About Us

HEAD OF DEPARTMENT

prof. Hana Šantrůčková

tel. +420 387 772 361
email: hana [dot] santruckova [at] prf [dot] jcu [dot] cz

SECRETARY

PhDr. Jana Vrbová

tel. +420 387 772 358
fax: +420 387 772 368
email: jvrbov [at] prf [dot] jcu [dot] cz

How To Get Here: Search Connection

Trolley-Bus n. 3 (entry station NÁDRAŽÍ – in front of the shopping center MERCURY), End-station – JIHOČESKÁ UNIVERZITA)

• The Department of Ecosystem Biology co-ordinates study programmes and student theses in ecology. This department guarantees one bachelor, four master and two Ph.D. programmes. Students doing bachelor degree can study the “Environmental care” programme both for decision-maker and for analysts. M.Sc. students can choose from among the programmes of “Applied Ecology”, “Ecology”, “Limnology” and “Soil Biology”. After finishing M.Sc. degree, students can take part in Ph.D. studies in the fields of “Ecology”, and “Hydrobiology”.

DEPARTMENT IS CLOSELY COLLABORATING WITH:

Institute of Hydrobiology, Institute of Soil Biology BC of the ASCR and Institute of Botany in Třeboň focusing on ecology of aquatic and soil organisms, microbial ecology, study of processes in soil, aquatic and wetland ecosystems disturbed by human activity. Department of ecology and hydrobiology is collaborating on study programme BIOLOGY of bachelor study programmes BIOLOGY and BIOPHYSICS.

REASERCH ACTIVITIES

• Nutrient fluxes in the ecosystem and catchments

Attention is paid to the effect of eutrophication and atmospheric acidification on biological and chemical processes in lakes, sediments and soil. Investigating lakes and sediments, a special emphasis is put on C, P and N-cycling and on the regulation mechanisms of plankton composition and dynamics. Soil studies are focused on C, N and P cycling in soil and on regulation of soil microbial metabolism by temperature, moisture, texture and nitrogen availability. A special emphasis is put on underlying mechanism and processes of trace gas formation and emission from the soil.

• The effect of eutrofication and management on wetlands

The research deals with the water balance and C and N cycling in the eutrophicated wetland ecosystems and on the reaction of the wetland plants on high load of nutrients. The results contribute to the knowledge of nutrient removal and retention in constructed wetlands designed for wastewater treatment.

• The investigation of fish communities in valley reservoirs

The research includes fish stock assessment, studies of fish feeding, migration, and behaviour and population dynamics. Special part of the research activities is the adaptation of scientific echosounders for studies of various parameters of water environment.

• Evolutionary and population ecology

The research is carried out by a group of theoretical ecologists. The group synthesizes existing empirical information on the role of individual behaviour and life-histories in shaping community dynamics, identify the limitations of existing theory in dealing with issues of scaling from individuals to communities and have begun developing new mathematical tools that explicitly deal with scaling from individual-level processes to community dynamics.