Overview
I work as data manager in Duke University Herbarium. I maintain collections and databases of bryophytes and lichens, oversee a databasing project of bryophytes, and assist in training undergraduate and graduate students in bryophyte diversity and herbarium management. I'm an active member of Duke Bryophyte Laboratory where I participate on research in bryophyte systematics. I am interested in bryophyte diversity of montane, alpine and wetland ecosystems. I have extensive field experience in temperate and boreal regions of Europe and North America, with focus mainly on mosses and liverworts. Born and raised in the Czech Republic.
Recent Publications
Climate niches structure a regional hybrid zone in Sphagnum (peatmoss, Bryophyta).
Journal Article American journal of botany · December 2025 PremiseHybridization is an important evolutionary process across all groups of embryophyte land plants, but relatively little is known about hybridization and introgression in plants with a dominant gametophyte life cycle stage. This paper focuses ... Full text CiteNitrogen fixation in Arctic lichens and mosses: A survey across circumpolar subzones.
Journal Article The Science of the total environment · October 2025 Nitrogen bioavailability frequently constrains primary production in the Arctic with tundra communities vulnerable to ecological and metabolic disruption from climate variability. Diazotrophs associated with lichens and mosses are the primary source of new ... Full text CiteAI for difficult herbarium specimens: identification of peat mosses (subgenus Sphagnum) without dissection.
Journal Article The New phytologist · August 2025 Artificial intelligence (AI) for image-based herbarium specimen identification has thus far focused on plants that can be identified by eye. Here, we develop the first AI focused on identifying herbarium specimens of a bryophyte group, peat mosses in Sphag ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
Accessioning and curating the BING peatmoss (Sphagnum) collection into DUKE
ResearchData Manager · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2022 - 2025Digitization TCN: Collaborative Research: Building a global consortium of bryophytes and lichens: keystones of cryptobiotic communities
ResearchData Manager · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2020 - 2025ARTS: Collaborative Research: A Model Systematic Treatment of a Hyper-Diverse Lineage Descended From Early Land Plants (Frullania, Frullaniaceae, Marchantiophyta)
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2012 - 2017View All Grants