Professor in Botany, Department of Botany and Zoology, Masaryk University, Czech Republic
Honorary Member of the Polish Botanical Society
Scientific and research activities
Professor Milan Chytrý is one of the most well-known and well-respected Czech botanist and ecologist whose scientific achievements are recognized worldwide. His scientific profile concerns diversity and ecology of plant communities. He works with a diversity of flora and vegetation at different spatial scales. Scientific career of Professor has been particularly devoted to vegetation survey of the Czech Republic and Europe, but he also focused on the diversity of Siberian ecosystems and its relationships to palaeoecosystems of Central Europe in Pleistocene and early Holocene. Another important aspect of his scientific career is related to the development of electronic vegetation-plot databases. He has made an outstanding contribution to vegetation science by unification and consolidation of many national phytosociological databases. His long-term effort to create accessible repository of vegetation data in Europe resulted in the establishment of European Vegetation Archive, which is a unique and remarkable source of ecological data for basic and applied research. This initiative is of particular importance for academic research and applications in nature conservation and ecological restoration. It is hard not to mention that Professor Milan Chytrý has contributed to the development of many methods of vegetation data analysis, which are nowadays used in broad-scale vegetation classifications. The initiated trend of using data from phytosociological databases has entailed further studies aimed to better understand the relationships between species diversity, productivity, soil properties, climate and biogeographical history and invasibility of plant communities by alien species. His scientific achievements are an outstanding contribution to nature conservation.
As a head of the Vegetation Science Group at the Department of Botany and Zoology, Masaryk University in Brno, Professor Milan Chytrý put a special emphasis on the practical skills in field vegetation sampling and application of up-to-date methods of data analysis when teaching successive generations of botanists and ecologists. An important part of the activities of the Vegetation Science Group is the Czech National Phytosociological Database whose originator and founder is Professor Milan Chytrý. The Vegetation Science Group is highly professional scientific center which gathers many prominent geobotanists and lead numerous research projects and develop new methods and approaches in vegetation science. It is a place for exchanging ideas and experiences through numerous international cooperation and scientific exchange between various scientific institutions around the world. Many young scientists from different regions of Europe and other continents consider this scientific centre as a great place for an internship.
Among the almost 2000 publications with Professor’s authorship, 164 of them are indexed in the Scopus database, and they were cited more than 4500 times. These numbers speak for themselves in demonstrating the importance of the scientific achievements of Professor Milan Chytrý. A broad scope of published articles reflects interdisciplinary nature of the research projects conducted by Professor. A variety of theoretical considerations, overviews, and methodological papers have been published in the course of his long academic career. The most important part of the published works are a geobotanical and primarily syntaxonomical research. Professor is the author of many monographs devoted to vegetation. Of a particular importance is multi-author monograph devoted to the diversity of vegetation in the Czech Republic edited by Professor Milan Chytrý. It consists of four volumes in which 39 vegetation classes and 496 plant associations have been described. Each of these vegetation units is characterized by a detailed description of its floristic composition, ecology, dynamics, distribution and economic or conservation value, including distribution maps and synoptic tables of species composition.
Professor Milan Chytrý is well-known from his enthusiastic promotion of ecological and botanical knowledge and organizing events that integrate the scientific community. He is always open to discussion and new ideas, willing to help and cooperate, an excellent companion during scientific expeditions and other meetings, a wonderful storyteller and an excellent guitarist and spontaneous singer. Professor Chytrý is an inspirational teacher who promoted 16 PhD students, many of whom have become professional researchers themselves or highly qualified teachers.
Membership of professional organizations
Professor Milan Chytrý is a Secretary of the Working Group European Vegetation Survey (EVS) of the International Association for Vegetation Science (IAVS). This group unites leading European experts in vegetation survey, diversity of terrestrial habitat types and phytosociology. The main aims and activity of the EVS are to support vegetation survey activities in Europe and beyond and to develop a consistent overview of European vegetation. Professor is a Vice-President of the Czech Botanical Society. It is a national scientific society that unites professional and amateur Czech botanists. Throughout its history, this Society significantly contributed to the high level of Czech botany in the national and international context. Professor Milan Chytrý is a Chief Editor of Applied Vegetation Science and the Journal of Vegetation Science and Associate Editor of other prominent international journals including NeoBiota and Tuexenia. He is also one of the editorial board members of Preslia journal and is a council member of IAVS.
Other activities
Professor Milan Chytrý gained a scientific experience in many prestigious research institutions in Europe, North America and Asia. He organized a number scientific conferences including, for example, a high-level international conferences under the auspices of EVS and IAVS. For many years Professor has been conducting research in Siberia, Greece, Kazakhstan, Spain, and Taiwan. He is one of the organizers of PhD meeting for students of botany and ecology from Central Europe giving them a great opportunity to discuss their research projects with professional scientists.
Recent publications
LIU, Hongyan, Helge BRUELHEIDE, Jörg EWALD a Milan CHYTRÝ. Temperate forests in continental East Asia. Applied Vegetation Science, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015, 18,1, s. 3–4. ISSN 1402-2001.
SOJNEKOVÁ, Martina a Milan CHYTRÝ. From arable land to species-rich semi-natural grasslands: succession in abandoned fields in a dry region of Central Europe. Ecological Engineering, Elsevier, 2015, 77, April, s. 373–381. ISSN 0925-8574.
