Habitat loss and fragmentation are among the major threats to biodiversity in the era of Anthropocene. By applying modern tools of metacommunity ecology, we aim to understand how habitat quality and the spatial configuration of habitat patches in a network jointly shape community composition and sustain biodiversity. At the local scale, we focus on the most relevant stressors, constraints imposed by the environment, and trophic relationships, together with their changes through climate change and other human influences. Our goal is to understand their interaction with spatial processes: connectivity through the dispersal of local biota and the spatial insurance provided by habitat networks. To this end, we combine empirical observations with experimental studies by using island-like habitats such as ponds (or in experiments, micro- and mesocosms), and their aquatic communities as models.

Selected publications

Barta Barbara; Szabó Attila; Szabó Beáta; Ptacnik Robert; Vad Csaba; Horváth Zsófia.: How pondscapes function: connectivity matters for biodiversity even across small spatial scales in aquatic metacommunities ECOGRAPHY, Paper: e06960 (2023)
2023

Szabó, Beáta; Szabó, Attila; Vad, Csaba F.; Boros, Emil; Lukić, Dunja; Ptacnik, Robert; Márton, Zsuzsanna; Horváth, Zsófia.: Microbial stowaways: Waterbirds as dispersal vectors of aquatic pro‐ and microeukaryotic communities JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY. 49: 1286, JBI14381-
2022

Cunillera-Montcusí, David; Beklioğlu, Meryem; Cañedo-Argüelles, Miguel; Jeppesen, Erik; Ptacnik, Robert; Amorim, Cihelio A.; Arnott, Shelley E.; Berger, Stella A.; Brucet, Sandra; Dugan, Hilary A.; Gerhard, Miriam; Horváth, Zsófia; Langenheder, Silke; Nejstgaard, Jens C.; Reinikainen, Marko; Striebel, Maren; Urrutia-Cordero, Pablo; Vad, Csaba F.; Zadereev, Egor; Matias, Miguel.: Freshwater salinisation: a research agenda for a saltier world TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION. 37: 440-453
2022

Guzman, Laura Melissa; Thompson, Patrick L.; Viana, Duarte S.; Vanschoenwinkel, Bram; Horváth, Zsófia; Ptacnik, Robert; Jeliazkov, Alienor; Gascón, Stéphanie; Lemmens, Pieter; Anton‐Pardo, Maria; Langenheder, Silke; De Meester, Luc; Chase, Jonathan M.: Accounting for temporal change in multiple biodiversity patterns improves the inference of metacommunity processes ECOLOGY. 103: Paper e3683-
2022

Hamer, Andrew J.; Barta, Barbara; Bohus, Attila; Gál, Blanka; Schmera, Dénes.: Roads reduce amphibian abundance in ponds across a fragmented landscape GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION. 28: -
2021

Lukić, Dunja; Pinceel, Tom; Marrone, Federico; Mioduchowska, Monika; Vad, Csaba F.; Brendonck, Luc; Ptacnik, Robert; Horváth, Zsófia.: Pleistocene allopatric differentiation followed by recent range expansion explains the distribution and molecular diversity of two congeneric crustacean species in the Palaearctic SCIENTIFIC REPORTS. 11: -
2021