Profile

Research topics in nutshell:

Assembly Rules: studying trait based assembly rules by comparing observed functional diversity to random references; identifying traits influenced by environmental filtering and competition

Biological invasion: pattern of plant invasion in Hungary; studying invasiveness by comparative ecological and experimental methods.

Phytosociology: syntaxonomical revision of Molinietalia meadows, development of Hungarian Phytosociological Database

Development new methods for data analysis: functional diversity, fidelity, co-occurrence based niche-width, validation of classification, semi-supervised classification.

Selected publications:

2025

• Global decoupling of functional and phylogenetic diversity in plant communities
  GJA Hähn, G Damasceno, E Alvarez-Davila, I Aubin, M Bauters, …
  Nature Ecology & Evolution 9 (2), 237-248
• Decline in plant species richness with a chronic decrease of precipitation: The mediating role of the dominant species
  G Ónodi, M Kertész, Á Bede-Fazekas, P Batáry, G Kröel-Dulay, …
  Journal of Ecology 113 (3), 621-634

2024

• Quantitative evaluation of internal cluster validation indices using binary data sets
  N Pakgohar, A Lengyel, Z Botta‐Dukát
  Journal of Vegetation Science 35 (5), e13310
• Low replicability of testing the stress–dominance hypothesis using a trait convergence/divergence pattern
  N Pakgohar, S Barabás, M Ćuk, A Csecserits, A Gyalus, A Lengyel, …
  Journal of Vegetation Science 35 (3), e13260
• Confidence and consistency in discrimination: A new family of evaluation metrics for potential distribution models
  I Somodi, Á Bede-Fazekas, Z Botta-Dukát, Z Molnár
  Ecological Modelling 491, 110667

2023

• A guide to between‐community functional dissimilarity measures
  A Lengyel, Z Botta‐Dukát
  Ecography 2023 (11), e06718
• No consistencies in abundance–impact relationships across herbaceous invasive species and ecological impact metrics
  A Fenesi, Z Botta‐Dukát, Z Miholcsa, V Szigeti, C Molnár, D Sándor, …
  Journal of Ecology 111 (5), 1120-1138
• Quartile coefficient of variation is more robust than CV for traits calculated as a ratio
  Z Botta-Dukát
  Scientific Reports 13 (1), 4671

2022

• Robust methods are needed to resolve contradictions in species richness curves along ecological gradients
  G Onodi, G Kröel-Dulay, M Kertesz, Z Botta-Dukat
  Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 57, 125703
• Devil in the details: how can we avoid potential pitfalls of CATS regression when our data do not follow a Poisson distribution?
  Z Botta-Dukát
  PeerJ 10, e12763
• Oversimplified models underestimate the role of local environmental filtering
  Botta-Dukát, Z., Kovács, B. and Gyalus, A.
  Journal of Vegetation Science, 33 (6), e13154

2021

• Are traits drivers or consequences of competition? Comments to Carmona et al
  Z Botta‐Dukát
  Journal of Ecology 109 (7), 2540-2549
• Dimensions of invasiveness: Links between local abundance, geographic range size, and habitat breadth in Europe’s alien and native floras
  TS Fristoe, M Chytrý, W Dawson, F Essl, R Heleno, H Kreft, N Maurel, …
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118 (22), e2021173118
• Optimal pooling of data for the reliable estimation of trait probability distributions
  Z Botta‐Dukát, BA Lukács
  Global Ecology and Biogeography 30 (6), 1344-1352
• Towards a more balanced combination of multiple traits when computing functional differences between species
  F de Bello, Z Botta‐Dukát, J Lepš, P Fibich
  Methods in Ecology and Evolution 12 (3), 443-448
• Comparison of silhouette‐based reallocation methods for vegetation classification
  A Lengyel, DW Roberts, Z Botta‐Dukát
  Journal of Vegetation Science 32 (1), e12984

