Author: Danijela Poljuha

In the laboratory of the Faculty of Biotechnology of the University of Ljubljana, from 5 to 10 December 2022, our colleague, Ph.D. Maja Mikulič Petkovšek and PhD student Mirela Uzelac did a great job of integrating data obtained by LC-MS analysis of extracts and fractions of four alien invasive plant species.

The doctoral student learned to analyze the data from the obtained chromatograms, which will be used to calculate the concentrations of individual phenols in the extracts and fractions of each species.

We are looking forward to the results because they already look very good and promising 😀

As part of the NATURALLY project fieldwork, we carried out an inventory of two species that are the subject of the project’s research – Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) and Canada goldenrod (Solidago canadensis), along the riverbank of the Mirna River. We compared standard ground and drone mapping methods to estimate the distribution and abundances of these species and developed a protocol optimized for the conditions of our terrain.

A scientific paper on this topic entitled “Development of drone-based methodology for inventory and monitoring invasive plants along river banks in Croatia“ was published in the scientific journal Management of Biological Invasions dedicated to biological invasions and their management (Q2; IF: 2,282). The paper has, apart from the scientific aspect, the function of contributing to the practical management of invasive species.

The sixth Symposium of doctoral students of the Faculty of Science was held in Zagreb from 23 to 24 April. At the symposium Phd student Mirela, presented the results of chemical characterization of invasive plant species extracts.

The poster was selected as one of the top five posters judged by an expert panel and is available at the link.

We were delighted by the news that the Croatian Science Foundation is carefully monitoring the activities on its projects and that likes to promote them.

Our project (and smiling faces) was also included in their report on the 4th Croatian Symposium on Invasive Species held in Zagreb.
You can find the entire report on the Foundation’s website: https://hrzz.hr/zakladini-projekti-na-4-
hrvatskom-simpoziju-o-invazivnim-vrstama/

At the 4th Croatian Symposium on Invasive Species held in Zagreb on 29-30 November 2021, members of the institute project team Barbara Sladonja, Ida Linić, Mirela Uzelac, and Danijela Poljuha presented the results of the project activities.

An oral presentation entitled INVASIVE ALIEN PLANT SPECIES IN CROATIA AS NEW ECOSYSTEM SERVICES PROVIDERS was given by Danijela Poljuha, and the team also presented the results of field analyses with a poster entitled AERIAL MAPPING OF FLOWERING JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE: A COMPARISON OF TWO

Summaries of the presentation are available at the link.

These days, our small team has been working intensively on completing analyzes, processing data and preparing the first presentations of project results. 

At the Mini-Symposium of the Croatian Society for Plant Biology, Danijela Poljuha presented the NATURALLY project in the section intended for the presentation of current projects, and the first results of the chemical characterization of extracts of invasive plant species were presented by postdoctoral researcher Ida Linić and PhD student Mirela Uzelac with two poster presentations.

Posters are available at the link.

Project NATURALLY is today presented to students of International Studies of Bioindustrial Techniques as part of the course Professional Project. The Faculty of Science (FOS) and the Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology (FFTB) have been involved in a joint graduate study of the University of Zagreb and the University of Orléans (France) since 2009.  The programme is available to  Molecular Biotechnology FFTB students and  Molecular Biology FOS students of the University of Zagreb. This year we presented the project NATURALLY to students to show the ongoing applied research in biotechnology in Croatia.