POKORNÝ, Petr, Milan CHYTRÝ, Lucie JUŘIČKOVÁ, Jiří SÁDLO, Jan NOVÁK a Vojen LOŽEK. Mid-Holocene bottleneck for Central European dry grasslands: did steppe survive the forest optimum in northern Bohemia, Czech Republic? The Holocene, Sage, 2015, roč. 25, č. 4, s. 716–726. ISSN 0959-6836.
LOSOSOVÁ, Zdeňka, Francesco DE BELLO, Milan CHYTRÝ, Ingolf KÜHN, Petr PYŠEK, Jiří SÁDLO, Marten WINTER a David ZELENÝ. Alien plants invade more phylogenetically clustered community types and cause even stronger clustering. Global Ecology and Biogeography, Wiley, 2015, roč. 24, č. 7, s. 786–794. ISSN 1466-822X.
CHYTRÝ, Milan, Lubomír TICHÝ, Stephan M HENNEKENS a Joop H J SCHAMINÉE. Assessing vegetation change using vegetation-plot databases: a risky business. Applied Vegetation Science, Wiley, 2014, roč. 17, č. 1, s. 32–41. ISSN 1402-2001.
PYŠEK, Petr, Vojtěch JAROŠÍK, Jana PERGLEROVÁ, Lenka MORAVCOVÁ, Milan CHYTRÝ, Ingolf KÜHN. Temperate trees and shrubs as global invaders: the relationship between invasiveness and native distribution depends on biological traits. Biological Invasions, Springer, 2014, roč. 16, č. 3, s. 577–589. ISSN 1387-3547.
HORSÁK, Michal a Milan CHYTRÝ. Unimodal latitudinal pattern of land-snail species richness across northern Eurasian lowlands. PLoS ONE, 2014, roč. 9, č. 8, s. 1–10. ISSN 1932-6203.
PYŠEK, Petr a Milan CHYTRÝ. Habitat invasion research: where vegetation science and invasion ecology meet. Journal of Vegetation Science, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014, roč. 25, č. 5, s. 1181–1187. ISSN 1100-9233.
TICHÝ, Lubomír, Milan CHYTRÝ a Zoltán BOTTA-DUKÁT. Semi-supervised classification of vegetation: preserving the good old units and searching for new ones. Journal of Vegetation Science, Wiley-Blackwell, 2014, roč. 25, č. 6, s. 1504–1512. ISSN 1100-9233.
KALUSOVÁ, Veronika, Milan CHYTRÝ, Robert K. PEET a Thomas R. WENTWORTH. Alien species pool influences the level of habitat invasion in intercontinental exchange of alien plants. Global Ecology and Biogeography, Wiley, 2014, roč. 23, č. 12, s. 1366–1375. ISSN 1466-822X.
AXMANOVÁ, Irena, Milan CHYTRÝ, Jiří DANIHELKA, Pavel LUSTYK, Martin KOČÍ, Svatava KUBEŠOVÁ, Michal HORSÁK, Mikhail M. CHEROSOV a Paraskovia A. GOGOLEVA. Plant species richness-productivity relationships in a low-productive boreal region. Plant Ecology, Springer, 2013, roč. 214, č. 2, s. 207–219. ISSN 1385-0237.
MERUNKOVÁ, Kristina a Milan CHYTRÝ. Environmental control of species richness and composition in upland grasslands of the southern Czech Republic. Plant Ecology, Springer, 2012, roč. 213, č. 4, s. 591–602. ISSN 1385-0237.
CHYTRÝ, Milan. Vegetation of the Czech Republic: diversity, ecology, history and dynamics. Preslia, Praha: Česká botanická společnost, 2012, roč. 84, č. 3, s. 427–504. ISSN 0032-7786.
CHYTRÝ, Milan, Nikolai ERMAKOV, Jiří DANIHELKA, Michal HÁJEK, Petra HÁJKOVÁ, Michal HORSÁK, Martin KOČÍ, Svatava KUBEŠOVÁ, Pavel LUSTYK, Zdenka PREISLEROVÁ, Barbora PELÁNKOVÁ, Milan VALACHOVIČ a David ZELENÝ. High species richness in hemiboreal forests of the northern Russian Altai, southern Siberia. Journal of Vegetation Science, Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, roč. 23, č. 4, s. 605–616. ISSN 1100-9233.
MICHALCOVÁ, Dana, Milan CHYTRÝ, Samuel LVONČÍK a Ondřej HÁJEK. Bias in vegetation databases? A comparison of stratified-random and preferential sampling. Journal of Vegetation Science, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, roč. 22, č. 2, s. 281–291. ISSN 1100-9233.
AXMANOVÁ, Irena, David ZELENÝ, Ching-Feng LI a Milan CHYTRÝ. Environmental factors influencing herb layer productivity in Central European oak forests: insights from soil and biomass analyses and a phytometer experiment. Plant and Soil, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2011, roč. 342, 1–2, s. 183–194. ISSN 0032-079X.
TICHÝ, Lubomír, Milan CHYTRÝ a Petr ŠMARDA. Evaluating the stability of the classification of community data. Ecography, 2011, roč. 34, č. 5, s. 807–813. ISSN 0906-7590.
