Ecology and biodiversity – from individuals to the biosphere












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            * Ecology and biodiversity – from individuals to the biosphere, from past to the future
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            Ecology is a major biological discipline which deals with the relationships between indivi

            populations, and their environment, and with the structure and dynamics of ecological comm
            and ecosystems. There are close links to other biological disciplines, namely evolutionary
            parasitology, physiology, behaviour or conservation biology. For this reason, ecological i

            at many departments within the Charles University. Our team studies ekology of all taxa, r
            bacteria to flowering plants, insects or vertebrates, including humans.
            The research comprises all spatial scales, from the detailed studies of subtle interaction

            individuals within local ecological communities up to the exploration of the origin of mac
            patterns at continental scale. We study both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, mostly in

            also in relatively exotic environments, namely tropical rainforests and savannas in Africa
            communities in Arctic and Antarctic environments. We are interested, for instance, in the 
            histories, in the origin of adaptations to extreme environments or in ever changing intera

            organisms and biodiversity variation in space and time.
            We combine theoretical and mathematical approaches with experiments and traditional field 
            Ecological research has many practical applications, stemming for instance from our studie

            spreading and effects of invasive plants and animals, the role of post?industrial sites fo
            biodiversity, or studies of host?parasite interactions.




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            * Selected outputs
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            • Storch D., Keil P. & Jetz W. (2012): Universal species-area and endemics-area relationsh

              continental scales. Nature 488: 78-81.
            • Herben T., Nováková Z., Klimešová J., Hrouda, L. (2012): Species traits and plant perfor
              functional trade-offs in a large set of species in a botanical garden. Journal of Ecolog

              1522-1533.
            • Pyšek P., Jarošík V., Hulme P.E., et al. (2010): Disentangling the role of environmental
              pressures on biological invasions across Europe. Proceedings of the National Academy of 

              United States of America 107(27): 12157-12162.