Patricia Singh
@muni.cz
postdoc, Department of Botany and Zoology/Faculty of Science
Masaryk University
RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS
Ecological Modeling, Ecology, Nature and Landscape Conservation, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Scopus Publications
Scholar Citations
Scholar h-index
Scholar i10-index
Scopus Publications
Patrícia Singh, Martin Jiroušek, Petra Hájková, Michal Horsák, and Michal Hájek
Elsevier BV
Patrícia Singh, Petra Hájková, Martin Jiroušek, Zuzana Lizoňová, Tomáš Peterka, Zuzana Plesková, Anna Šímová, Eva Šmerdová, Táňa Štechová, and Michal Hájek
Wiley
AbstractAn undesired succession of rich fens leads to the formation of dense Sphagnum carpets that outcompete brown mosses and some vascular plants, resulting in biodiversity loss in fen habitats of high conservation importance. Small‐scale Sphagnum removal is a rarely implemented conservational measure, whose success may depend on soil alkalinity and fertility (i.e., nutrient availability). Therefore, characterizing the effects of pH and fertility levels would potentially allow for the development of better Sphagnum removal strategies. Two experiments were conducted across 24 rich fens of different alkalinity and fertility located in an area of ~32,000 km2 spanning from the Bohemian Massif to the Western Carpathians (Europe). We hypothesized that high alkalinity and low fertility support the restoration of rich fen vegetation after Sphagnum removal. Our study focused on four different Sphagnum groups. In Experiment 1, the treatment plots remained unfenced. In Experiment 2, the treatment plots were fenced off and target brown mosses were transplanted from the surroundings to overcome dispersal limitations. A repeated‐measures design was used, with vegetation composition recorded over a 5‐year period. High alkalinity rather than fertility facilitated species richness and the appearance of target brown mosses. High alkalinity generally hindered Sphagnum recovery, whereas high fertility supported the recurrence of S. teres and S. recurvum agg. Under high pH conditions, enhanced fertility further correlated with the spread of nonsphagnaceous generalist bryophytes of low conservation value. Despite sustaining a significant overall reduction, all Sphagnum taxa began to recover throughout the experiment, albeit less obviously in fens with S. warnstorfii. Sphagnum removal may reverse biodiversity loss and allow for the restoration of brown mosses in rich fens where Sphagnum cover had increased due to slight eutrophication, acidification, or a decrease in the water table. In alkaline and nutrient‐poor conditions (e.g., S. warnstorfii fens), the effect is evident and long lasting and the intervention may not be extensive. In fens dominated by S. teres or S. recurvum agg., repeated or large‐scale removal may be needed if high nutrient availability (potassium, phosphorus) or low alkalinity supports Sphagnum recolonization. Treatment plots with S. subgenus Sphagnum exhibited the least promising brown‐moss restoration prospects.
Anna Šímová, Martin Jiroušek, Patrícia Singh, Petra Hájková, and Michal Hájek
Elsevier BV
Tomáš Peterka, Lubomír Tichý, Veronika Horsáková, Petra Hájková, Radovan Coufal, Libor Petr, Daniel Dítě, Zbyněk Hradílek, Richard Hrivnák, Martin Jiroušek,et al.
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Michal Hájek, Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Ondřej Hájek, Lisa Brancaleoni, Marco Cantonati, Michele Carbognani, Anita Dedić, Daniel Dítě, Renato Gerdol, Petra Hájková,et al.