2020

• Plantation forests cannot support the richness of forest specialist plants in the forest-steppe zone
  T Rédei, A Csecserits, B Lhotsky, S Barabás, G Kröel-Dulay, G Ónodi, …
  Forest Ecology and Management 461, 117964
• Trait‐based numerical classification of mesic and wet grasslands in Poland
  A Lengyel, G Swacha, Z Botta‐Dukát, Z Kącki
  Journal of Vegetation Science 31 (2), 319-330

2019

• Silhouette width using generalized mean—A flexible method for assessing clustering efficiency
  A Lengyel, Z Botta‐Dukát
  Ecology and Evolution 9 (23), 13231-13243
• Trait-based community assembly of epiphytic diatoms in saline astatic ponds: a test of the stress-dominance hypothesis
  É Ács, A Földi, CF Vad, Z Trábert, KT Kiss, M Duleba, G Borics, …
  Scientific Reports 9 (1), 15749
• The potential of common ragweed for further spread: invasibility of different habitats and the role of disturbances and propagule pressure
  G Kröel-Dulay, A Csecserits, K Szitár, E Molnár, R Szabó, G Ónodi, …
  Biological Invasions 21 (1), 137-149
• Drivers of Ambrosia artemisiifolia abundance in arable fields along the Austrian-Hungarian border
  G Pinke, T Kolejanisz, A Vér, K Nagy, G Milics, G Schlögl, …
  Preslia 91 (4), 369-389

2018

• Global trait–environment relationships of plant communities
  H Bruelheide, J Dengler, O Purschke, J Lenoir, B Jiménez-Alfaro, …
  Nature Ecology & Evolution 2 (12), 1906-1917
• Cautionary note on calculating standardized effect size (SES) in randomization test
  Z Botta-Dukát
  Community Ecology 19 (1), 77-83
• The effect of abandonment on vegetation composition and soil properties in Molinion meadows (SW Poland)
  G Swacha, Z Botta-Dukát, Z Kącki, D Pruchniewicz, L Żołnierz
  PLoS One 13 (5), e0197363
• Joint optimization of cluster number and abundance transformation for obtaining effective vegetation classifications
  A Lengyel, F Landucci, L Mucina, JL Tsakalos, Z Botta‐Dukát
  Journal of Vegetation Science 29 (2), 336-347
• On the reliability of the elements of metacommunity structure framework for separating idealized metacommunity patterns
  D Schmera, J Podani, Z Botta-Dukat, T Erős
  Ecological Indicators 85, 853-860
• The generalized replication principle and the partitioning of functional diversity into independent alpha and beta components
  Z Botta‐Dukát
  Ecography 41 (1), 40-50

2017

• Prevalence dependence in model goodness measures with special emphasis on true skill statistics
  I Somodi, N Lepesi, Z Botta‐Dukát
  Ecology and Evolution 7 (3), 863-872

2016

• Which randomizations detect convergence and divergence in trait‐based community assembly? A test of commonly used null models
  L Götzenberger, Z Botta‐Dukát, J Lepš, M Pärtel, M Zobel, F de Bello
  Journal of Vegetation Science 27 (6), 1275-1287
• Theory-based ecology: a Darwinian approach
  L Pásztor, Z Botta-Dukát, G Magyar, T Czárán, G Meszéna
  Oxford University Press
• Changes in assembly rules along a stress gradient from open dry grasslands to wetlands
  B Lhotsky, B Kovács, G Ónodi, A Csecserits, T Rédei, A Lengyel, …
  Journal of Ecology 104 (2), 507-517
• Testing the ability of functional diversity indices to detect trait convergence and divergence using individual‐based simulation
  Z Botta‐Dukát, B Czúcz
  Methods in Ecology and Evolution 7 (1), 114-126

2015

• A comparative framework for broad‐scale plot‐based vegetation classification
  M De Cáceres, M Chytrý, E Agrillo, F Attorre, Z Botta‐Dukát, J Capelo, …
  Applied Vegetation Science 18 (4), 543-560

