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Physiological adaptations associated with body size and longevity in endothermic vertebrates
Pazdera, Lukáš ; Tomášek, Oldřich (advisor) ; Blažek, Radim (referee)
Abstact Lifespan is related to a number of physiological processes that are interconnected. Longevous species are assumed to have evolved certain physiological adaptations that slow down ageing rate and enable long lifespan. The aim of my thesis was to review physiological traits that has been hypothesised to be associated with lifespan, and to evaluate the empirical support for such hypotheses. Studies testing the association of these traits with body size has also been included in my thesis, as body size is known to be tightly related to lifespan. Traits that are reviewed in my thesis due to their hypothesised coevolution with lifespan are as follows: metabolic rate (i.e., a total amount of energy expended by the organism per unit of body mass and unit of time), oxidative stress resistance, telomere length and rate of telomere shortening and intensity of stress and immune responses. Key words: Lifespan, longevity, survival, reproduction, oxidative stress, free radicals, reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, metabnolic rate, immunity, antioxidants
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Latitudinal trends in avian life-histories
Krejčířová, Zuzana ; Albrecht, Tomáš (advisor) ; Reif, Jiří (referee)
Most studies on bird focus on northern temperate zone species. However, the vast majority of birds occupies tropical environments. In birds, differences between tropical and temperate zone species in various life-history traits have long been assumed. These differences may reflect variation in solving the survival-reproduction trade-off, with temperate species preferring actual reproduction over the survival and tropical species preferring the oposite. In this bachelor thesis I summarize the result of literature search focusing on latitudinal trends in selected life-history traits in birds. In the first part of thesis I provide an overview of differences between the temperate and tropical zone in environmental conditions often assumed to closely affect the evolution of avian life histories. In the second part of the thesis, I focus on particular life-history traits where the differences between tropical and temperate species were detected. Latitudinal trends in chosen life history associated traits (clutch size, longevity and life span, basal metabolic rate) indeed seem to correspond with the general prediction of comparatively slow pace of life in tropical species.
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Life expectancy and its determining elements:A study for the Czech Republic at the beginning of the 21th century
Korbelius, Vojtěch ; Paulus, Michal (advisor) ; Polák, Petr (referee)
Life expectancy and its determining elements: A study for the Czech Republic at the beginning of the 21th century. In our thesis we are modelling a life expectancy function for the Czech Republic at the beginning of the 21th century. Our model is using three types of explanatory variables - environmental (socio- economic), health care and environmental pollution. Our study is the first study not only for the Czech Republic but it is a first study to include environmental pollution variables into a complex life expectancy model. As a result, we found two different life expectancy functions where one is applicable for male ta the age of 45 and 65 and female at the age of 45 and the second which is the best model for female ta the age of 65. General outcome points out three things - only one health care factor is significant at a time, environmental pollution is category that has to be considered and the percentage of people over the age of 65 is significant variable determining the life expectancy the most.
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