Masaryk University in Brno

BIODIVERSITY Research Group

Detailed Description of the Research Plan

 

Faculty of Sciences

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 Research Plan
 

Identification code:

MSM 143100010

Name of the research plan:

Spatial and Temporal Biodiversity Dynamics in Ecosystems of Central Europe

Bearer (Institution):

Masaryk University in Brno, Faculty of Science

Solver:                  Name:

VAŇHARA Jaromír

                              Tel.:

05/41129523

                              Fax:

05/41211214

                              E-mail:

vanhara@sci.muni.cz

 

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 Background
 

Czech institutions working in the field of biology are unique in their specialists’ ability to identify biological material and in their potential to combine classic and modern biological methods. Diversity studies are focusing on different levels from the molecular one to individual organisms, populations, communities and ecosystems. These efforts are backed even by such organisations as the UNESCO, WHO, EEA. The current development does also require bringing legislation into compliance with legal standards regarding the conservation of biodiversity in the EU (CORINE, NATURA 2000, DIVERSITAS). Immediate and global approach is needed to enhance the knowledge on the biological species diversity and to monitor its spatial and temporal changes. Not a single ecosystem has been completely described in this respect. The submitted Research Plan proposes the promotion of biodiversity studies and the collection of original data for a potential assessment of biodiversity in Central Europe. This multidisciplinary research project will thus gradually close some of the existing knowledge gaps. The study of vascular plants shall include population diversity and micro-evolutionary phenomena, and the modelling of spatial links of the diversity of vascular plant communities and ecological factors. Another field of study to be promoted is the biosystematics of invertebrates including insects. In this field particular attention shall be paid to the most important functional and trophic groups in the studied ecosystems, their abundance, species diversity and relations to other organisms. This shall include the monitoring of aquatic insects and other representatives of aquatic fauna in relation to the quality of running waters. Vertebrate biologists will monitor the diversity of small mammal communities and study habitat preferences. The part of the project conducted by parasitologists will cover fish parasite communities and parasite-host systems as well as the interactions between haematophagous arthropods and mammals in regard of pathogen transmission. The broad approach of the submitted Research Plan will be based on the scientific results of the research teams involved reaching many years back. It will be adequately interconnected to other projects on biodiversity. We are not aware of any overlap with other Research Plans. Existing links to several Czech and foreign projects contributing to the knowledge on biodiversity are considered very beneficial and shall be systematically promoted.
 

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 Objectives and
 Implementation
 Strategy
 
To define the Research Plan objectives and the design a strategy that would ensure that these will be fulfilled, and taking into consideration the chosen broad approach towards the study of biodiversity, individual fields of research had to be looked upon as independent units with their own research project and responsible manager. In some cases such independent units could be merged - look here.
 
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 Experts
 
The tradition of the individual biological disciplines at the Faculty of Science participating in the submitted Research Plan reaches back many years. In the last 9 years these systematic disciplines have been further developed, particularly due to grants awarded: from the domestic ones particularly by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (20 grants) but also the Academy of Science (1), the Czech Government (2), the Ministry of Environment (2), and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (12), from the foreign ones TEMPUS and the British Government (Darwin Initiative) (2). During this time the research team members published (including co-authorship) in total 20 monographs and 36 papers in scientific journals listed by the SCI J. Cit. Report not to talk about other publications. In the same period they presented 11 invited contributions at scientific conferences abroad and participated in organising 6 foreign and 11 domestic conferences and workshops. The envisaged objectives of the Research Plan are based on these projects and all other activities (either completed or about to get completed). The Research Plan will thus help to continuously enlarge the knowledge gained so far in the individual fields of research:

The Department of Botany is a traditional department of the Faculty of Science of Masaryk University. Historically, its focus has been on phytogeography, taxonomy of vascular plants, bryophytes, lichens, phytocoenology, and plant ecology. The Department’s current focus is the systematics of vascular plants - particularly of Central European flora (currently work on the compendium The Flora of the Czech Republic is the main task), phytogeography - particularly the study of geographic distribution of plants in the Czech Republic and Central Europe, in the last time especially studies on landscape level, grid mapping, vegetation studies - mainly the synthesis of phytocoenological data from the Czech Republic and Central Europe, the creation and utilisation of phytocoenological databases, studies on regional level, vegetation mapping. The most important representatives of the Department since its foundation were: Prof. Josef Podpěra - a bryologist of international importance, phytogeographer, geobotanist, vascular plant taxonomist, founder of the department, chancellor (rector) of the MU; Prof. Jindřich Suza - lichenologist, phytogeographer; Doc. Jan Šmarda - phytogeographer, geobotanist; Doc. Vladimír Řehořek - taxonomy, phytocoenology, horticulture botany. The Department is instrumental in co-ordinating the database of vegetation data of the Czech Republic, which is part of an international database network of the project European Vegetation Survey.

