Chair of Botany

Research area:

Biodiversity, chorology and ecology of lichens, changes in local biotas caused by anthropopressure, problems connected with threats to lichens and their protection, functioning of epiphytic lichens under stress caused by changes in the parameters of habitat microclimate.
The dendroecological and dendroclimatic research is conducted in the unit. Retrospective reconstruction of disturbances and tree response to climate change is based on ring-width series. The research is conducted in the Carpathian Mountains (Tatra Mts and Mt. Babia Góra). Our studies mainly concern tree species such as Norway spruce, Swiss stone pine and European larch. The Department’s employees cooperate with researchers from the Faculty of Forestry, University of Agriculture in Kraków, the Institute of Botany of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the TANAP Research Station in Slovakia.
Anthropogenic vegetation transformations and the dynamics of plant communities using numerical methods; succession on agricultural fallows; populations of protected, endangered and alien species – their role and impact on ecosystems; research in the field of eco-physiology, in particular the importance of allelopathy in the environment and its impact on the morphology and physiological processes of selected plant species
Flora of the Carpathians, Sudetes and Balkan Peninsula

Keywords:

allelopathy, anthropogenic pressure, Balkan Peninsula, climate change; Carpathians, dendroecology, dendroclimatology, dynamics of plant communities, invasive species, lichens biodiversity, plant taxonomy, protected species, Sudetes

Research equipment:

PlantPen PRI 210 (Photochemical Reflectance Index PRI), Nikon microscope