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Abundance and habitat use of reintroduced populations of the Hermit (Chazara briseis) in the Czech Republic
Pešová, Lucie ; Sedláček, Ondřej (advisor) ; Vrba, Pavel (referee)
The Hermit (Chazara briseis) belongs to the critically endangered species in the Czech Republic. Its last population survived until recently in the NPR Raná in the České středohoří Protected Landscape Area, but it has gradually declined. The specie's habitat is short-stemmed grasslands, which are maintained mainly by extensive grazing and management. Currently, these sites are declining, traditional management has changed and the sites are gradually becoming overgrown. Therefore, the reconstruction of the butterfly's habitats has been undertaken in selected localities that the butterfly used to inhabit in the past, in the České středohoří Protected Landscape Area (PR Číčov, Dlouhá hora, PP Radobýl) and in the Český kras Protected Landscape Area (Třesina, Radotín). Reintroduction of eggs and caterpillars took place in these sites in 2020-2021. The aim of the thesis was to evaluate the population abundance and habitat use of the Chazara briseis at these sites immediately after reintroduction. I estimated the size of the populations using the mark-capture-recapture method in 2020 and 2021. The size of the populations in the Lonské středohoří (Dlouhá hora and Číčov) was around 400-500 individuals with a fairly balanced sex ratio. Overflights were also recorded between these sites, which may indicate...
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Induction and potential use of monosex populations of pikeperch (Sander lucioperca) in intensive farming
ŠVEJDA, Pavel
The aim of this study was to induce monosex populations of pikeperch using the method of direct masculinization and direct feminization in order to change sex and evaluate the production parameters and body indices of the treated groups of pikeperch. For direct masculinization, 17 -methyltestosterone was used at a dose of 30 or 50 mg.kg-1 for 30 or 60 days. For direct feminization, 17 -estradiol was used at a dose of 30 mg.kg-1 feed for 30 days. Individuals of pikeperch with TL = 51.52 +- 4.19 mm and W = 1.23 +- 0.26 g, FC = 0.9 +- 0.3 were used for the experiment. In the experiment, direct feminization achieved a sex ratio 98.3 % of females and 1.7 % of males. This is the first record of an almost all-female population induced with 17 -estradiol. The highest level of masculinization of the tested individuals was achieved in the group exposed to 17 -methyltestosterone at a dose of 30 mg.kg-1 feed for 60 days. In this population, 75 % of individuals with male genital tissue were found, of which 21.7 % were individuals whose testicular sperm could be used to produce an all-female population. In groups treated with 17 -methyltestosterone for 60 days, the presence of "neomales" and intersex (hermaphrodite) individuals was observed. The experiment revealed that the use of the hormones 17 -methyltestosterone and 17 -estradiol can temporarily cause growth suppression, particularly during and shortly after exposure of individuals to these hormones. However, it does not have a lethal effect on individuals in the doses we applied. The higher growth rate of pikeperch females was not confirmed in the test. Females treated with 17 -estradiol did not show higher weight gains compared to the control group. A significant difference in the achieved final weight was not observed between both sexes in the control group at the end of the experiment.
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Sex ratios in reptiles according to the type of sex determination
Palata, Tomáš ; Kratochvíl, Lukáš (advisor) ; Rehák, Ivan (referee)
There are many factors influencing sex ratios in reptile populations and these factors can differ among sex ratios in different developmental stages. The observed ratio is the result of many complex processes. One of the key factors is the mechanism of sex determination. In reptiles we distinguish two mechanisms of sex determination. The first is genotypic sex determination (GSD), where sex is determined during the fusion of gametes. Species with GSD show just little variation in sex ratios after birth or hatching and during adulthood there is a higher mortality rate of the heterogametic sex. Secondarily, there are reptiles possesing environmental sex determination (ESD). The sex of the developing individual of this species is influenced by incubation temperature during the thermosensitive phase of development. Reptiles with ESD show much greater variability in sex ratios after hatching and this variability may persist to adulthood. This thesis focuses mainly on the differences in sex ratios between GSD and ESD species. One of its interests is also the question of vulnerability of reptiles with ESD in terms of skewed sex ratios during contemporary climate change. Key words: sex ratio, reptiles, sex determination, GSD, ESD, climate change
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Can birds manipulate sex ratio of their offspring?
Tomiška, Lubomír ; Kratochvíl, Lukáš (advisor) ; Fuchs, Roman (referee)
The aim of this study is a summary of existing knowledge about skewed sex ratio in birds. This controversial topic represents one of the most important questions of evolutionary ecology. We still miss consistence in finding ultimate causes just as proximate mechanisms although there was an expansion of experimental studies already in the last decade of the 20th century which was caused by an invention of the new technology in sex determination. On the other hand, there are many convincing proofs of skewed primary, secondary, tertiary and even quartenary sex ratio so the facultative manipulation or obligatory sex ratio bias is presumable. My Bachelor's thesis compares studies focused on the similar ultimate causes and tries to point out their deficiencies together with contributions to research of this topic. Observation of sex ratio includes many specifics which are mentioned in theoretical introduction. The second part offers potencial proximate mechanisms which could be responsible for sex ratio manipulation. Within the analysis of studies I found sex ratio manipulation of the first egg in clutch as common trend which could fit to selective ovum resorption as a proximate mechanism.
