Go Belowground!

Across a long #elevational #gradient, #bamboo has high #shoot density low down, bigger shoot #biomass up high. #Hormones shift with altitude and fungal community composition aligns with hormone/#trait patterns.
Read more ▶️ 1url.cz/Sezlv
#ExFuMo #GoBelowground #rhizome

Survival without photosynthesis: physiological characterization of long-lived albino beech (Fagus sylvatica) Abstract. Albinism is typically lethal in autotrophic plants due to the absence of photosynthetic pigments and functioning chloroplasts. Yet, rare exceptio

A research team including our botanists has drawn attention to a rare albino beech from the Moravian Karst. The tree lacks chlorophyll and, despite this, has been growing for about 30 years. Researchers investigated where it gets the sugars it needs to survive. Read more
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Litter manipulation alters the belowground bud bank and aboveground shoot density in a temperate grassland New research by Jianqiang Qian, from Henan Agricultural University, China. The pictures above show some of the buds found in the temperate grasslands of Inner Mongolia, China. Photos by Jianqiang Q…

🌾🍂Removing #litter boosts belowground #bud banks + #shoot density, while litter buildup limits new shoots. #Bunchgrasses respond strongly, #rhizomatous grasses less. #Management is to avoid litter accumulation
Our blog ▶️ 1url.cz/Detdg
#ExFuMo #GoBelowground

🙌FunSem IV is behind us — long live FunSem V! 👑The 4th edition of the Functional Ecology Seminar was full of interesting talks and inspiring discussions. See you again next year! 🌱 @ibotcz.bsky.social @czechacademy.bsky.social
#ExFuMo #GoBelowground #plant #ecology #traits #evolution #diversity

Try harder! How young clonal herbs rebuild after disturbance New research by Jana Martínková from the Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Photo by Jana Martínková. When a perennial herb germinates, it enters th…

Try harder! 🏋️‍♀️🪻How young clonal herbs rebuild after disturbance
Read more ▶️ 1url.cz/beLwS
#GoBelowground #ExFuMo #biomass #clonality
#disturbance #establishment #functional #traits #perennial #herb #economic #spectrum #resource #allocation @ibotcz.bsky.social @czechacademy.bsky.social

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How old do herbs live? New research by Jitka Klimešová, from the Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The picture above portrays one of the ways to determine the age of living parts of a clonal plant: fi…

How old do herbs live? For #clonal plants, it’s tricky. An individual can be thousands of years old even if their organs are only a few years old. How to #age clonal plants reliably? Read ▶️ 1url.cz/4Jy2x #GoBelowground #ExFuMo #rhizome #ramet #mutation @ibotcz.bsky.social @czechacademy.bsky.social

🚩Dig into plant functional ecology! 🌱⛏️Join the 8th Go Belowground! PhD course (13–19 Sep 2026 Czech Republic) Lectures, hands-on field, lab training ▶️ 1url.cz/2ziQz
#clonality #budbank #belowground #mophology #roots #traits #GoBelowground #ExFuMo #functional #course

Drawing by Curtis Lubbe

📢 Root exudates: invisible, fast-changing chemical signals shaping microbes, neighbors and soil. 🦠🌱
A new on our blog ▶️ 📢https://1url.cz/lJAdf
#Rhizosphere #RootExudates #PlantEcology #ExFuMo #GoBelowground #Soil #Exudate #Microbes @ibotcz.bsky.social @czechacademy.bsky.social

The year 2025 for ExFuMo in review Commentary by Jitka Klimešová, from the Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The illustration above is by F. Curtis Lubbe. Now it is the time for reflecting on the p…

#ExFuMo in 2025🎯 Review: new insights into #rhizome investment & #ontogeny, the #Belowground #Persistence Types” framework, the Plant Bodies book, and hands-on belowground training #IAVS #workshop + #GoBelowground course)
Read the recap ▶️ 1url.cz/KJxLz
@ibotcz.bsky.social @czechacademy.bsky.social

Calling researchers working on plant belowground - #bud banks, #storage, #rhizome, #anatomy, #clonality to join our #IAVS2026 Special Session-The Hidden Half: emerging questions in belowground #functional #ecology in #Gijón 22–26 Jun▶️ 1url.cz/OJ8fM #GoBelowground #IAVS @czechacademy.bsky.social

