Belgorod State University Researchers Study Global Plant Migration

The team includes staff from our own Botanical Garden, from the Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, and from the Main Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.

The leader of the Belgorod State University team is Valery Tokhtar. He explained, “Mankind has a significant impact in changing the patterns of geographical distribution for plants, in transporting species away from their natural habitats. Transport corridors play a crucial role in this process, as plants travel along with the goods transported over long distances. In this respect, the Trans-Siberian Railway, as the world's longest railway, is a unique target for research, and for analysing the migration of alien plant species on a global scale.

According to the researchers, such studies make it possible to assess the multidirectional flows of plants from various regions of the globe along the Trans-Siberian Railway, and will help us predict their possible distribution in the future. This may be especially relevant in connection with the potential expansion of the range of alien species due to predicted global climate change.