Selected recent publications
2021
Lukács K., Valkó O. (2021): Human-vectored seed dispersal as a threat to protected areas: Prevention, mitigation and policy. Global Ecology and Conservation 31: e01851.
2020
Valkó, O., Lukács, K., Deák, B., Kiss, R., Miglécz, T., Tóth, K., Tóth, Á., Godó, L., Radócz, Sz., Sonkoly, J., Kelemen, A., Tóthmérész, B. (2020): Laundry washing increases dispersal efficiency of cloth-dispersed propagules. NeoBiota 61: 1-16.
2018
Kiss, R., Sonkoly, J., Török, P., Tóthmérész, B., Deák, B., Tóth, K., Lukács, K., Godó, L., Kelemen, A., Miglécz, T., Radócz, Sz., Tóth, E., Balogh, N., Valkó, O. (2018): Germination capacity of 75 herbaceous species of the Pannonian flora and implications for restoration. Acta Botanica Hungarica 60: 357-368.
Lukács, K., Valkó, O. (2018): A ruházat szerepe az ember általi magterjesztésben. Kitaibelia 23: 77-86.
2016
Ruprecht, E., Lukács, K., Domokos, P., Kuhn, T., & Fenesi, A. (2016): Hydration status influences seed fire tolerance in temperate European herbaceous species. Plant Biology 18(2): 295-300.
Katalin Lukács
Assistant Research Fellow, CER IEB
✉ lukacs.katalin@ecolres.hu
Research interests
Due to increased global population and mobility, people became very abundant long-distance dispersal vectors for plant propagules. In this way, human-vectored seed dispersal (HVD) supports invasive alien species in a new environment to overcome both propagules and establishment.
There are several studies that highlight environmental problems caused by the human-mediated seed dispersal and establishment of seeds in the isolated habitats such as Antarctica or Australia. So far, seeds of 449 species have been documented to be able to spread on clothing worldwide. These are mostly seeds of European plant species which are most commonly found in shoes and cotton socks. In contrast, the number of studies conducted in Europe is negligible. I am interested in the species pool that can be dispersed this way and also I aim to identify the habitats that can provide the most of seeds in Central Europe. According to our results, it is very important to minimize the chances of these species spreading in the high-value nature reserves. Furthermore, it is essential to keep visitors properly informed about this phenomenon.