Heading to #IAVS2026 in #Gijón? Curious about plant belowground? Join the #Belowground #Workshop! Intro + hands-on field digging in JUN 21. Free for attendees, max 20 participants. Sign up via the conference site! ▶️ 1url.cz/OJ8fM #IAVS #ExFuMo #GoBelowground #clonality @ibotcz.bsky.social

Go Belowground! 2026 The Department of Experimental and Functional Morphology, Institute of Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences organize the 8th edition of PhD course of functional ecology „Go belowground!“ 1…

🚩Dig into plant functional ecology! 🌱⛏️ Join the 8th Go Belowground! PhD course (13–19 Sep 2026, Czech Republic) Lectures, hands-on field, lab training ▶️ 1url.cz/2ziQz
#clonality #budbank #belowground #mophology #roots #traits #GoBelowground #ExFuMo
@ibotcz.bsky.social @czechacademy.bsky.social

🚩Dig into plant functional ecology! 🌱⛏️ Join the 8th Go Belowground! PhD course (13–19 Sep 2026, Czech Republic) Lectures, hands-on field, lab training ▶️ 1url.cz/2ziQz
#clonality #budbank #belowground #mophology #roots #traits #GoBelowground #ExFuMo
@czechacademy.bsky.social @ibotcz.bsky.social

Season’s greetings from our blog ▶️ 1url.cz/PJ6z5 Thank you to everyone who has read, shared, or contributed this year!🩷This illustration of buds on belowground storage organs is available with other materials here▶️ 1url.cz/FJ6z9
#GoBelowground #ExFuMo @ibotcz.bsky.social @czechacademy.bsky.social

Principal component analysis of functional traits (mean values per species and age) of clonal and nonclonal species.

An effect of biomass removal on functional traits of clonal and non-clonal herbs during establishment

Martínková et al. @exfumo.bsky.social @ibotcz.bsky.social @jitkaklimesova.bsky.social

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/QK9WCM...

🚩Dig into plant functional ecology! 🌱⛏️ Join the 8th Go Belowground! PhD course (13–19 Sep 2026, Czech Republic) Lectures, hands-on field, lab training ▶️ 1url.cz/2ziQz
#clonality #budbank #belowground #mophology #roots #traits #GoBelowground #ExFuMo
@czechacademy.bsky.social @ibotcz.bsky.social

The locality of Skaar Ridge in the Central Transantarctic Mountains. It is at 2200 m, on top of a mountain that rises above the Antarctic icesheet, photo by Rudolph Serbet.

Transverse sections of a young Glossopteridale root (R) with its typical structure with wedges of wood producing a sucker shoot (S) with a conspicuous pith and “normal” wood cylinder. A later stage when they are separated but the two axes are still englobed within the same bark tissues (right). Scale bars = 200 µm.

Already #ancient antarctic #tree showed a clever survival trick! Root sprouting - new stems popping up from the roots after damage. These #Permian forests regenered from belowground and from roots! ▶️ 1url.cz/MJY2G
#RootSprouting #Antarctica #GoBelowground #ExFuMo @ibotcz.bsky.social

Cross-cut of a rhizome, with the central cylinder (rich in starch) and thick cortex, separated by a layer of cambium-like tissue from which roots and suckers develop (credit: Mathilde Vantyghem).

New research by Mathilde Vantyghem from the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (Cirad). The photo above shows banana plants with side shoots (suckers) connected to the main plant through the belowground rhizome (credit: Mathilde Vantyghem).

Banana isn’t just about the fruit 🍌 🍌
New on our blog ▶️ 1url.cz/uJ9Y3
We know little about carbon allocation in banana rhizome, a starch-rich hub connecting mother plants and daughters. Huge knowledge gaps, big climate resilience implications!
#GoBelowground #ExFuMo

Drawing by Curtis Lubbe

Plants race too! Just belowground. #Taproot stays put, #bulbsdives down, #tubers scatter in all directions, but the hypogeogenous #rhizome and a #rootsprouter take the gold for lateral spread
▶️ 1url.cz/ZJ57D
#GoBelowground #ExFuMo #art #lateralspread @ibotcz.bsky.social @czechacademy.bsky.social

