Biology subjects

Münzbergova, Z.

Publications and source records attributed to Münzbergova, Z..

6 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Interactive effects of Nutrient Enrichment and Water Scarcity on Floral signaling and visitation

- Floral traits remain an underexplored frontier in global change biology compared to their vegetative counterparts. As anthropogenic change involves simultaneous shifts in resource availability, focusing on isolated stressors may overlook complex biological responses. Characterizing the interactive effects of these stressors is therefore crucial to move beyond additive models and accurately predict the stability of pollination services in a transforming world. - The individual and interactive effects of nutrient enrichment and water scarcity were investigated on the floral traits and pollinator visitation rates of five grassland species. - While species identity emerged as the dominant driver of overall trait variation, across-species responses were also present. Among the abiotic drivers, nutrient enrichment emerged as the primary influence, significantly increasing flower number and achromatic contrast while decreasing floral area, chromatic contrast and chroma. Conversely, water scarcity primarily reduced plant height and increased floral chroma and hue. The two factors also often interacted in their effects. The changes in visual traits scaled up to changes in pollinator visitation, but the specific effects were largely species-specific. - Ultimately, our findings demonstrate that anthropogenic stressors act in divergent ways to reshape floral phenotypes and pollinator visitation, advancing our understanding of plant-pollinator interactions under compounding global pressures.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2025

Global Change Factors differentially impact Floral and Leaf Economic Traits

Background and AimsSince the Industrial Revolution, rising atmospheric CO{square}, warming, and more frequent droughts have significantly impacted ecosystems. While the response of leaf functional traits to these climate change factors have been widely studied, reproductive traits remain relatively understudied, despite their key role in the diversification and distribution of flowering plants. Here, we investigated how elevated CO{square}, warming, drought, and their interactions affect floral, leaf and seed traits in two model grassland species. We also examined how these factors influence trait coordination. MethodsTwo common grassland species, Lotus corniculatus and Crepis capillaris, were sampled from a 10-year climate manipulation experiment. We measured resource economic traits related to organ size, construction cost, and dry matter content in both leaves and flowers, along with seed size and number. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to assess trait responses, and rank-abundance curves were employed to visualize changes in trait coordination across treatments. Key ResultsTrait responses to climate change factors varied between species. Drought emerged as the most influential factor, affecting only leaf traits in L. corniculatus, but impacting leaf, floral, and seed traits in C. capillaris. Across both species, climate change conditions increased leaf construction costs and reduced flower size. In addition, it led to larger leaves in L. corniculatus, and fewer seeds in C. capillaris. Under extreme climate change conditions, trait coordination became stronger in both species, although C. capillaris showed no coordination response specifically to drought. ConclusionOur results show that floral economic traits, like leaf traits, are responsive to individual and combined effects of climate change factors. This highlights their importance in shaping plant strategies under environmental stress and emphasizes the need to better integrate floral traits into the whole-plant economic framework.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2025

Temperature and precipitation interactively shape the plant microbiome by regulating the start of the growing season

Climate change is altering associations between plants and soil microbiota, threatening ecosystem functioning and stability. Predicting these effects requires understanding how concomitant changes in temperature and precipitation influence plant-soil microbiota associations. We identify the pathways via which temperature and precipitation shape prokaryote and fungal rhizosphere and root-associated communities of the perennial grass Festuca rubra in cold-climate ecosystems. We found that interactive effects of temperature and precipitation are key in shaping plant-soil microbiota associations, with the start of the growing season as a critical mediating factor. Specifically, the start of the growing season is advanced by increasing temperature, but delayed by increasing precipitation. This interactive pathway particularly shaped rhizosphere organic matter degrading microbiota, and root-associated plant pathogen and beneficial microbiota. We conclude that understanding local temperature, precipitation, and seasonal changes is crucial to accurately predict how the unique plant-microbiota interactions shaping cold-climate ecosystems are evolving with the ongoing change in climate.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2024

Closing the gap: Examining the impact of source habitat proximity on plant and soil microbial communities in post-mining spoil heap primary succession

Revegetation of barren substrates is often determined by the composition and distance of the nearest plant community, serving as a source of colonising propagules. Whether such dispersal effect can be observed during the development of soil microbial communities, is not clear. In this study, we aimed to elucidate which factors structure plant and soil bacterial and fungal communities during primary succession on a limestone quarry spoil heap, focusing on the effect of distance to the adjoining xerophilous grassland. We established a grid of 35 plots covering three successional stages - initial barren substrate, early successional community and late successional grassland ecosystem, the latter serving as the primary source of soil colonization. On these plots, we performed vegetation surveys of plant community composition and collected soil cores to analyse soil chemical properties and bacterial and fungal community composition. The composition of early successional plant community was significantly affected by the proximity of the source late successional community, however, the effect weakened when the distance exceeded 20 m. Early successional microbial communities were structured mainly by the local plant community composition and soil chemical properties, with minimal contribution of the source community proximity. These results show that on small spatial scales, species migration is an important determinant of plant community composition during primary succession while the establishment of soil microbial communities is not limited by dispersal and is primarily driven by local biotic and abiotic conditions.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2022

Plant community stability is associated with a decoupling of prokaryote and fungal soil networks

Soil microbial networks play a crucial role in plant community stability. However, we lack knowledge on the network topologies associated with stability and the pathways shaping these networks. In a 13-year mesocosm experiment, we determined links between plant community stability and soil microbial networks. We found that plant communities on soil abandoned from agricultural practices 60 years prior to the experiment promoted destabilising properties and were associated with coupled prokaryote and fungal soil networks. This coupling was mediated by strong interactions of plants and microbiota with soil resource cycling. Conversely, plant communities on natural grassland soil exhibited a high stability, which was associated with decoupled prokaryote and fungal soil networks. This decoupling was mediated by a large variety of past plant community pathways shaping especially fungal networks. We conclude that plant community stability is associated with a decoupling of prokaryote and fungal soil networks and mediated by plant-soil interactions.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2021

Comparative transcriptomics of seven Impatiens species

Impatiens is a genus containing more than 1000 species. Thanks to its size, it is a unique system for studying species diversification in natural populations. This study focused on the characterization of novel transcriptomes from seven Impatiens species originating from Nepal. Leave transcriptome of Impatines balsamina L., I. racemosa DC., I. bicornuta Wall, I. falcifer Hook, I. devendrae Pusalkar, I. scullyi Hook and I. scabrida DC were sequenced and compared. Reads were de novo assembled and aligned to 92 035-226 081 contigs. We identified 14 728 orthology groups shared among all the species and 3 020 which were unique to a single species. In single species, 2536-3009 orthology groups were under selection from which 767 were common for all species. Six of the seven investigated species shared 77% of gene families with I. bicornuta being the most distinct species. Specific gene families involved in response to different environmental stimuli were closely described. Impatiens bicornuta selection profile shared selection on zing finger protein structures and flowering regulation and stress response proteins with the other investigated species. Overall, the study showed substantial similarity in patterns of selections on transcribed genes across the species suggesting similar evolutionary pressures. This suggests that the species group may have evolved via adaptive radiation.

plant biology↗