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Edge of habitability: bird community on dump sites after uraninite mining
KOREJS, Kryštof
Biota on post-mining areas is a well-examined topic in restoration ecology. However, most scientific attention focuses on large-scale opencast mining sites or spoil heaps. This study attempts to offer an insight into ecological conditions on a unique ecosystem represented by dump sites after uranium mining, using birds as a study group. We examined differences in bird abundance, species richness, community structure and habitat preferences between nine moderately sized dump sites and eight control areas. Our study can function as a pilot survey of birds of uranium mining sites, offering a broad overview of population-level effects of hostile conditions. Our findings can guide restoration practices with respect to this specific type of ecosystem.
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Diversity and relative biovolume of benthic diatom assemblages in relation to environmental conditions.
Šoljaková, Tereza ; Kulichová, Jana (advisor) ; Chattová, Barbora (referee)
iv ABSTRACT Benthic diatoms are due to a number of positive characteristics (such as high abundances, diversified communities, sensitive responses to environmental conditions, capturing long-term changes in the environmental conditions) currently the most commonly used bioindicators of the ecological status of freshwater ecosystems. However, due to problems associated with the use of traditional methods based on species composition (time-consuming identification, presence of species complexes, and requirements for calibration of water quality indexes for geographical regions) searching for alternative methods has been induced. The monitoring of the size structure of diverse diatom communities has been proposed as one of the methods. This approach would mainly eliminate the necessity of time-consuming determination of species. The main purpose of this thesis was therefore to determine the relationship between the size structure of benthic diatom communities, expressed as the relative biovolume, and selected environmental factors (pH, conductivity, habitat type) within freshwater lentic habitats. Furthermore, the variability of biovolume in dependence on environmental variables was compared with the change in species composition. If there would be a similar response pattern of both the biovolume and species...
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What are the effects of ombro-minerotrophic transition in Central European peatlands on structure and dynamics of microalgal communities?
Hanousková, Andrea ; Neustupa, Jiří (advisor) ; Pusztai, Martin (referee)
Peatlands, as primary boreal habitats, are very rare and valuable azonal ecosystems in the Central European landscape. Their value is due, among others, to the enormous abundance of microalgae communities, of which probably the most prominent group consists of desmidiales, both in the richness of species and in their proportional representation. An important factor that affects peatland biota is the ombro-minerotrophy gradient derived from the hydrological regime. According to this concept, peat bogs are divided into two basic types - ombrotrophic peat bogs, which are saturated only by rainwater and minerotrophic fens, which are enriched by groundwater or surface water. The desmids, characterized by high sensitivity to environmental factors and species richness, are a very useful model group for ecological studies. In my work I deal with the effect of the ombro-minerotrophic gradient on the structure, diversity and dynamics of desmid communities on Sudeten peat bogs. The results show that ombro-minerotrophy significantly affects the structure of communities and is more determinant for the occurrence of individual species than their abundance. Significant effect was also found in species diversity. Minerotrophic peat bogs have apparently higher species diversity, which is mainly determined by the...
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Silica-scaled chrysophytes in spatially structured microbiotopes (case study from Aquitaine; France)
Faturová, Jana ; Němcová, Yvonne (advisor) ; Čapková, Kateřina (referee)
In protists a biodiversity hotspot could be defined as region with exceptionally high ratio of local to global species diversity. In 2012 Aquitaine (France) was revealed to represent a hotspot of Synurales (lineage within silica-scaled chrysophytes). To investigate how the diversity is distributed and where the species are hidden, samples from 42 lakes were collected during spring peak of Chrysophyte occurrence (from March 27th to March 31st ). Samples were taken in two microbiotopes - phytoplankton and metaphyton. Metaphyton was represented by different substrates (aquatic plants). I identified seventy-six species from genera Mallomonas and Synura, which confirmed Aquitaine to be a hotspot. In this thesis, I investigated ecological drivers of chrysophytes diversity and community structure. The chrysophyte diversity was driven mostly by mutual impact of pH and conductivity, north-south gradient of lakes location and sampled microbiotopes. Number of identified species increased with increasing pH and conductivity, with increasing size of waterbody and with location of the lake more towards the South. More taxa were revealed from metaphyton (77) than from plankton (61), substrates played an important role. Lakes in Aquitaine are rich in different species of aquatic plant, which immersed create...
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The importance of woodlots for birds in farmland
Rajmonová, Lenka ; Reif, Jiří (advisor) ; Zasadil, Petr (referee)
One of the outcomes of agricultural intensification is landscape homogenization, particularly obvious in developed countries. Unproductive plots of woody vegetation may represent a refuge for many species within large blocks of open areas. Eventhough it is crucial to assess the importance of such plots for animals in farmland, surprisingly, no synthesis on this topic has been published up to now. Therefore, performance of such an assessment is the main task of this bachelor thesis which is focused on birds since they heavily suffer from agricultural intensification. It was found that marginal vegetation provides not only habitat for breeding and foraging but also ecological corridor for birds᾽ short-distance movement and stopover sites for long-distance migrants. The structure of avian community is affected by specific characteristics of vegetation itself considerably and also by characteristics of landscape in smaller measure. Both farmland and forest birds occur in marginal vegetation, each of these bird groups utilizes these plots in a different way based on its ecological needs, however. The understanding of these mechanisms will allow effective conservation of biodiversity and restoration of once devastated areas. The main goal of conservation should be to ensure heterogeneous landscape mosaic...