Department of Zoology and Ecology: The study of invertebrates and particularly entomology has been continuously developed at the department since its foundation. This has always happened in close relation to hydrobiology (Zavřel, Hrabě, Knoz, Losos, Zelinka, Obr, Rozkošný). The Department is currently an important co-ordination centre of Czech as well as international dipterology. This applies to the organisation of research as well as to its presentation and scientific meetings of supranational character. Looking at species number and practical importance, Diptera are one of the most important animal taxa. Taking the Czech Republic and Slovakia together, more than 7500 species have been reported and a realistic estimate of the true species number exceeds 9600 species. At the Department, dipterological research focuses on biosystematics, ecology, and biomonitoring. Recent studies concerned the fauna of dry grasslands (”steppes”), agrocoenoses with attendant vegetation, the fauna of floodplain forests including the impact of the drying out of this ecosystem on the arthropod community subsequent to water management measures implemented, the fauna of a spruce monoculture, haematophagous parasites, insect parasitoids, synanthropic fauna, etc. Besides the study areas within former Czechoslovakia mentioned above, also the dipteran fauna of Scandinavia, and the fauna of Southeast Asian bamboo stands were studied (among others). The results of this long-term research are already represented by hundreds of published works. This includes the ”Overview of Dipterological Literature” (Rozkošný, Vaňhara) regularly elaborated for the Czech and Slovak Republics that presently covers publications since 1758. For the area of the Pálava Biosphere Reserve of the UNESCO, the Department has been working since 1994 on a commented overview of terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates, including insects, that already includes over 10 000 species (Rozkošný, Vaňhara, Opravilová).

The field of hydrobiology has also been developed from the early beginnings of teaching zoology at the Faculty. The founder of the Institute of Zoology Prof. Zavřel was an internationally respected specialist for the family Chironomidae; the larvae and pupae of which present an important component of aquatic invertebrate communities. After the war the head of the Institute was Prof. Hrabě, a specialist in aquatic Oligochaeta. Both these important representatives of Czech zoology built the foundations of research in ecology. Another specialist was Prof. Obr (Trichoptera). He was in charge of ”Project 210” mapping aquatic invertebrates in the Czech Republic, particularly in the catchments of the Morava, Odra (Oder) and Danube. In 1966 the ”Laboratory of Running Waters” was established within the Department, consisting of Prof. Kubíček, Prof. Hrabě, Dr. Losos (Chironomidae), Dr. Marvan (Algae), later also Dr. Helan (Algae and water chemistry) and Dr. Zelinka (Ephemeroptera). Their scientific work and co-operation with further specialists resulted in a unique (in Europe so far not overridden) identification key edited by Prof. Rozkošný and published in 1970 (Key to Aquatic Insect Larvae), and in the proposal of a internationally accepted method of water quality analysis (saprobity index). Today, two principal directions of research are being followed. One is the study of the influence of the environment on biota of running waters (e.g. studies on the impact of water reservoirs, on the impact of minimum discharge, environmental assessments of hydro-engineering works and the re-naturalisation of watercourses). The other is research with the objective to make our knowledge of aquatic fauna more complete in terms of taxonomy, biology and ecology.

The study of fish parasites was taken up at the Department of Zoology and Ecology in the 1950s and was without doubt strongly supported by the Department’s strong hydrobiological tradition. After certain stagnation in this trend in the 1970s and 1980s, the study of Monogenea was chosen as the future core area of research in 1991. Today about 3500 species of these parasites have been described from 1500 species of fish. Taking into account the number of fish species known today, we can assume that the given species number of Monogenea does only represent 15 to 20 per cent of their global biodiversity. The Czech and Slovak Republics are among those countries with a high standard of surveillance (178 species). The good knowledge of our fish parasite fauna therefore presents ideal conditions for the study of the biology and ecology of these parasites, particularly of their temporal and spatial diversity. Thus the study of the biological diversity of these parasites is the main research area within the Department. Interesting results have been reached particularly while looking at the impact of so-called environmental stress on the composition and structure of fish parasite communities. The vivipary of representatives of the genus Gyrodactylus or the building of pairs by members of the family Diplozoidae are unique biological phenomena. However, due to extraordinary difficulties with the species identification, they have been very poorly studied. Another promising field of study is the biology and ecology of parasites accidentally introduced into the cultures of economically important fish species. Therefore, the Department’s parasitologists have developed extensive co-operation with a number of foreign institutions. Our objective is to establish a research unit of modest size that would be capable to combine methods of the classic study of temporal and spatial dynamics of biodiversity based on precise identification of the species involved with the most state-of-the-art experimental methods.

