Recovery and Resilience Facility.

#BioStřechy

Spring attracts us out to visit new locations suitable for sampling. This time we visited Southern Moravia, specifically Vypálenky near Moravský Písek. In cooperation with the Brno-based Envirop group, we are going to expand our grazing database with new locations. These are places that are often highly degraded, but thanks to the grazing of large herbivores, interesting biotopes could be created. The aim of the one-day trip was to harmonise methodology, establish permanent monitoring areas and consult on management. In the afternoon, we still managed to visit the Kosteliska Bird Park, where we had already worked last season. We added a few more samoling plots there and enjoyed the flocks of geese. We are already looking forward to sharing our discoveries with our colleagues from Brno.

Recently, we have visited the Československá armáda (ČSA) brown coal quarry near Most. The quarry will become a National Nature Monument after the mine is closed. Ester Šůsová, our new Bachelor student, will focus on aquatic and wetland communities in the quarry in her thesis. The aim is to compare the species richness of smaller water pools formed spontaneously on the spoil hepas with large mine lakes such as Lake Most.
 
Ester will also create a virtual tour using 360° photographs, in which she will guide us not only through the area itself and the formation of valuable wetland communities, but also tthrough he overall potential of these habitats for nature conservation.