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Biogeography of arachnofauna of the Alps
Šilhavá, Alena ; Šťáhlavský, František (advisor) ; Řezáč, Milan (referee)
This bachelor thesis gives a summarizing overview of the biogeography of arachnofauna of the Alps. It covers five orders of arachnids residing in the Alps, namely scorpions (Scorpiones), pseudoscorpions (Pseudoscorpiones), palpigrades (Palpigradi), harvestmen (Opiliones) and spiders (Araneae). The work is focused on the distribution of endemic and subendemic species of these orders of arachnids and on factors that can influence their distribution and total diversity in the Alps. It turns out that temperature and humidity are important factors. Pseudoscorpions occur more frequently in warmer areas at lower altitudes, while especially scorpions of the genus Euscorpius (Alpiscorpius) and harvestmen are more tolerant to areas with a lower temperature, while harvestmen especially require sufficient humidity. For spiders in the mountains of the Alps total species richness and density decreases mainly from open land to the forest. Total diversity in the Alps has also been influenced by temperature oscillations during the Quaternary climatic changes and different positions and types of refugia. This is apparent at the species closely related to soil environment, such as palpigrades or cave pseudoscorpions of the family Syarinidae. Key words: biogeography, the Alps, endemic, Scorpiones, Pseudoscorpiones,...
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Genetic variability of the genus Alburnoides in Azerbaijan
Omelchenko, Dmytro ; Švátora, Miroslav (advisor) ; Vukićová, Jasna (referee)
The Caucasus region is characterized by high rate of endemism and taxa richness of fishes. Azerbaijan is a country situated on the border between Europe and Asia with rivers flowing in the Caspian Sea. Natural environment of this country is represented by various habitats with diverse ichthyofauna. This region is very attractive for biogeographical studies because it lays on the border of two different ecoregions. Even on the modern stage of scientific cognition, there is still lack of data about freshwater fishes from that region. Spirlins or rifle-minnows (Alburnoides Jeitteles, 1861, Actinopterygii, Cyprinidae) is a genus of small freshwater fishes and it has been chosen as a focus of this thesis because of numerous reports of new species from surrounding countries. The presented thesis is one of the seldom molecular studies trying to reveal the taxonomical situation within the genus Alburnoides, describe the phylogenetic relationships between geographically isolated populations, and provide biogeographical implications for fishes in the Caspian Sea river basins. Both mitochondrial (cytochrome b, cytochrome oxidase subunit I) and nuclear (RAG1, rhodopsin) markers were used in the study and the Maximum Likelihood, Maximum Parsimony and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses were performed. Further, the...
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Genome size evolution in Costaceae
Böhmová, Alžběta ; Fér, Tomáš (advisor) ; Rybka, Vlastimil (referee)
Genome size in plants varies greatly; in angiosperms this variability can make a 2400- fold difference. This is why the subject of many studies is the attempt to explain these differences in various contexts. One of these is the phylogenetic viewpoint, which studies the relationships between genome size and different taxonomic groups. Many studies have been published so far which explore the plants of the temperate zone; there are however very few studies investigating genome size in tropical plants. For this reason, the subject of this thesis is the analysis of genome size in the pantropical family Costaceae Nakai. This family presently includes seven genera: Monocostus K.Schum., Dimerocostus Kuntze, Costus L., Paracostus C.D.Specht, Chamaecostus C.D.Specht & D.W.Stev, Hellenia Retz. and Tapeinochilos Miq., counting altogether about 300 species. The family is sister to the family Zingiberaceae, which has been notably better explored due to its economic importance. One of the aims of this thesis was a partial revision of the phylogeny published by Specht (2006). Molecular methods were used to analyse the phylogenetic relationships; these methods included classical sequencing of the trnL-F region and next-generation sequencing, where probes designed in advance were used to obtain the targeted genes....
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Crustaceans of Antarctic lakes - past and present status
Pokorný, Matěj ; Sacherová, Veronika (advisor) ; Nedbalová, Linda (referee)
Antarctic continent is one of the most severe regions on Earth and it is characterized by low annual temperatures, low precipitation, extensive ice cover and low energy input from the Sun. Nevertheless its lakes host not only microbial communities and protists but in many cases even in the most extreme localities also metazoans, especially rotifers and crustaceans. For at least the last 15 million years Antarctica has experienced massive glaciations that shape the distribution of organisms on this continent. Although it was originally thought that freshwater animals did not survive Quaternary glaciations in situ but migrated to milder regions in the north, nowadays it appears that at least in some cases it is not true. Direct evidence of survival of rotifers (Notholca sp.) and crustaceans (Daphniopsis studeri) in Antarctica was given by paleolimnological studies that were carried out in the Larsemann Hills and circumstantial evidence for permanent survival of crustaceans in Antarctica (e.g. Gladioferens antarcticus) is also growing. Antarctica is currently inhabited by about 14 species of freshwater crustaceans but recent climate changes and rapid warming of Antarctic Peninsula will probably lead to changes in the distribution of some species (e.g. Bockella poppei, Branchinecta gaini) that could, combined...
