Dr. Anna Mária Csergő - MATE Research
Overview
Dr. Anna Mária Csergő is a quantitative ecologist who leads an international group of PhD, MSc and undergraduate students interested in ecological biogeography. She develops predictive models of how the life history traits of species interact with ecological and spatial constraints to modulate the local persistence or expansion of plant populations. Anna employs quantitative tools that include demographic modelling, comparative macroecological analyses and common garden experiments.
Research keywords:
Publications
Effects of geographic isolation on plant populations
Species are not equivalent in their abilities to colonise and maintain populations on islands or habitat islands. Departing from predictions of metapopulation theory and extended equilibrium theory of biogeography, I am investigating the ecological and evolutionary drivers of long-term demographic performance in isolated and peripheral populations.
Ordonez, S., Deák, B., Valkó, O., Szász, V., Neumann, K. V., & Csergő, A. M. (2025). Microclimate and Dry Years Interfere With Landscape Structure Effects on Intraspecific Trait Variation. Ecology and Evolution, 15(5), e71417. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71417
Csergő, A. M., Healy, K., O'Connell, D. P., Baudraz, M. E., Kelly, D. J., Ó Marcaigh, F., ... & Buckley, Y. M. (2024). Spatial phenotypic variability is higher between island populations than between mainland populations worldwide. Ecography, 2024(1), e06787. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.06787
Herceg‐Szórádi, Z., Demeter, L., & Csergő, A. M. (2023). Small area and low connectivity constrain the diversity of plant life strategies in temporary ponds. Diversity and Distributions, 29(5), 629-640. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13685
Effects of climate change on plant populations
I use experimental macroecology to investigate effects of drought and local adaptation on the performance and persistence of plant populations. I initiated a reciprocal transplant experiment shared between seven countries across the native geographic range of Plantago lanceolata. This research stemmed from PLANTPOPNET, a global plant demography network that studies the longterm population dynamics of this model plant. I currently lead the management board of this research network.
Baudraz, M. E., Childs, D. Z., Kelly, R., Smith, A. L., Villellas, J., Andrzejak, M., ... & Buckley, Y. M. (2025). Several candidate size metrics explain vital rates across multiple populations throughout a widespread species' range. Journal of Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.70148
Villellas, J., Ehrlén, J., Crone, E. E., Csergő, A. M., Garcia, M. B., Laine, A. L., ... & Buckley, Y. M. (2021). Phenotypic plasticity masks range‐wide genetic differentiation for vegetative but not reproductive traits in a short‐lived plant. Ecology Letters, 24(11), 2378-2393. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13858
Projects
Geography of Demography: modeling plant population responses to global habitat patterns
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Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, 2015-2017
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Host institution: Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
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Mentor: Prof. Yvonne Buckley
The objective of the project was to examine geographic configuration of habitat patches suitable for hundreds of European plant species at continental scale. The overarching goal of the project was to improve our understanding of how these geographic patterns vary with species’ biological properties and geophysical constraints and how these may affect the local persistence or expansion of plant populations. The project emerged important generalizations across multiple species and plant life strategies over large geographic extents.
https://annamariacsergo.weebly.com/marie-curie-project.html
Isolation syndromes in plant and animal populations
Bolyai János Research Fellowship, 2019-2022
The objective of the project was to build global and regional models of phenotypic trait and genetic diversity from data collected on marine islands and habitat islands on the mainland. The overarching goal of the project was to incorporate geographic isolation in predictive models of biodiversity patterns.
