Restoration Ecology Group

The past few years of extreme drought in Hungary have made the problem of climate change — which has actually been ongoing for decades — tangible for many people. The importance of water retention is receiving increasing attention, and regulatory and practical measures have been launched to conserve water in the landscape. While the sight of...

A felülvizsgálat célja annak értékelése, hogy a Madárvédelmi és Élőhelyvédelmi Irányelvek továbbra is megfelelően támogatják-e természetvédelmi céljaik hatékony megvalósítását, miközben fenntartják az Európai Unió magas szintű természetvédelmi követelményeit. A vizsgálat emellett a szabályozás egyszerűsítésének és digitalizációjának lehetőségeit is...

Expert speaker Kris Decleer introduces Landscape Ecological System Analysis (LISA) as a structured, science-based approach to assessing restoration needs across landscapes, alongside the concept of the Favorable Reference Area (FRA) as a way to define restoration ambition and long-term ecological viability. The session also raises concerns that...

At the 200th anniversary conference of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA), our group member Melinda Halassy delivered a lecture on the scientific foundations and practical implications of ecological restoration in the early 21st century. Framing restoration as the "acid test of ecology," she highlighted the importance of community assembly...

The SER-Europe Legal Working Group (LWG) has published a series of six policy briefs examining the legal and governance implications of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR). The series offers targeted analysis across key sectors, including agriculture, forestry, marine and urban ecosystems, protected species, and restoration planning and...

One of our group members, Anna Kövendi-Jakó, received funding through the Academy's grant program for researchers raising children. The support was awarded for preparing a scientific paper on testing seed transfer zones based on the palnt traits of sandy species.

On April 17, the latest episode of the ÖKé! podcast, "The Foundations of Our Life: Ecosystem Services", will be released. Dr. Péter Koncz, a member of our group and ecological expert at the HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, explains the natural processes that are essential for understanding both human well-being and the functioning of...

In addition to climate change and our ecological footprint, economic uncertainties, social inequalities, and public health challenges are increasingly intertwined—this complex phenomenon is known as a polycrisis, a global-scale problem. The "Polycrisis Conference" sought answers to this urgent situation, examining the greatest crisis of the 21st...

EU Nature Restoration Regulation in Hungary: Insights from ÖBI Seminar In the latest ÖBI seminar, Melinda Halassy presented "Implementing the Nature Restoration Regulation: Where Do We Stand?", offering a clear snapshot of how the EU's Nature Restoration Regulation is being put into practice. She outlined the EU framework and guidance, detailed...

In this study, the authors explored how plants allocate biomass belowground by examining species-specific and community-level root mass fractions in a semiarid sandy grassland. They also investigated whether changes at the community level are driven more by shifts in species composition or by how individual species respond to altered precipitation...

Our colleague, Amira Vörös (advised by György Kröel-Dualy and Tibor Kalapos), successfully defended her doctoral dissertation today, entitled

In a recent study published in Global Ecology and Conservation, our group investigated how short-term seed storage and the timing of seeding influence the restoration of open sand grasslands, using accessions from the Pannon Seed Bank.

Our research group participates the project "Foundations for the strategic planning of ecosystem services-based green infrastructure developments supported by regularly updated datasets" (ÖSZ-ZI, KEHOP_PLUSZ-3.2.2-24-2024-00002)