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Biogeography and host spectrum of twisted-wings (Strepsiptera)
Benda, Daniel ; Straka, Jakub (advisor) ; Malenovský, Igor (referee)
Twisted-wings (Strepsiptera) are an endoparazitic order of insects with cosmopolitan distribution, which are sister group of Coleoptera. There are 7 known host insect orders. As a group with relatively small number of species (almost 600) and cryptic way of life, Strepsiptera were usually overlooked by entomologists. Majority of publications about Strepsiptera deal simply with describtion of new species. For many taxa of basal families, the host group is unknown, because just free flying male has been collected and described. In contrary, only a female collected with host is known in some species. In derived families Xenidae and Stylopidae (parasitize Hymenoptera: Aculeata), there are known hosts in overwhelming majority of species. Many information about distribution of these groups can be extracted also from publications about hosts, where stylopized individuals are mentioned. Presented thesis summarizes the distribution of Strepsiptera at the level of families and genera. It also provides an assessment of the occurrens of Strepsiptera in different biogeographic regions with focus on their hosts. Keywords: Twisted-wings, Strepsiptera, distribution, parasites, host group, biogeography
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Diversity, distribution, phylogeny and ecology of the genus Micrasterias (Desmidiales)
Trumhová, Kateřina ; Šťastný, Jan (advisor) ; Bestová, Helena (referee)
The genus Micrasterias comprises one of the most beautiful organisms. It attracts, due to its spectacularly shaped cells, the attention of scientist and amateur biologist almost for almost 200 years. This thesis summarizes the current knowledge about these extraordinary organisms. The first part deals with the morphology and the life cycle of these algae. They share a unique type of reproduction (conjugation) with the other representatives of the class Zygnematophyceae. The second part concerns phylogeny of this genus. Several morphologically distinct species have been revealed with the aid of molecular phylogenetic methods to belong to the genus Micrasterias. A polyphasic evaluation of three species complexes within this genus also revealed an extensive hidden diversity. The last chapters summarize the knowledge about the influence of hidden diversity and accelerated morphological evolution on our understanding of diversity and biogeography of these organisms.
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Cryptic and pseudocryptic diversity of conjugating green algae (Zygnematophyceae)
Kupčíková, Eva ; Šťastný, Jan (advisor) ; Škaloud, Pavel (referee)
This bachelor thesis summarizes the most commonly used species concepts in the class Zygnematophyceae. This group of algae and the molecular markers used in the zygnematophytes' molecular phylogeny will be presented in this thesis. Zygnematophytes have unicellular or multicellular forms and they generally occur in freshwater habitats. Desmids are useful as indicators of water quality and they are also used for scoring of conservation value. Therefore it is important to have the species well defined. The confusion in defining of desmid species was caused by often very variable morphology. Some authors had different opinions on the classifying of desmid species and theirs subunits. The combination of molecular phylogeny, electron microscopy and geometric morphometrics was used in revealing of (pseudo)cryptic species in the genera Micrasterias or Xanthidium. The geometic morphometrics was helpful for finding of important details for distinguishing of particular pseudocryptic species. Key words: cryptic and pseudocryptic diversity, conjugation, desmids, Micrasterias, Euastrum, Xanthidium, molecular phylogeny, taxonomy, geometric morphometrics, biogeography, green algae
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Taxonomy, ecology and biogeography of aquatic and limno-terrestrial diatoms (Bacillariophyta) in the Maritime Antartic Region
Kopalová, Kateřina ; Nedbalová, Linda (advisor) ; Sabbe, Koen (referee) ; Jüttner, Ingrid (referee)
Diatoms (Bacillariophyta) are one of the most diverse algal groups in the Antarctic Region and play a dominant role in almost all freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. Despite this overall occurrence, little is known about the diversity, ecology and biogeography of this group in the Maritime Antarctic Region. The main objective of this thesis is therefore to define the taxonomical, ecological and biogeographical characterisation of aquatic, semi- aquatic and moss-inhabiting diatom communities from two islands in the Maritime Antarctic Region: James Ross Island and Livingston Island, located on opposite sides of the Antarctic Peninsula. In this study, a total of 250 samples from three different habitat types (lakes, streams & seepage areas and mosses) from Byers Peninsula (Livingston Island) and Ulu Peninsula (James Ross Island) have been analysed. Using light and scanning electron microscopy, a rather diverse diatom flora composed of 178 taxa, belonging to 43 genera has been identified. Although even until recently, it was generally accepted that the Antarctic diatom flora was mostly composed of cosmopolitan taxa, several new species could be described as a new for science during this PhD study (a reflection of this work is presented in chapters 2 & 3 and in Appendices). Habitat type and...
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Unveiling hidden species diversity in desmids (Desmidiales, Viridiplantae)
Šťastný, Jan ; Neustupa, Jiří (advisor) ; F.M. Coesel, Peter (referee) ; Kaštovský, Jan (referee)
The delineation of desmid species was traditionally based on purely morphological features. However, a frequent misinterpretation of morphological variability in desmids has led in the past to extensive taxonomical confusion within this important group of green algae which complicates the interpretation of their biodiversity in freshwater ecology, biogeography and biomonitoring. Consequently, I focused in this thesis predominantly on a previously neglected issue, the application of polyphasic approaches in the species-level taxonomy of desmids. In the most studies, a combination of both traditional morphological and modern molecular phylogenetic and geometric morphometric methods has been used to evaluate the taxonomy of selected desmid species, particularly representatives of the morphologically complex genera Micrasterias and Xanthidium. In two papers, I used the combination of traditional morphological and autecological data to clear up the taxonomy of several morphologically less prominent desmid taxa. Generally, the results of the thesis demonstrated that the way we recently see the diversity and distribution of desmids should be thoroughly changed. The real species diversity is mostly distinctly finer than that estimated by classical morphological taxonomy, often corresponds to varieties of...
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