Contact

Dr. Demetra Rakosy
Postdoc 'Spatial Interaction Ecology'

Department of Community Ecology
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ/

German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig
Puschstraße 4
D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
(postal address)

Tel: +49 341 9733117
Room: A.02.12
demetra.rakosy@idiv.de
www.idiv.de

PLANT-POLLINATOR INTERACTIONS

My current research focuses on understanding the mechanisms driving changes in plant-pollinator interactions along natural and anthropogenic gradients. I am thereby particularly interested in how changes in taxonomic and functional diversity of both plant and insect communities along these gradients mediate plant-pollinator network structure.

Further points of interest:

• identifying the factors which mediate the roles individual species play in a plant-pollinator network and understanding the spatial and temporal variation in species roles

• the link between network structure and plant reproductive success

• factors influencing the restoration of plant-pollinator interactions

• historic plant-pollinator interactions

• integration of pollen into plant-pollinator network analyses

Study sites

Most of our study sites lie in Central to Eastern Europe (Poland, Czech Republic, Romania). Eastern Europe still harbours some of the most species rich natural and semi-natural habitats in Europe. Its mosaic landscapes offer an ideal setting for understanding plant-pollinator networks across various gradients. While these landscapes can offer valuable insights for the conservation and restoration of plant-pollinator networks across Europe, there are also aspects more unique to the region. For example intensive grazing (mainly by sheep) threatens most of the highly diverse grasslands of Romania, yet this threat is not sufficiently recognised at the European level. We hope that our research in this so far rather neglected area of Europe will draw additional light onto the issue of overgrazing (and other anthropogenic threats) and will contribute to inform policy makers and stakeholders into improving the current management practices.

Other research area of interest

POLLINATION ECOLOGY

During my PhD I have been working on elucidating the pollination strategies of several deceptive orchid species. These are species which attract pollinators without offering any kind of rewards. Instead they imitate either other rewarding flowering plants (food-deception) or even female insects (sexual-deception). I would love to further pursue this research in the future; it would for example be highly interesting to see how deceptive species integrate into plant-pollinator networks. For this it may be worthwhile to integrate concepts already in use in food-webs into plant-pollinator networks.

FLORAL TRAIT EVOLUTION

A research topic which I also pursued during my PhD, but which has inspired my current interest in further integrating floral traits into plant-pollinator networks. During my PhD I strived to understand how pollinator-mediated selection has shaped the evolution of floral traits such as scent, colour and form in sexually deceptive orchids. I am currently collaborating on a few projects which investigate the evolution of floral traits (particularly scent and colour) in other deceptive orchids, such as the genera Neotinea, Traunsteinera and Ophrys.
 

Curriculum Vitae

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

EDUCATION:

2018 – present: 

Co-mentoring of 1 PhD, 1 Master student, 1 intern, as well as several research assistants (field work and laboratory).

2018 – 2019:

Summer school in pollination ecology, organized by the AG Spatial Interaction Ecology (SIE), German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig. Summer schools were held in Poland and the Czech Republic.

2017 – 2018:

Guest lecturer at the Faculty of Biology and Geology, University Babes-Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Courses: Introduction to Ecology, Biodiversity (first semester).

2010 – 2012:

Tutor at the University Vienna (Institute for Biodiversity, Department for Evolutionary and Systematic Botany) for the following project practical’s: (300648-1) DNA markers and chromosomes in plant systematics and evolution. (300121-1) Molecular markers in population biology.

9 September - 13 September 2019:

The 7th International Orchid Conservation Congress, Royal Botanical Garden, Kew (UK). Presentation: P. Vitt, A. Taylor, H. Kreft, D. Rakosy, P. Weigelt, A. Meyer, T. M. Knight “First steps towards a global prioritization of Orchidaceae”.

28 May – 1 June 2019:

49th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Münster, Germany. Session and presentation: D. Rakosy, A. Nowak, V. Stefan, S. Swierszcz, E. Motivans, R. Feldmann, T. M. Knight. “The influence of management practices on plant-pollinator interactions in Central Europe - a case study”.

21 – 24 November 2018:

The 10th International Zoological Congress of the “Grigore Antipa” Museum. Poster: J. M. Bennett, A. Thompson, I. Goia, R. Feldmann, V. Stefan, A. Bogdan, D. Rakosy, M. Beloiu, I.-B. Biro, S. Bluemel, M. Filip, A.-M. Madaj, A. Martin, S. Passonneau, D.-P. Kalisch, G. Scherer, T. M. Knight. “Knowledge gaps in plant pollinator interactions and pollen supplementation experiments: a Romanian case study”.

29 May 2017:

Institute seminar, Institute of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, University Zürich. Invited speaker: “On the multifaceted nature of flowers: Patterns and drivers of floral trait variation in the sexually deceptive genus Ophrys”.

12 – 13 September 2019:

2nd PolDiv Workshop. KUBUS, Helmholtz Zentrum für Umweltforschung – UFZ (in Cooperation with iDiv – German Centre of Integrative Biodiversity Research).

4 – 8 November 2018:

Advance course: Introduction to R. CIBIO-InBIO, Vairão, Portugal.

10 – 14 July 2017:

German-Romanian Summer School on Pollination Ecology organized by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig. Main topic: pollination networks.

5 – 6 April 2016:

Olfaction: sampling methods, GC-MS profiling and statistical analyses. Organizer: Behavioural Ecology Group, Institute of Biology, Leipzig University.

10 – 13 January 2012:

3D Geometric Morphometrics Workshop Barcelona (Spain).

11 – 14 July 2011:

Geometric Morphometrics Workshop Telč (Czech Republic).

17 June – 18 October 2020: 

Blüten(be)sucher: Beziehungsgeschichten aus der Natur (Flower seekers: relatioship stories from Nature). Exhibit at the Botanical Garden Leipzig (https://www.idiv.de/en/events/bluetenbesucher.html). 

2 December 2020: 

Dies academicus 2020. Presentation („Vernetzt: Warum sich Naturschutz nicht nur auf einzelne Arten konzentrieren sollte“).

Peer-reviewed Publications