Perennial #herbs don’t “wake up” in spring out of nowhere. Their #renewalbuds preform leaves and even flowers months before we see any green.
More on our blog ▶️ 1url.cz/VJOhA 🌱 #budpreformation #FunctionalEcology #SpringTiming #GoBelowground #ExFuMo @ibotcz.bsky.social @czechacademy.bsky.social

linocut by Jitka Klimesova

#Novelty isn’t a yes/no, but a #gradient from #replication to #innovation. We should be honest about where our work sits on that gradient, instead of overselling everything as #groundbreaking
More▶️ 1url.cz/sJXel
#GoBelowground #ExFuMo #linocut @ibotcz.bsky.social @czechacademy.bsky.social

Ready for winter! ❄️☃️🪻As winter in the northern hemisphere approaches, plants are preparing to be protected from cold ❄️
Read more on our blog ▶️ 1url.cz/PJ0Vy
#GoBelowground #ExFuMo #rhizome #bud #clonality #overwintering #strategy @ibotcz.bsky.social @czechacademy.bsky.social

When fire digs deeper: How changing fire frequency reshapes the belowground world of campos rupestres New research by Aline Bertolosi Bombo at the Lab of Vegetation Ecology, São Paulo State University (UNESP). Above are views of the stunning campos rupestres in southeastern Brazil — ancie…

When fire digs deeper 🔥🌹🌱 A new on our blog ▶️ 1url.cz/oJSXO Even in fire-adapted grasslands, too much fire can erode resilience! by @alinebombo.bsky.social
#GoBelowground #ExFuMo #Brazil #CamposRupestres #Resilience #buds #regeneration #rhizome #root
@ibotcz.bsky.social @czechacademy.bsky.social

To understand plant resilience to fire, look belowground New research and commentary by Marco Antonio Chiminazzo from Universidade Estadual Paulista in Brazil. The photo above was taken by Marco Antonio Chiminazzo during a prescribed burn in Central Braz…

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#Roots + #rhizomes + #buds = the “backup system” after #wildfire. Add the #soil #microbiome and you get real plant #resilience. Time to measure belowground #traits in #FireEcology🔥more ▶️ 1url.cz/IJIjY
#GoBelowground #ExFuMo #Resprouting #Brazil @czechacademy.bsky.social @ibotcz.bsky.social

Life Lessons in Root Identification Commentary by S. Grady Welsh from Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA. The photo above shows members of the Tumber-Dávila Lab learning to sieve roots and soil. Photo by Shersingh Joseph Tumber-Dá…

Studying the hidden half is messy—partial samples, broken roots, shifting soils. That’s exactly what students need to see. “In belowground science, perfection is impossible. Accuracy is not.” 🔍🌱
More ▶️ 1url.cz/DJIdJ
#GoBelowground #ExFuMo #ScienceTeaching @ibotcz.bsky.social @ibotcz.bsky.social

The photo above shows a fine root from an eastern white pine (Pinus strobus). Photo by Grady Welsh.

Identifying fine roots is a frontier for belowground ecology!
In our new blog post ▶️ 1url.cz/lJZZl 🔴Fine Root Identification Protocol 🟠Root Kahoot🟢Rhidentify quiz🟤Rhizarium (2,000+ fine root images) #root
#GoBelowground #ExFuMo @czechacademy.bsky.social @ibotcz.bsky.social @josephtumber.bsky.social

Cold-season cattail harvest = cleaner water, happier wetlands, and usable biomass—without stressing the system. Win-win 👍
More on our blog ▶️ 1url.cz/8JhAe
#Wetlands #NatureBasedSolutions #WaterQuality #GoBelowground #ExFuMo

Tubers = survival engines. Packed with energy, resilient in tough soils, vital for people & ecosystems.
More on our blog: 1url.cz/qJDNS
#tubers #resilience #energy #ecosystems #indigenous #ExFuMo #GoBelowground @ibotcz.bsky.social @czechacademy.bsky.social

Big news! Our colleague Martin Bitomský from the #ExFuMo department is heading to Spain for a two-year research stay under the #MSCA project. Wishing him lots of luck, scientific success and invaluable experience. ¡Buena suerte! 🇪🇸 #GoBelowground @ibotcz.bsky.social @czechacademy.bsky.social