Current Staff
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David Boukal [Head, Assoc. Prof.]I am broadly interested in processes that shape the life histories of individuals and the dynamics of populations and entire communities. My main focus is on aquatic habitats and on the various forms of human impact (warming, eutrophication, pollution, habitat modification, fishing and other forms of exploitation, and more recently also invasive species) that usually makes life more difficult for the critters that live there. I combine experimental and statistical approaches with mathematical models, which is my original background. |
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Claire Duchet [postdoc]Claire's work focuses on the combined impacts of warming and selected pollutants on life histories and community structure of freshwater communities in small standing waters. Her approach combines standard ecotoxicological assays with long-term outdoor experiments in mesocosms. |
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Vojtěch Kolář [postdoc]I defended my PhD in the spring of 2021. My main interests are freshwater ecology and in conservation biology. My research in ecology has been focused on the effect of habitat complexity and top predator presence on predator-prey interactions in small and fishless pools. My main interest in conservation biology are the assemblages of aquatic beetles, heteropterans and dragonflies in standing waters. I am exploring their habitat preferences and drivers of their community structure in fishponds, sand pits, pools in spoil heaps and other man-made habitats. I am also trying to find a balance between fishpond management and habitat conservation in order to support local invertebrate and amphibian assemblages. As a side project, I have also been mapping the distribution of the endangered diving beetle Graphoderus bilineatus in Czechia.
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Lucie Vebrová [PhD student]My research line is focused on chironomids ecology, from species composition of chironomid larvae in anthropogenically influenced standing waters (including sandpit pools and fly ash lagoons) to flight activity patterns of adult chironomids and their modification based on weather conditions and seasonality. At the same time, I am collaborating in a international project examining ecosystem-scale impacts of microplastics on freshwater communities using mesocosm and laboratory experiments. |
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András Csercsa [PhD student/technician]Andras's work focuses on the temperature dependence of trophic interactions and individual energy budgets in selected aquatic insects. He is also in charge of selected tasks at the mesocosm experiments. |
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Samuel Dijoux [PhD student]My PhD project is dedicated to the role of life-history and physiological traits in the structuring and dynamics of small standing water communities. Mainly theoretical, the approach I use is the development of trait-based mathematical models (with emphasis on body size and habitat domain as key traits in aquatic food webs) to investigate the impacts of climate change on the structure and dynamics of freshwater food webs. |
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Derya Říha-Öztürk [PhD student, currently on maternal leave]My PhD project focuses on impacts of climate change on overwintering freshwater macroinvertebrates, especially investigating the effects of thermal regime on key characteristics such as metabolic rate, growth rate, development, emergence success and body conditions (protein, lipid, glycogen content) that underlie their individual fitness. I have also collaborated on a project exploring the effects of microplastics on freshwater ecosystems including mesocosm and laboratory experiments in Turkey. |
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Bára Zdvihalová [technician]We would not be where we are without Bára, our expert technician who keeps the lab in shape, helps with everything else, and makes great cookies and other savouries. |
Azola [lab dog]Bára's dog that always greets everyone and lights up your working day! |