2014

• Semi‐supervised classification of vegetation: preserving the good old units and searching for new ones
  L Tichý, M Chytrý, Z Botta‐Dukát
  Journal of Vegetation Science 25 (6), 1504-1512

2013

• Conceptual Frameworks and Methods for Advancing Invasion Ecology
  T Heger, AT Pahl, Z Botta-Dukát, F Gherardi, C Hoppe, I Hoste, K Jax, …
  Ambio 42, 527-540

2012

• Co‐occurrence‐based measure of species’ habitat specialization: robust, unbiased estimation in saturated communities
  Z Botta‐Dukát
  Journal of Vegetation Science 22 (2), 201-207

2011

• Patterns of plant trait-environment relationships along a forest succession chronosequence
  G Campetella, Z Botta-Dukát, C Wellstein, R Canullo, S Gatto, S Chelli, …
  Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 145, 38-48
• Hungarian landscape types: classification of landscapes based on the relative cover of (semi‐) natural habitats
  J Bölöni, Z Botta‐Dukát, E Illyés, Z Molnár
  Applied Vegetation Science 14 (4), 537-546

2010

• OptimClass: Using species‐to‐cluster fidelity to determine the optimal partition in classification of ecological communities
  L Tichý, M Chytrý, M Hájek, SS Talbot, Z Botta‐Dukát
  Journal of Vegetation Science 21 (2), 287-299
• Do short-lived and long-lived alien plant species differ regarding the traits associated with their success in the introduced range?
  A Fenesi, Z Botta-Dukát
  Biological Invasions 12 (3), 611-623

2009

• Alien species in a warmer world: risks and opportunities
  GR Walther, A Roques, PE Hulme, MT Sykes, P Pyšek, I Kühn, M Zobel, …
  Trends in ecology & evolution 24 (12), 686-693
• Classification of semi-dry grassland vegetation in Hungary.
  E Illyes, N Bauer, Z Botta-Dukat
  Preslia, 81 (3), 239-260

2008

• Invasion of alien species to Hungarian (semi-) natural habitats
  Z Botta-Dukát
  Acta Botanica Hungarica 50 (Supplement-1), 219-227
• The most important invasive plants in Hungary.
  Z Botta-Dukát, L Balogh (eds.)
  Institute of Ecology and Botany, Hungarian Academy of Sciences

2007

• Semi‐dry grasslands along a climatic gradient across Central Europe: Vegetation classification with validation
  E Illyés, M Chytrý, Z Botta‐Dukát, U Jandt, I Škodová, M Janišová, …
  Journal of Vegetation Science 18 (6), 835-846
• A grid-based, satellite-image supported, multi-attributed vegetation mapping method (MÉTA)
  Z Molnár, S Bartha, T Seregélyes, E Illyés, Z Botta-Dukát, G Tímár, …
  Folia Geobotanica 42 (3), 225-247
• Statistical and biological consequences of preferential sampling in phytosociology: theoretical considerations and a case study
  Z Botta-Dukát, E Kovács-Láng, T Rédei, M Kertész, J Garadnai
  Folia Geobotanica 42 (2), 141-152

2005

• Rao’s quadratic entropy as a measure of functional diversity based on multiple traits
  Z Botta‐Dukát
  Journal of Vegetation Science 16 (5), 533-540
• Vegetation of lowland wet meadows along a climatic continentality gradient in Central Europe
  Z Botta-Dukát, M Chytrý, P Hájková, M Havlová
  Preslia 77, 89-111

2003

• Invasion gateways and corridors in the Carpathian Basin: biological invasions in Hungary
  K Török, Z Botta-Dukát, I Dancza, I Németh, J Kiss, B Mihály, D Magyar
  Biological Invasions 5 (4), 349-356

2002

• Determination of diagnostic species with statistical fidelity measures
  M Chytrý, L Tichý, J Holt, Z Botta‐Dukát
  Journal of Vegetation Science 13 (1), 79-90