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Supplementations of the Mallard and their impact on wild populations
Pechmanová, Hana ; Musil, Petr (advisor) ; Kreisinger, Jakub (referee)
The Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) is quite a popular game bird species. In many states, particularly in Europe and North America, captive-rearing and releasing of mallards has become common practice in wildlife management. The aim of these supplementations is to boost the size of hunted populations. More than three million Mallards are released each year. This paper aims to summarize and assess the potential effects of captivity-reared Mallards on the wild populations. Supplementations of mallards pose a threat to the genetic identity and variability of wild populations and may potentially lead to morphological and behavioral changes. Breeding facilities can be source of many pathogens, so supplementations may lead to transmission of these pathogens into wild populations. All the factors mentioned above may thus affect the fitness and population dynamics of wild Mallards. This paper also briefly considers how the releases can affect other species and the environment. This issue is not well studied so more studies and appropriate monitoring are needed for an assessment of the rate of these processes.
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Risk of hybridization of threatened P. fruticosa with cultivated Prunus species
Musilová, Lenka ; Vít, Petr (advisor) ; Zahradníček, Jaroslav (referee)
Many agriculturally important fruit trees occur in the genus Prunus, among other also Sour cherry (Prunus cerasus) and Sweet cherry (Prunus avium). P. cerasus is considered to be an allopolyploid hybrid originated by hybridization of Prunus fruticosa (2n = 4x = 32) and P. avium (2n = 2x = 16). The world production of sour cherry fruit (P. cerasus) in 2008 is estimated to be more than 1, 15 million tones. Prunus fruticosa is a steppe (forest steppe) relict species, severely endangered in the Czech Republic (C2). The main threat of P. fruticosa are both the direct and indirect human activities, causing, above all the loss of natural biotopes and hybridization with cultivated species that ran wild to the nature. P. fruticosa hybridizes all over its occurrence area with wild P. cerasus (Sour cherry; which is not primary species of the Czech Republic) and originates fertile hybrid Prunus × eminens. The results of existing studies indicate that the hybrids are more common in the central Europe and that the frequency of hybridization rises towards the west. Such phenomenon is related to human activities (cherries cultivation and landscape changes). Many authors consider hybridization to be the main cause of endangerment of this species and noticed that in many habitats the hybrids could totally replace...
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Populačně genetická struktura pstruha obecného jako základ úspěšného obhospodařování lososových vod ve střední Evropě
KOHOUT, Jan
The genetic structure of 25 wild populations and five hatchery stocks from Czech Republic and Slovakia were analysed using mitochondrial (control region) and nuclear DNA (microsatellites, LDH-C1*) markers to elucidate the impact of stocking on central European populations of brown trout and to outline further management strategies. It seems that stocking practices have caused massive hybridisation between the Atlantic and Danube brown trout populations in the middle Danube basin and have led to a loss of among-population genetic variability in Slovakia and Moravia. Certain effect of stocking was detected also in the upper Danube, Vistula, Oder and Elbe River basins. However, the populations from the Elbe River basin keep certain level of among-population variability and seem to be less affected by stocking in comparison with the Danube River basin populations. There are some indications of late or post-Pleistocene penetration of the Atlantic basin trout to the Danube River basin. However, it is not clear to which extent the natural contact participated to the present distribution of Atlantic haplotypes and alleles in the Danube River basin. Samples from lower parts of the Danube River basin were therefore analysed using the same mitochondrial and microsatellite markers. Samples from Aegean Sea basin were included in order to reveal genetic variability of eastern Balkan populations and to estimate an impact of stocking in this area. Very low levels of introgression from Atlantic and other non-indigenous trout were found in the eastern Balkan populations. The genetic differentiation among the populations is substantially higher in this area compared to the central European populations. The populations in headwaters of the Otava River (Elbe River basin) were analysed using microsatellites in order to reveal origin of these populations and evaluate the current management strategies of brown trout in Šumava National Park and Protected Landscape Area. The analysed populations were substantially differentiated from the remaining Elbe River basin populations and there was also certain level of genetic structure within trout from the headwaters of the Otava River associated with isolation by a migration barrier and geographic distance. However, stocking with hatchery trout also contributed to the pattern of genetic variability. The population of Borová Lada hatchery, which is used for stocking in Šumava exhibited higher genetic variability compared to the wild populations and it seems to be of heterogeneous origin. Comparisons of the analysed populations with populations from other areas and results from other studies indicated that mtDNA haplotypes from the lower Danube River and southern Black Sea basins differ considerably from a subclade of the Danubian lineage consisting of haplotypes found so far in the most of the Danube River basin and in the Caspian and Aral Sea basins. The results thus evidence a complex evolutionary history of brown trout in the southern and western parts of the Black Sea basin.
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