🌿 Meet Our Partners – BioClima Project: 🇨🇿 Research and Breeding Institute of Pomology Holovousy Ltd. (VSUO)

📍 Czechia | 🌐 https://www.vsuo.cz

Research and Breeding Institute of Pomology Holovousy Ltd. (VSUO) is the only research institute in the Czech Republic dealing with the topic of fruit research of most fruit species of the temperate climate zone. During its almost seventy-year long history, it has focused mainly on applied research and development in horticulture. VSUO carry out research in selection breeding orchards, experimental orchards and testing plots on nearly 100 hectares. Institute also manages the reference gene bank collection of temperate fruit species with more than 2500 cultivars and has more than 30 years of phenological evaluation data. It serves as a centre of fruit research and technical advice for Czech Fruit Grower Union. Within the institute, there is a climatological station operated jointly by VSUO and the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI). VSUO have access to one of the longest series of meteorological observations, dating back to 1955.

Role in BioClima

In cooperation with Plan4all, VSUO coordinates the Czech pilot focused on monitoring biodiversity and climate interactions in agricultural and forest landscapes. The team monitors the impacts of mitigation measures such as reforestation, hedgerows and other landscape elements in the typical Central European countryside strongly affected by agriculture.

Pilot site

The pilot site is located in Czechia, Vysocina region. Selected site in Cadastral unit of Matějov encompasses a gradient from protected semi‑natural habitats to intensively managed arable land, providing ecological and climatic representativeness for Central European mixed‑agricultural landscapes. The main objective is quantification of the influence of contrasting land‑cover types on soil‑moisture dynamics and near‑surface microclimate and the evaluation of the effectiveness of reforestation, hedgerows and other landscape elements in moderating local climate extremes and enhancing soil‑water retention. The outputs will improve understanding of land‑cover–climate–soil interactions at parcel to landscape scales.

Team behind the work

The BioClima pilot in Czechia is carried out by a dedicated team of researchers:

Jiří Sedlák – Senior Researcher
Radek Vávra – Senior Researcher
Klára Scháňková – Junior Researcher
Pavel Pech – Senior Researcher

Quote – Why is BioClima important to your work?

As the VSUO team emphasizes:

"BioClima will helps us better understand how biodiversity and climate interact in agricultural landscapes typical for Central Europe. This fits well with our long-term research on fruit crops and helps us promote more sustainable horticultural practices and contribute to climate-resilient fruit production. Thanks to the international cooperation, we can share methods and experiences with other experts from Europe and China."

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