ABOUT US
The Geobotany Department at FNM (at that time still at the large PeF UM) was formed by the systematisation of a professor and assistant professor in 1995. The name “geo” botany places research and teaching about plants in a spatial framework – communities, vegetation, habitats, ecosystems, or landscapes. It include research in geographic, geologic, ecological, socio-economic or historical contexts.
In the time since its establishment, the department has expanded and strengthened its personnel, and it has also expanded its field of activity, educated many graduates, masters and doctoral students, young researchers, who then obtained professional and scientific titles. Today, they work in education, in the local environment and abroad, they are also employed in responsible positions in public administration, economy, science and nature protection. The department hosted many researchers from abroad who came on scientific visits lasting from a week to several months.
Members of the Department of Geobotany are involved in many professional associations at home and abroad, e.g. Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG), European Vegetation Survey (EVS), Botanical Society of Slovenia, Eastern Alpine and Dinaric Society for Vegetation Ecology, Slovenian Society for Plant Biology (SDBR), European Societies of Plant Biology (FESPB), International Association of Plant Biotechnology (IAPB).
The Department of Geobotany periodically organizes or co-organizes international conferences. Within the framework of the international association EDGG (Europaean Dry Grasslands Group), in May and June 2019, we co-organized an international symposium on grasslands entitled: “Various grasslands in the Palearctic – a treasure without economic value?” The symposium took place at the Charles and Franz University in Graz (Austria) between May 29 and June 1, 2019, while the professional excursion was entirely in Slovenia (June 2 – June 5, 2019). As part of the excursion, we visited three areas of Slovenia – Goričko, Haloze and Karst. (link: https://edgg.org/egc/pastEGC and https://edgg.org/sites/default/files/page/Magnes_et_al_PG44_16-25.pdf).
ORGANIZATION AND EQUIPMENT
Head: Prof. Jana Ambrožič-Dolinšek
The laboratory is dedicated to scientific research, teaching and professional work in the field of plant physiology, plant biotechnology, plant tissue culture and cryopreservation of plant tissues.
Equipment:
- growth chamber,
- laminar-flow chamber,
- other small equipment: pH-metre, glass bead sterilizer, stereomicroscope, stirrer, autoclave,
- microwave for green extraction of natural products and acid digestion of materials.
RESEARCH AREAS
We are interested in:
- grassland vegetation studies https://doi.org/10.1515/biol-2016-0023
- plant traits in relation to flora, chorology, vegetation and biogeography
- Functional approaches to vegetation research: the example of grasslands https://doi.org/10.1080/11263504.2017.1418451
- A phylogenetic approach to vegetation research: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3295-5
- vegetation history
- succession studies: https://doi.org/10.3161/15052249PJE2017.65.2.003
- Extreme habitats: cliffs, river gravel bars, coastal wetlands and vegetation response
- Primary succession on river gravel bars: https://doi.org/10.3161/15052249PJE2017.65.2.003
- Primary succession in coastal wetlands of the Northern Adriatic Sea
