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Evolutionary history of hedgehogs from genus>Erinaceus
Černá Bolfíková, Barbora ; Hulva, Pavel (advisor) ; Janko, Karel (referee) ; Kryštufek, Boris (referee)
Hedgehogs from the genus Erinaceus are extremely interesting and suitable model organisms for studying impacts of climatic changes during Pleistocene on species and speciation processes. Erinaceus europaeus and E. roumanicus, which have diverged in southern refugia, formed a secondary contact zone in Central Europe. The widest part of this zone is situated in Czech Republic. Our work benefits from this position and processes that take place here such as reinforcement, character displacement and hybridization are discussed. Moreover, we addressed several questions about biological invasions and topics connected to peripatric processes. Using combination of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA we detected differences in population structure between the species and also between sexes. E roumanicus is mainly restricted to lowlands. Ranges of both species expand and hybridization may play role during formation of reproductive isolation. We did not observed ecological character displacement when using 3D geometric morphometry approaches. Populations in sympatry are more similar than in allopatry. Our data are enhanced by description of parasite fauna of sympatrical populations and we discuss the role which they may play in evolution of the hedgehogs. Study proceeded in New Zealand was based on comparison of...
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Genomic approach in speciation studies
Habalová, Kateřina ; Hulva, Pavel (advisor) ; Mikulíček, Peter (referee)
Speciation, adaptation and hybridization are three concepts, each one referring to different process but having a common evolutionary context. Maternal line splits into two sister lines or only one line cleaves from maternal one during speciation. However it leads to formation of new species. Adaptation and hybridization can lead to formation of new species as well. New species arise by adapting to new conditions during adaptation. Within hybridization it is a desecendant of two different lines mating amongst themselves. Most of this thesis is being addressed to these issues, the lesser part is addressed to specific examples. The chapter about next-generation sequencing methods is also included, as these methods have been used more frequently recently. Key words: speciation, adaptation, hybridization, genomics, next-generation sequencing
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Distribution of wildcat (Felis silvestris) in Czech Republic / geomatic modelling and ecological approach
Pospíšková, Jana ; Hulva, Pavel (advisor) ; Anděra, Miloš (referee)
Population of the European wildcat (Felis silvestris) are slowly recovering after a severe decline in the 18th century. The wildcat was a rare species already on the beginning of 19th century on the territory of Czech Republic. During the 20th century the species was considered to be extinct and the scarce records to be individuals dispersed from Carpathian or West-European population. Furthermore there was lack of evidence to this observations. With the expansion of photo monitoring methods, there comes pictures of wildcats from the Beskid Mountains, Bohemian Forest, The upper Palatine Forest and Doupov mountains. After more than 60 years there is finely a proof for the presence of wildcats in Czech Republic. To understand its space requirements and dispersion context, and to know if there is a place for wildcats to live in Czech Republic, we made a habitat model in ArcGIS. This rule-based model works with attributes like land cover type, duration of snow cover, aspect and the vertical heterogeneity of terrain. The model was applied also for Slovakia, because the evaluation data only comes from Slovakia. We found out that the occurence of wildcats in the model territory relate to broad-leaf forests, duration of snow cover (>20cm) not exceeding 50 days and the southern exposure. In Czech Republic there is...
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Bird diversity and diversification: Different processes converging to the same pattern?
Černá, Vladimíra ; Storch, David (advisor) ; Hulva, Pavel (referee)
Latitudinal diversity gradient is one of the oldest known trends in the distribution of life on the Earth. Scientists have been trying to find causes of its formation for more than two hundred years. There are several hypotheses suggested to explain this gradient. Recently, it is one of the main themes of discussion among ecologists and evolutionary biologists. By this Thesis, I will try to contribute to understanding of processes that generate the latitudinal diversity gradient. Particularly, I study if there is a relationship between ambient temperature and diversification rate. Is this relationship different for individual groups of animals? I choose birds as a model group. Specifically, these six families of birds: Accipitridae, Columbidae, Furnariidae, Picidae, Psittacidae and Strigidae. These groups include more than 1500 species. Each of them has the same universal gradient of diversity, with the highest diversity concentrated in the tropics. My objective was to find out, whether the universal gradients of bird's diversity had been shaped by the same historical processes. Or alternatively, whether different evolutionary trajectories had converged to the same gradients. The main outcome of my work is a discovery that some of the selected families diversified faster in warmer climates...
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The effect of climatic changes on genetic build-up of populations and their role in promoting adaptive radiations
Štefková Kašparová, Eva ; Janko, Karel (advisor) ; Šabacká, Marie (referee) ; Hulva, Pavel (referee)
The Southern Ocean and its enormously cold, remote and yet the wildest continent, the Antarctic, have experienced numerous rapid climatic changes. It used to be viewed as a barren wasteland with limited knowledge of species diversity or phylogeography. Recently, all aforementioned premises are being increasingly questioned, and this thesis aims to shed light on them. Firstly, multi-locus genetic markers were used to evaluate if it is the lifestyle, benthic or pelagic, including the duration of the pelagic larval period that determines the population connectivity of particular notothenioid species. It was the adult's fish lifestyle along with the oceanographic factors that are responsible for the gene flow between localities. Secondly, is lifestyle a factor determining the extent to which Pleistocene growing grounded ice sheet affected species past population dynamics? The attention was paid to Notothenioidea fish, then to Echinoidea sea urchins, and lastly to NCBI database available antarctic marine shelf and deep-sea fauna. Our findings suggest that the last glacial maximum affected more profoundly the population size of benthic shelf species. At the same time, those living in the water column or inhabiting deep slopes had more ancient population size changes. The Antarctic terrestrial evolution...