Copernicus GmbH
Abstract. Water resources and associated ecosystems are becoming highly endangered due to ongoing global environmental changes. Spatial ecological modelling is a promising toolbox for understanding the past, present and future distribution and diversity patterns in groundwater-dependent ecosystems, such as fens, springs, streams, reed beds or wet grasslands. Still, the lack of detailed water chemistry maps prevents the use of reasonable models to be applied on continental and global scales. Being major determinants of biological composition and diversity of groundwater-dependent ecosystems, groundwater pH and calcium are of utmost importance. Here we developed an up-to-date European map of groundwater pH and Ca, based on 7577 measurements of near-surface groundwater pH and calcium distributed across Europe. In comparison to the existing European groundwater maps, we included several times more sites, especially in the regions rich in spring and fen habitats, and filled the apparent gaps in eastern and southeastern Europe. We used random forest models and regression kriging to create continuous maps of water pH and calcium at the continental scale, which is freely available also as a raster map (Hájek et al., 2020b; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4139912). Lithology had a higher importance than climate for both pH and calcium. The previously recognised latitudinal and altitudinal gradients were rediscovered with much refined regional patterns, as associated with bedrock variation. For ecological models of distribution and diversity of many terrestrial ecosystems, our new map based on field groundwater measurements is more suitable than maps of soil pH, which mirror not only bedrock chemistry but also vegetation-dependent soil processes.
Patrícia Singh, Ester Ekrtová, Eva Holá, Táňa Štechová, Stanislav Grill, and Michal Hájek
Elsevier BV
Tomáš Peterka, Vít Syrovátka, Daniel Dítě, Petra Hájková, Monika Hrubanová, Martin Jiroušek, Zuzana Plesková, Patrícia Singh, Anna Šímová, Eva Šmerdová,et al.
Wiley
AbstractQuestionFiltering vegetation plot records according to sampling size is an essential methodological step in vegetation studies. In fens, the variation of traditionally used plot sizes seems to limit continental‐scale syntheses following the Braun‐Blanquet approach. Which plot sizes harbour the analogous number of habitat specialists (i.e., diagnostic/indicator species) and capture the main compositional gradients identically?LocationScandinavia, central Europe.MethodsThe data set of fen vegetation plot records was compiled using large databases and categorised into four distinct habitats. For each habitat, semi‐log species–area curves of specialists and other species were fitted using generalised additive models (GAM). In addition, we surveyed 72 sites in a series of plot sizes (0.07, 0.25, 1, 4, 16 m2) where we applied, separately for each plot size, Non‐Metric Multi‐Dimensional Scaling (NMDS) and compared the resulting patterns with Procrustes analysis.ResultsConsistently across different fen habitats, the species–area curves of specialists increased steeply up to the plot size of 1 m2, while increasing negligibly in the plot size range of 1–25 m2. In contrast, the species–area curves of other species displayed mostly linear to linear‐exponential trends. NMDS ordinations of medium (1 and 4 m2) and large plots (16 m2) were the most congruent, while the patterns captured in the ordination of the smallest plots (0.07 m2) differed most from the others.ConclusionsIn fens, plot sizes of at least 1 m2 describe sufficiently the broad‐scale pattern in specialists’ diversity as well as the main environmental gradients. The range of plot sizes of 1–25 m2 may be safely merged in broad‐scale analyses of fen vegetation without introducing substantial bias, at least when compared with other possible uncertainty sources.
