Robert Tropek

Empirical elevational networks partly follow these MDE predictions, but also show clear deviations.

👉 Mid-domain effect matters, although biology leaves a major fingerprint. Ignoring MDE risks misinterpreting null patterns as biological signals.

Our null-model simulations show that MDE alone can generate strong structure:

- unimodal peaks in realised links, generality and vulnerability

- U-shaped patterns in connectance and often nestedness

All emerging from geometry, not biology...

If species overlap most in the middle of a gradient, interactions among overlapping species should too. Under MDE alone, network metrics are predicted to show unimodal or U-shaped patterns, even without any niche differences or environmental filtering.

New preprint on interaction networks from our group!

Do network characteristics peak mid-gradient, similar to species richness, due to simple geometry: the mid-domain effect (MDE).

We test this using simulations and real plant–pollinator and ant–plant networks.

doi.org/10.64898/202...

Podcast @akademievedcr.bsky.social o opylování, hmyzu, výzkumu, i mužích na rodičovské dovolené...

www.avcr.cz/cs/pro-verej...

(samozřejmě k nalezení i v podcastových aplikacích)

Take-home message: upslope range shifts under climate warming won’t automatically mean successful reproduction. Near mountaintops, plants face a double bottleneck – fewer pollinators and physiological limits. Pollination + climate must be considered together.

Pollinators were part of the story: visitation frequency and diversity declined upslope and were linked to seed production. But pollen limitation and reproductive failure weren’t explained by pollinators alone – abiotic constraints kick in hard at the top.

You might expect plants to compensate by selfing when pollinators decline. They didn’t.
Despite partial self-compatibility, there was no consistent shift towards selfing at high elevations. Reproductive assurance failed to rescue summit populations.

Reproductive success peaked at mid-elevations but collapsed near the summit. Seed set dropped sharply, while pollen limitation increased strongly. In some species, plants barely produced seeds even when we hand-added pollen. Harsh environments matter.

New prepring out!🌸🐝

How does plant reproduction change near the upper limits of vegetation in the tropics? We studied #pollination, pollen limitation, and selfing in Afromontane grasslands on Mount Cameroon.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

You wake up after the Christmas party, pry your eyes open, check you still have your phone, and then you open your email…

(this first email in Czech is announcing that my student has submitted her MSc thesis)

This split between broadening across the gradient and selectivity within elevations reveals hidden complexity in montane specialisation. As the first test of habitat niches in tropical insects, it may also reshape how we think about their responses to environmental change.

But here’s the twist:

despite broader niches across elevations, insects don’t loosen their selectivity within each forest zone. They still use only a slice of what’s locally available. Behaviour, microclimate and competition likely keep them picky.

We found a striking pattern:

Butterflies become clear habitat generalists upslope, while moths show subtler versions of the same trend. High-elevation forests seem to open up more “ecological space”, and some taxa readily expand into it.

Butterfly and moth habitat specialisation changes along an elevational gradient of tropical forests on Mount Cameroon Niche breadth, reflecting the range of environmental conditions or resources a species can exploit, influences its distribution, persistence, vulnerability to environmental change, and interspecific ...

New study!

We just published the first test of the elevational niche-breadth hypothesis using habitat niches of fruit-feeding butterflies and moths on Mount Cameroon in @oikosjournal.bsky.social!

It is another chapter from defended PhD thesis of @fpgaona1.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1002/oik....

The study showed that natural processes can be better than some technocratic restoration approaches. Its results has also been incorporated in numerous projects of postindustrial sites, in strategic documents, and others.

I am happy to not follow my supervisor's opinion!

doi.org/10.1111/j.13...

Study based on my MSc thesis has just reached 400 citations!💪

Fully my idea, ignored by my supervisor as "not interesting". I got a small student grant (~1000 EUR), fully coordinated the entire project, sampled a lot of insects, passed hard review process...

And it IS interesting for others!

Chapter from a recently defended PhD thesis of
@fpgaona1.bsky.social has just been published in the African Journal of Ecology!

Elevational patterns in two groups of micromoths (#Lepidoptera: Pterophoridae, Alucitidae) in tropical forests of Mount Cameroon

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

President of the Czech Republic Petr Pavel (left) and Tomáš Jungwirth (right) from the Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences. Photo credit: Czech Television (ČT).

Among those honored yesterday with state decorations by Czech President Petr Pavel is Tomáš Jungwirth from @fzuavcr.bsky.social: a physicist and world-leading expert in spintronics, a field that could greatly boost the efficiency of electronic devices. He received the Medal of Merit in science.

The most challenging chapter of my PhD thesis is now out as a preprint! A joint effort I co-led with @robtrop.bsky.social and 139 incredible collaborators from all around the world. Huge thanks to everyone involved!

Warmer and less seasonal climates promote generalisation. This means climate change may erode the world’s most specialised pollination systems, although unevenly across taxa and regions.

This synthesis was possible only through a global collaboration of 140+ researchers...

Pollination is often least specialised in the tropics and peaks at northern mid-latitudes.

Plants and pollinators show contrasting, non-linear trends, and climate, not latitude, is the key driver. Temperature, rainfall, and seasonality explain global variation in interaction specialisation.

New preprint!

“Climate-driven specialisation in plant–pollinator networks peaks outside the tropics”

Testing the long-debated latitudinal specialisation gradient using >3,400 quantitative networks (>110,000 interactions). Led by @saileesakhalkar.bsky.social and myself ☺️

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

to mě napadlo taky, ale tahle blbost už opadla, ne?

já mám už posledních ca 10 dní problém s chatGPT každé odpoledne, když Amerika pracuje. Je neskutečně pomalý a často padá, i u triviálních úloh. Docela by mě zajímalo, co se děje...

That would be great!

Today, we have received an announcement that Intranet of @charlesuni.cuni.cz is becoming an official communication channel between the university and its employees. Probably a good idea but... the university decides to ignore a few hundreds (I guess🤔) non-Czech speaking staff🤡 (please fix it!)

Our mini-review on the role of moths in pollination of tropical plants has been published! Maybe interesting not only for entomologists, botanists, and pollination ecologists...

🚨New paper on tropical moth pollination 🧵1/8 - What happens in tropical ecosystems when the day ends?🌔🦋 Our new review that @robtrop.bsky.social and I wrote highlights moths’ vital role in pollination and outlines research gaps, challenges and biases. Sharing valued! Link: doi.org/10.1017/S026...

Grateful for the opportunity to present our very recently accepted review paper on Nocturnal Moths as Pollinators in the Tropics that @robtrop.bsky.social and I wrote at the #OIKOSFin2025. Stay tuned for the full paper coming soon!