2x Young Investigator Prize

for Kristina Plenk

Kristina Plenk from the Institute for Integrative Nature Conservation Research (INF, DIBB) received for her presentation of two FWF projects during the 14th 'Eurasian Grassland Conference' in Riga/Latvia the second price for the best talk and the best poster presentation.

During the 14th conference of the 'Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG)' Kristina Plenk presented results of the FWF projects 'Biogeography, genetic and fitness patterns of steppe plants' (project leader: Matthias Kropf, INF) and 'Multivariate classification, biogeography and phylogeographic analysis of Pannonian steppe grasslands' (project leader: Wolfgang Willner, University of Vienna & Matthias Kropf, INF).

With her talk 'Reaching the (north)western distribution limit in Central Europe - a phylogeographic transect study on the genetic constitution and fitness of steppe grassland species' Kristina Plenk summarised the main results of her ongoing dissertation and provided insights into preliminary results of the actual research project with her poster presentation 'Biogeography, diversity and phylogeographic analyses of Pannonian and western Pontic steppe grasslands'. Both FWF projects address different aspects of the history of steppe species, which represent a substantial part of the indigenous flora in Eastern Austria and are highly relevant for nature conservation.

28.08.2017