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Conservation genetics of Eurasian lynx in the Western Carpathians
Ungrová, Lenka ; Hulva, Pavel (advisor) ; Kaňuch, Peter (referee)
Robust monitoring combined with genetic analyses are important approaches to protect and manage large carnivore populations successfully. The aim of this master thesis is to analyse Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) population within whole Slovakia for the first time using 15 microsatellite loci. Noninvasive genetics is an effective tool for monitoring animal species with large home ranges and low population densities. Noninvasive samples including feces, hair, urine and buccal swabs were collected together with tissue samples from dead (mostly roadkill) individuals. 187 samples were collected between 2017-2019, resulting in 59 successful genotypes. Two samples were incorrectly determined in the field and excluded from further analyses since they were wildcat samples. For population genetics analyses and demography, the dataset from the "Veľké šelmy 2" project was extended with 98 genotypes in collaboration with the Institute of Vertebrate Biology CAS. Overall, 68 lynx individuals were detected in the dataset of 155 genotypes. Relatedness analysis resulted in 67 significant relationships of the first degree and 9 significant relationships of the second degree. These results suggest a high relatedness among the whole population. According to the present thesis, Slovakian lynx population has the third lowest...
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Population trends of animals of different taxa and regions on the basis of the Living Planet Database
Váňová, Lenka ; Storch, David (advisor) ; Hulva, Pavel (referee)
The analysis of population trends of animals is increasingly being used not only as an indicator of population changes, but also as an indicator of biodiversity decline. Living Planet Index is one of such indicators, as it shows a proportional decline or increase of all populations by means of mean annual changes in population abundance. Since the first presentation of the index in 1998, its values have been decreasing, which was interpreted as indication of a critical state of global biodiversity. Nevertheless, there are some issues concerning the index. It is unclear to what extent is it robust, if it is not too much influenced by biased data or if it does not comprise a systematic error. This thesis focuses on four vertebrate taxa and its aim is to examine the level of data heterogeneity and their potential influence on the index. For this purpose, two parameters were defined for each population, Growth and Trend. Overall, the trends in abundances were quite balanced, some populations being decreasing, some increasing, and stable populations were also present. Despite of our expectations, the heterogeneity in the data was not large enough to have a substantial effect on the index. Analysis of trends in variously defined groups (e. g. "biomes", taxa or biogeographic realms) revealed only little...
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Allopatric evolution in rousettine fruit bats: from population and landscape genetics to phylogeography
Stříbná, Tereza ; Hulva, Pavel (advisor) ; Bryja, Josef (referee) ; Vallo, Peter (referee)
Population structure, biogeography and phylogenetic relationships of the fruit bat genus Rousettus have been studied in Africa and adjacent regions. The current population patterns of rousettine fruit bats in the Old World are influenced by several environmental attributes, namely the topography, climate and land cover. These variables are mirrored in fruit bat plesiomorphies related to the ecological niche of tropical flying frugivore, as well as apomorphies of rousettines including echolocation ability, roosting in caves and dispersal capacity in open landscapes with discontinuous tree cover. Phylogenetic relationships among species and subspecies of the genus have been indicated and confronted with the existing colonization scenarios. Insular populations (including habitat islands within desert oases) show frequent genetic differentiation from their mainland relatives suggesting successful founder events after traversing stretches of unsuitable habitats. Genetic differentiation evolving in less distant islands suggests involving behavioural mechanisms maintaining cohesion of isolated demes as site fidelity and natal habitat-biased dispersal. In sub-Saharan mainland Africa within the large range reaching from the southern border of Sahara to Cape Peninsula, Rousettus populations share a...
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Conservation genetics of grey wolf and snow leopard: effect of landscape attributes to the population structure
Benešová, Markéta ; Hulva, Pavel (advisor) ; Kreisinger, Jakub (referee)
Landscape genetic approaches allow to study effects of landscape to population microevolution. Landscape can influence gene flow even in large carnivores with good dispersal ability. Understanding the influence of landscape to the gene flow between populations is crucial for species conservation, especially in the species with low population densities. Aim of the study was to describe genetic structure of the grey wolf (Canis lupus) and snow leopard (Panthera uncia) in selected areas and to determine the influence of the landscape features on observed structure. Non-invasive genetic samples of snow leopard from Nepal were analysed, as well as invasive and non-invasive samples of grey wolf from Central Europe. Population structure was determined a posteriori using Bayesian clustering approaches that integrate genetic and geographical data, and compared to landscape connectivity models. Population structure of snow leopards is mostly influenced by human presence and presence of frequented roads, which represent a substantial dispersal barrier. Habitat suitable for this species is greatly restricted by altitude, however, during dispersal they are able to overcome areas with higher elevation than what is optimal for them. Pronounced genetic difference was found between central European and Carpathian...
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