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Toxoplasma and Host's Reproductive Function
Hlaváčová, Jana ; Kaňková, Šárka (advisor) ; Kodym, Petr (referee)
Toxoplasma gondii (Apicomplexa) is probably one of the most common human parasite in developed countries. It has a wide range of hosts including a variety of warm-blooded animals as well as humans. In this bachelor thesis you can find review of literature focusing on an influence of T. gondii on host's reproductive functions. Toxoplasmosis is accompanied by hormonal changes which may be one reason for the negative effect on host's fertility. Throughout the thesis are mentioned immunosuppression and reduced quality control of embryos associated with T. gondii. Both of these phenomena probably affect pregnancy, prenatal and postnatal development of the offsprings of mothers with latent toxoplasmosis. And these also play a role in shifting of sex ratio in infected hosts.
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Reproductive strategies in boid snakes
Vejvodová, Tereza ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Rehák, Ivan (referee)
The important part of life history of species is number and size of offspring, which is limited by size of maternal investment. Family of boas (Boidae) comprises species with various maternal investments. The species of study was Cuban boa (Chilabothrus angulifer) having small litter size, but producing one of the biggest neonates from family Boidae. The aim of the thesis was to analyze relationships between life-history parameters and try to find possible evolutionary causes of this huge maternal investment. Results show, that the female's decision to reproduce is under "Capital breeder" strategy, when size of the female positively influence litter size and offspring size. Surprising result is that smaller (younger) females are producing more sons than daughters in accordance with "Local resource competition" hypothesis. Fitness of the young should increase with birth size. That was confirmed only in interspecific survival rate being very high in Cuban boa. Keywords: snakes, Cuban boa, maternal investment, life history, SSD, sex ratio
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Can birds manipulate sex ratio of their offspring?
Tomiška, Lubomír ; Kratochvíl, Lukáš (advisor) ; Fuchs, Roman (referee)
The aim of this study is a summary of existing knowledge about skewed sex ratio in birds. This controversial topic represents one of the most important questions of evolutionary ecology. We still miss consistence in finding ultimate causes just as proximate mechanisms although there was an expansion of experimental studies already in the last decade of the 20th century which was caused by an invention of the new technology in sex determination. On the other hand, there are many convincing proofs of skewed primary, secondary, tertiary and even quartenary sex ratio so the facultative manipulation or obligatory sex ratio bias is presumable. My Bachelor's thesis compares studies focused on the similar ultimate causes and tries to point out their deficiencies together with contributions to research of this topic. Observation of sex ratio includes many specifics which are mentioned in theoretical introduction. The second part offers potencial proximate mechanisms which could be responsible for sex ratio manipulation. Within the analysis of studies I found sex ratio manipulation of the first egg in clutch as common trend which could fit to selective ovum resorption as a proximate mechanism.
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Influence of latent toxoplasmosis on sex ratio and pregnancy progression - search for proximate cause
Kaňková, Šárka ; Flegr, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Votýpka, Jan (referee) ; Calda, Pavel (referee)
The boy-to-girl ratio at birth (secondary sex ratio) is around 1.06 in most populations. The sex ratio may be influenced by many factors, such as stress and immunosuppression, age of parents, parity and sex of preceding siblings. The most common human protozoan parasite in developed countries, Toxoplasma gondii (prevalence 20% - 80%), is known to change the behaviour of its intermediate hosts, thereby increasing the probability of transmission to its definitive host (the cat) by predation. The results of our retrospective cohort study suggest that the presence of Toxoplasma gondii, can influence the secondary sex ratio in humans. Depending on the antibody concentration, the probability of the birth of a boy can increase up to a value of 0.72, which means that for every 260 boys born, 100 girls are born to women with the highest concentration of anti-Toxoplasma antibodies. In accordance with results on human subjects, laboratory mice with toxoplasmosis produced a higher sex ratio than controls, in the early phase of latent infection. Our further results showed that mice in the early phase of latent infection exhibited temporarily increased production of interleukin (IL)-12 and decreased production of IL-10. The mice showed decreased production of IL-2 and nitric oxide and decreased proliferation...
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Ekonomie rodiny: Vliv znečištěného ovzduší na pohlaví dětí
Pažitka, Marek ; Stroukal, Dominik (advisor) ; Nikolovová, Pavla (referee)
The Trivers-Willard hypothesis (TWH) states that parents in good conditions will bias the sex ratio toward sons and parents in poor conditions will bias the sex ratio toward daughters. The present study contributes to literature in several ways: a large, general, country population data set (N= 1 401 851) from modern contemporary society; first study in the Czech Republic; an inclusion of air pollution into the TWH estimation; and a more detailed focus on stillbirths. With the natality microdata from the Czech Statistical Office and data concerning the level of air pollution in the Czech Republic from the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, I analyze if the biological and socio-economics status of mothers and the characteristics of our surroundings (air pollution) affect the sex of children. The results are insignificant or not robust across specifications. I identified three hypotheses which are most likely the reason for the insignificant results: a non-inclusion of the biological and socio-economical status of a father, insufficient diversity or evolutionarily novel environment in the Czech Republic. As a conclusion, the presented evidence suggests that stillbirths are random in the Czech Republic and that the sex ratio is not affected by the socio-economics status of mothers or the characteristics of our surroundings (pollution).
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