Petra Hájková, Eva Jamrichová, Maroš Wiezik, Tomáš Peterka, Libor Petr, Patrícia Singh, František Máliš, Zuzana Fajmonová, and Michal Hájek
Elsevier BV
Patrícia Singh, Jakub Těšitel, Zuzana Plesková, Tomáš Peterka, Petra Hájková, Daniel Dítě, Paweł Pawlikowski, and Michal Hájek
Wiley
AbstractQuestionFens have a well‐developed bryophyte layer covering most of the ground. Non‐sphagnaceous bryophytes, especially the group of so‐called brown mosses, prevail over sphagna under alkaline conditions. In sub‐alkaline conditions, rich fens allow the co‐occurrence of both these functional groups, but sphagna are competitively superior over non‐sphagnaceous bryophytes and seedlings of vascular plants, and they are currently expanding in some regions. We test whether the ratio between the two major bryophyte functional groups (bryo‐ratio) accounts for the species composition of vascular plants in fens.LocationCentral and Eastern Europe.MethodsAnalysis of two existing regional‐ and continental‐scale data sets of the vegetation‐ plot records and measured local factors by Canonical Correspondence Analysis with variation partitioning (community‐level analysis) and Structural Equation Modelling (species‐level analysis).ResultsAt the community level, the bryo‐ratio accounted significantly for species composition of fen‐specialized vascular plants, more obviously in the regional‐scale data set. At the species level, more fen species (50–67% according to the data set) were significantly directly affected (adjusted p < 0.05) by the bryo‐ratio than by water pH (14–17%) and by measured water table depth (WTD) in the regional data set (12.5%). In the continental data set, the comparable proportions of species were directly affected by the bryo‐ratio and WTD inferred by soil moisture indicator values (50% vs 58%). Most of the species affected significantly by the bryo‐ratio preferred the fens rich in non‐sphagnaceous bryophytes. They were largely those with a low capability of vegetative reproduction.ConclusionsThe group of species preferring brown moss patches includes mostly rare and endangered species with a great need for generative reproduction (e.g., Primula farinosa, Triglochin palustris, Pedicularis palustris, Saxifraga hirculus). Our findings demonstrate the important role of the bryophyte layer in the structuring of vascular plant communities in fens and highlight urgent conservation needs for brown moss patches.
Petra Hájková, Táňa Štechová, Rudolf Šoltés, Eva Šmerdová, Zuzana Plesková, Daniel Dítě, Jitka Bradáčová, Marta Mútňanová, Patrícia Singh, and Michal Hájek
Czech Botanical Society
V teto praci představujeme novou paleoekologickou databazi makrozbytkových nalezů rostlin z uzemi Ceske republiky a Slovenska. Zaroveň využivame data z teto databaze ke srovnani soucasneho a davneho rozsiřeni těch druhů mechorostů, ktere jsou považovany za glacialni relikty flory středni Evropy. Paleobotanicka data pokrývaji obdobi od pozdniho glacialu do pozdniho holocenu. Vsechny druhy považovane za glacialni relikty se opravdu vyskytovaly v pozdně glacialnich sedimentech, ale větsinou ve stejných oblastech, odkud byly zaznamenany botanickým výzkumem od 19. stoleti. Některe oblasti se tedy vyznacuji castějsim výskytem těchto druhů v minulosti i v soucasnosti. V některých připadech se ale studovane druhy vyskytovaly během pozdniho glacialu nebo raneho holocenu i v oblastech, kde už se dnes nevyskytuji z důvodu nevhodných podminek prostředi. Rovněž jsme zjistili, že celkový pocet pozdně glacialnich a raně holocennich výskytů studovaných druhů výrazně převysuje pocet jejich výskytů ve střednim holocenu, kdy casto probihala sukcese k mokřadnim lesům nebo vrchovistim. Tyto výsledky naznacuji, že se opravdu může jednat o relikty z obdobi pozdniho glacialu a raneho holocenu. Zejmena jsme zaznamenali ustup druhů, ktere vyžaduji stabilně vysokou hladinu vody (Drepanocladus trifarius, Meesia triquetra a Scorpidium scorpioides). Tyto druhy ustoupily jak během holocenu, tak během soucasných antropogennich změn v krajině. Druhy, ktere jsou tolerantnějsi k poklesům hladiny vody, přežily dosud na větsim množstvi lokalit (Calliergon giganteum, Hamatocaulis vernicosus, Paludella squarrosa). Makrozbytkova data ale nemohou ubytek druhů přesně vycislit, protože pocet soucasných lokalit vždy převysuje pocet fosilnich dokladů. Důvodem je male prostorove pokryti makrozbytkoveho výzkumu. Jednotlive analyzovane vzorky navic pokrývaji jen několik ctverecnich centimetrů tehdejsi raselinistni vegetace. Makrozbytkova data jsou důležitou, ale ne jedinou, indicii k rozpoznani reliktnosti druhů.