One of our favourite research topics is the study of human-vectored seed dispersal. We would like to understand what role do we humans play in the unintentional dispersal of propagules during our everyday life.
The PhD topic of Katalin Lukács is the experimental study of human-vectored seed dispersal. During the past two years, Kata coordinated a field experiment, where she investigated the outdoor movement of volunteers in the field - the volunteer participants included field biologists and hikers - and collected the propagules from their footwear and socks after their outdoor walks. We will correlate the amount and species composition of the dispersed propagules to a range of habitat, landscape and vector-related factors. The first phase of sample processing was the sorting of the more than 35,000 collected propagules. In the next phase, we will test the viability of the propagules and identify them in a large germination experiment. The work of Kata was awarded by the Universitas Foundation of the University of Debrecen - congratulations!
Katalin Lukács, Réka Kiss, Ágnes Tóth and András Kelemen have recently started the germination experiment - now we are looking forward the results :) Please see below some pictures about the preparation works in this nice early spring weather.
No comments:
Post a Comment