Institute of Botany of the Slovak Academy of Sciences

Aquatic vegetation promotes prey diversity but not the diversification of predator phenotypes

Freshwater fish have evolved to forage in a range of habitats, from open water in lakes to benthic shorelines and streams. Much research has focused on how prey differences, such as zooplankton versus benthic macroinvertebrates, might select for divergence in predator traits acro...

Toward high‐quality genomes: Standards, challenges, and strategies for assembly and annotation

Abstract Genomes provide the fundamental basis for understanding biological systems. Owing to rapid advances in sequencing technologies and assembly methods, the number of sequenced genomes has increased substantially. A high‐quality genome should have high continuity, completene...

Fast post-ploughing recovery of traditionally managed semi-natural mountain grasslands in the Romanian Carpathians

Mountain hay meadows are among the most species-rich grassland habitats in Europe, yet many have been historically ploughed and later re-established under traditional management. We examined the legacy effects of past ploughing on plant diversity, vegetation composition, and soil...

Introducing relative pollen productivity estimates for Iberian taxa: methodological insights and implications for landscape modelling in the Western Mediterranean

Abstract. Understanding the impact of ongoing global change on plant communities requires long-term quantitative reconstructions of past vegetation dynamics. Fossil pollen records offer one of the most powerful tools to reconstruct past landscapes, yet for their accurate interpre...

Global rice methane emissions tripled over six decades amid declining emission intensity

Abstract Rice paddies are among the largest anthropogenic sources of methane (CH4), yet substantial uncertainties persist in the long-term magnitude and spatiotemporal dynamics of the emissions. Here we show a spatially explicit global estimate of rice CH4 emissions from 1961 to...

Plastome convergence across endoparasitic plant lineages: genome reduction, high AT bias, elevated substitution rates, and functional persistence in Mitrastemon yamamotoi

In heterotrophic plants, the loss of photosynthesis is often associated with plastid genome (ptDNA) reduction, although the extent of genome decay varies widely among lineages and may culminate in complete genome loss. Of the multiple transitions to heterotrophy among angiosperms...