The development of the research on vertebrates is from its start closely connected to the scientific work of Prof. Gaisler, who took up a position at the Department in Sept. 1969. From its beginning the research dealt with the ecology of small mammals, especially bats. More than 130 scientific papers and several monographs as well as his membership in many boards and organisations show Prof. Gaisler’s outstanding position in science. Positive feed-back on the presented results has been obtained on congresses, symposia and conferences on global and European level (in the last 5 years for instance in Boston, Evora, Bonn, Nebra, Veldhoven, Krakow, etc.). Today, research on mammals focuses on the monitoring of small terrestrial mammals and bats in various types of ecosystems - natural ones as well as such that have been heavily influenced by man. Attention is particularly paid to the diversity of taxocoenoses both in colline (Odra floodplain, South Moravian lowlands) and montane landscape (Carpathians, Jeseníky and Orlické hory). The coenological research of mammals in karst and other rocky areas (Moravian karst, Pálava) has a long tradition. Some attention is also paid to the process of synanthropisation of mammals in large cities (Brno). In the last years modern ultrasound detectors have been used to monitor bats. Thus bat activity can be observed without disturbing the animals. Studies of the behavioural ecology of model species of bats using ultrasound and telemetric devices are seen as a very promising field of research. They are mainly looking at foraging behaviour including diet analysis from feces, anti-predation strategies, and habitat preferences in connection to ecological factors.

Dozens of graduate and postgraduate (doctoral) students have been trained in the fields of botany, zoology hydrobiology, parasitology and ecology in close connection to the fields of research presented above (the Department of Physiology has been mentioned in another Research Plan). The Faculty of Science has been accredited the right to train Ph.D. students and to administer the process of promotion to senior lecturer /associate professor (”docent”) and professor in the fields of research given.

The team consists of the staff of two departments (Department of Botany, Department of Zoology and Ecology; and additional 4 employees from the Department of Comparative Animal Physiology and General Zoology, who do not specialise in physiology) and has a mean age of 46 years. In the year 2000 it consists of 6 professors, 7 senior lecturers (associate professors), 12 lecturers (assistant professors) and research assistants, and 4 technicians. According to plan another 5 employees (university graduates, possibly also secondary school graduates) should be hired for the time period of the Research Plan.

Follow for detailed description on the individual research teams.
 

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 Work Space
 and Material
 

The Departments are equipped with standard optics sufficient to process the samples taken as well as with computers and other office machines for standard operations and the usage of electronic media and printing. Animal collections and a herbarium are in place. A fundamental asset of the Department of Botany are the extensive computer databases, which are unique in the Czech Republic (the national phytocoenological one is being managed by the Department). It is essential for the future development of the individual fields of research involved in the Research Plan to up-grade the Departments’ workplaces by adding missing instruments, materials and software and to maintain a continuously high standard of this equipment. However, in comparison to experimental fields of research, this will be possible at much lower cost.
 

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 Results and
 Presentation
 

The presentation of results will be similar for all disciplines involved: publication in journals according to field, small monographs, presentation on conferences and on homepages on the Internet. A common and final output will be the report "Spatial and temporal biodiversity dynamics in ecosystems of central Europe" and potentially also a conference with the same name. The overview given below gives the numbers of publications and further outputs planned for the individual years of research under the Research Plan. For the more distant time phases, the dates given are better to be looked at as dates of submitting completed manuscripts than as dates of actual publication. Included are also publications of other staff as well as of graduate (MSc.) and postgraduate (Ph. D.) students (however, not their Masters and Doctoral theses). Publications in journals for 1999 include a part of the outputs (24 contributions) from projects funded by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (206/96/0997) and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (PG97126), as the submitted Research Plan will participate in the preparation of these outputs.

  Journals Monographs Identification
Keys
WWW Conference Practical
Applications
1999 47/91 3/3 - 3/4 - -
2000 36 3 - 2 - -
2001 12 5 2 2 - 1
2002 13 2 1 2 1 -
2003 12 1 3 1 1 -
Total 120 14 6 10 2 1

 


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