Project name: GRAssland Communities Experiment (GRACE): 300 years of insight from a large-scale natural Experiment
Project number: 23-08869L
Funded by: GAČR
Programme: GAČR Lead Agency 2024
Host institution: Czech University of Life Sciences Prague
Principal Investigator at CZU: Petr Keil
Project manager: Kateřina Hajková
Partner Organisation: University of Graz (Adam Clark)
Partner Organisation: VÚKOZ (Hana Skokanová)
Duration: 1.1.2024-31.12.2026
Budget: 17 948 189 Kč (6 497 000 Kč for FES)
Project website: https://www.adamclarktheecologist.com/grace
Abstract:
We will study biodiversity and species composition Central European grasslands over time, across environments, and across land use histories. We propose to use an unprecedented combination of historical data and novel methods, including: (i) >100.000 botanical plot records collected in grasslands across Central Europe over the past century; (ii) a fieldwork campaign to resurvey ~1.200 of these plots; (iii) three centuries of surveys mapping landcover change across the historical extent of the Austro-Hungarian empire; and (iv) cutting-edge theoretical tools for interpolating, forecasting, and explaining complex dynamics with state space modelling and machine learning. Jointly, these tools allow us to quantify the impacts of large-scale landscape change via a “natural experiment” driven by differences in the timing and intensity of agricultural collectivisation across Central Europe in the 20th century. This will improve understanding of Central European grasslands, and of impacts of landscape change on ecological communities around the world.
