Adam Konečný

Assistant professor; research interest: evolutionary history of shrews and rodents

Department of Botany and Zoology, Masaryk University, Kotlarska 2, 61137 Brno, Czech Republic

Academic Education

  • 2009
    Université Montpellier 2 (Montpellier, France) and Faculty of Sciences (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic) – PhD thesis: Consequences of Anthropogenic Changes on Rodent Communities and Populations: Study Cases on Native and Introduced Species in Eastern Senegal.
  • 2005
    Faculty of Sciences, Masaryk University Brno – MSc thesis: Litter Sex Ratio Variation in Natural Populations of Common Vole (Microtus arvalis).

Professional Career

  • since 2013
    Assistant Professor in Vertebrate Research Group, Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Sciences, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
  • 2010-2013
    Post-doc researcher at Department of Biodiversity and Molecular Ecology, Fondazione Edmund Mach, San Michele all’Adige, Italy
  • 2008-2010
    Research assistant, Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Brno

Professional experience

Training and professional experience received in the Czech Republic, France, Italy and UK in sampling small mammals (rodents, shrews, bats) both in Europe and Africa (through a range of habitats and countries); laboratory experience (DNA analyses at various levels and screening of rodent helminths); and a range of statistical data analyses in population genetics (various classic and Bayesian methods including Approximate Bayesian Computation), population and community ecology, host-parasite interactions and social networks of animals.

Participation in research projects:

  • 2010 – 2013: Rodent Communities in a Changing Environment: Implications for Human Health in the Alps (holder of the FP7 European project).
  • 2010: Comparative Phylogeography of Zambezian Region in Southeastern Africa Using Small Mammals as Model.
  • 2005 – 2008: The Diversity and the Ecology of Vertebrates of the West Africa.
  • 2002 – 2004: Sex Ratio in Voles – Can Mothers Manipulate Sex of Their Offspring?

Research interests

  • Population history of European and African rodents and other vertebrates (phylogeography, invasion genetics and speciation; inferring population history through Approximate Bayesian Computations using genetic markers)
  • Interactions between rodents and their gut helminths and ectoparasites
  • Distribution and dynamics of rodent-borne viruses (LCMV, hantaviruses)
  • Social network analyses revealing small mammal social structure, behaviour and parasite/pathogen dynamics
  • How global environmental changes affect wild small terrestrial mammal populations and communities

Selected publications

  • KONEČNÝ A., POPA O.P., BARTÁKOVÁ V., DOUDA K., BRYJA J., SMITH C., POPA L.O. & REICHARD M., 2018: Modelling the invasion history of Sinanodonta woodiana in Europe: Tracking the routes of a sedentary aquatic invader with mobile parasitic larvae. Evolutionary Applications, 11: 1975-1989.
  • TAERUM S.J., KONEČNÝ A., DE BEER Z.W., CIBRIÁN-TOVAR D. & WINGFIELD M.J., 2016: Population genetics and symbiont assemblages support opposing invasion scenarios for the red turpentine beetle (Dendroctonus valens). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 118: 486-502.
  • BOLFÍKOVÁ B., KONEČNÝ A., PFAFFLE M., SKUBALLA J. & HULVA P., 2013: Population biology of establishment in New Zealand hedgehogs inferred from genetic and historical data: conflict or compromise? Molecular Ecology, 22: 3709-3720.
  • KONEČNÝ A., ESTOUP A., DUPLANTIER J.M., BRYJA J., BA K., GALAN M., TATARD C. & COSSON J.F., 2013: Invasion genetics of the introduced black rat (Rattus rattus) in Senegal, West Africa. Molecular Ecology, 22: 286-300.
  • NDIAYE A., BA K., ANISKIN V., BENAZZOU T., CHEVRET P., KONEČNÝ A., SEMBENE M., TATARD C., KERGOAT G.J. & GRANJON L., 2012: Evolutionary systematics and biogeography of endemic gerbils (Rodentia, Muridae) from Morocco: an integrative approach. Zoologica Scripta, 41(1), 11-28.
  • JÁNOVÁ E., HEROLDOVÁ M., KONEČNÝ A. & BRYJA J., 2011: Traditional and diversified crops in South Moravia (Czech Republic): Habitat preferences of common vole and mice species. Mammalian Biology, 76: 570-576.
  • BRYJA J., SMITH C., KONEČNÝ A. & REICHARD M., 2010: Range-wide population genetic structure of the European bitterling (Rhodeus amarus) based on microsatellite and mitochondrial DNA analysis. Molecular Ecology, 19: 4708-4722.
  • KONEČNÝ A., KOUBEK P. & BRYJA J., 2010: Indications of higher diversity and abundance of small rodents in human-influenced Sudanian savanna than in the Niokolo Koba National Park (Senegal). African Journal of Ecology, 48(3): 718-726.
  • NICOLAS V., BYJA J., AKPATOU B., KONEČNÝ A., LECOMPTE E., COLYN M., LALIS A., COULOUX A., DENYS C. & GRANJON L., 2008: Comparative phylogeography of two sibling species of forest-dwelling rodent (Praomys rostratus and P. tullbergi) in West Africa: different reactions to past forest fragmentation. Molecular Ecology, 17(23): 5118-5134.
  • LOISEAU A., KONEČNÝ A., GALAN M., BRYJA J., COSSON J.F. & BROUAT C., 2007: New polymorphic microsatellite loci for rodents of the genus Mastomys using PCR multiplexing, and cross-species amplification in Myomys and Praomys. Molecular Ecology Notes, 7(4): 684-687.
  • BRYJA J. & KONEČNÝ A., 2003: Fast sex identification in wild mammals using PCR amplification of the Sry gene. Folia Zoologica, 52(3): 115-121.

Graduated student list: past PhD, MSc, Bc students