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Desiccation as a structuring factor in desmid communities
Jirková, Kateřina ; Neustupa, Jiří (advisor) ; Kopalová, Kateřina (referee)
Desmids are an important part of the phytobenthos in the wetland ecosystems. These ecosystems are often ephemeral and changes in the hydrological regime is a typical characterisic of this habitat type. Dessication is a significant stress factor that affects water organisms. Different species differ in their extent of tolerance to dessication stress and it can affect their community structure and also their phylogenetic diversity. Two sites, the nature reserve Borkovická Blata and the nature locality Na Plachtě, were selected for this work. Ephemeral (seasonally dessicating) and permanent pools differed in the structure of desmid communities but the difference was signifacant only for Borkovická blata. At both localities, the samples from the dessicating pools showed in average lower species richness and Shannon's diversity index than samples from non-dessicating pools, but the differences between these groups of samples were not statistically significant. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the desmids community were phylogenetically overdispersed; closely related species tended to not appear together on the same sites at both localities. The difference in the phylogenetic structure between ephemeral and permanent was detected only in the Borkovická blata site, where the ephemeral pools exhibited weaker...
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Changes in mid-European bat fauna along the Plio/Pleistocene boundary: denus Myotis
Trávníčková, Eva ; Horáček, Ivan (advisor) ; Wagner, Jan (referee)
This diploma thesis summarizes results of the detailed morphometric analysis of extensive fossil materials of the genus Myotis from the upper Pliocene deposits of Javoříčské caves (Czech Republic) and Urwista cave (Poland). Patterns of phenotype variation of particular fossil populations were analyzed with aid of uni- and multivariation techniques, compared with type series of fossil taxa described from MN15 site Gundersheim and a comparative series of extant European species. Nine fossil and 10 extant species were identified and further reexamined in terms of their phenotype variation and possible phylogenetic relations. The phenotype structure of fossil assemblages were compared to that of Gundersheim and extant European fauna: samples from Urwista cave show clear resemblances to the former one, those from Javoříčské cave exhibit certain similarities to the extant European fauna despite clear differences in variation patterns of particular species. Technical preparation, documentation by photographic material, measurement and statistical analysis is included in this work. Key words: bats, Pliocene, phenotype dynamics, community structure
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Diversity and relative biovolume of benthic diatom assemblages in relation to environmental conditions.
Šoljaková, Tereza ; Kulichová, Jana (advisor) ; Chattová, Barbora (referee)
iv ABSTRACT Benthic diatoms are due to a number of positive characteristics (such as high abundances, diversified communities, sensitive responses to environmental conditions, capturing long-term changes in the environmental conditions) currently the most commonly used bioindicators of the ecological status of freshwater ecosystems. However, due to problems associated with the use of traditional methods based on species composition (time-consuming identification, presence of species complexes, and requirements for calibration of water quality indexes for geographical regions) searching for alternative methods has been induced. The monitoring of the size structure of diverse diatom communities has been proposed as one of the methods. This approach would mainly eliminate the necessity of time-consuming determination of species. The main purpose of this thesis was therefore to determine the relationship between the size structure of benthic diatom communities, expressed as the relative biovolume, and selected environmental factors (pH, conductivity, habitat type) within freshwater lentic habitats. Furthermore, the variability of biovolume in dependence on environmental variables was compared with the change in species composition. If there would be a similar response pattern of both the biovolume and species...
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Substrate specifity of epiphytic communities of diatoms (Bacillariophyceae) and desmids (Desmidiales)
Mutinová, Petra ; Neustupa, Jiří (advisor) ; Šímová, Irena (referee)
Substrate specificity of epiphytic communities of diatoms (Bacillariophyceae) and desmids (Desmidiales) Bc. Petra Mutinová Master's thesis, Prague, 2015 Abstract It has been always assumed, and frequently reported, that host plants, as biologically active substrates, should have a direct influence on associated epiphyton. However, some studies favoured the neutral substrate hypothesis. Thus the relationship between host plant and epiphytic community remained unresolved. This Master's thesis focused on the basal question that numerous previous studies overlooked. Is there any significant influence of host plant on freshwater algal epiphyton in comparison to the influence of other factors, e.g. site and environmental conditions? In addition, substrate specificity of individual algal taxa was investigated. The research concerned several types of natural plant substrates at several water bodies in the Czech Republic, which provided a more accurate and general insight in the ecology of microphytobenthos. The results have demonstrated that site was the main factor affecting epiphytic community structure, followed by mild, but still noticeable, effect of environmental conditions (pH and conductivity). In contrary, host plant had almost no influence and very few algal species were found to be host specific....
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