The project is focused on the study of evolutionary and ecological relationships and processes in selected ecological systems and selected organisms living in this environment. Organisms from aquatic habitats will be studied, namely ecological processes in aquatic invertebrate communities, but also ecological and evolutionary patterns in parasite-host systems, where a significant part of the study is a fish vertebrate in the position of a host. The implementation team consists of 8 supervisors and 13 doctoral students of parasitology and hydrobiology. During the realization of the project, it is assumed that the students of the Master's program will also be involved in the project. The topics can be summarized into several headings, which also correspond to the set objectives of the project. Parasitological topics are focused on the study of coevolution in the host-parasite systems, parasite diversity, molecular and genetic interactions in the host-parasite systems, and the use of parasites as possible bioindicators of water pollution. Hydrobiological topics are devoted to the study of spatio-temporal changes in aquatic invertebrate communities and to the identification of the causes of these changes, while assessing the impact of various factors including the impacts of climate change. Studies have also overlaps into the application sphere in water management.

Results

32 papers in journals with IF. 23 contributions on international and national conferences.
selected papers of students:
Kmentová N et al. 2019. Failure to diverge in African Great Lakes: the case of a freshwater parasitic flatworm (Monogenea, Diplectanidae). J Great Lakes Res (in press)
Kmentová N et al. (2019). Co-introduction success of monogeneans infecting the fisheries target Limnothrissa miodon differs between two non-native areas: the potential of parasites as tag for introduction pathway. Biological Invasions 21: 757-773.
Benovics M et al. (2019). Cophylogenetic relationships between Dactylogyrus (Monogenea) ectoparasites and endemic cyprinoids of the north-eastern European peri-Mediterranean region. J Zool Syst Evol Res 00:1-21 (in press)
Benovics M et al. (2020). High diversity of fish ectoparasitic monogeneans (Dactylogyrus) in the Iberian Peninsula: A case of adaptive radiation? Parasitology 00:1-42 (in press)
Petružela J et al. (2019). Evolutionary history of Pneumocystis fungi in their african rodent hosts. Infections, Genetics and Evolution 75:1-10.
Pařil P et al. (2019). Short-term streambed drying events alter amphipod population structure in a central European stream. Fund Appl Limnol 193:51–64.
Loskotová B et al. (2019). Sediment characteristics influence benthic macroinvertebrate vertical migrations and survival under experimental water loss conditions. Fund Appl Limnol 193:39-49.
Pařil P et al. (2019). An unexpected source of invertebrate community recovery in intermittent streams from humid continental climate. Freshwater Biology 64:1971–1983.
Polášková V et al. (2019). Drivers of Small-Scale Diptera Distribution in Aquatic-Terrestrial Transition Zones of Spring Fens. Wetlands (in press)
Bartošová M et al. (2019). Macroinvertebrate assemblages of the post-mining calcareous stream habitats: Are they similar to those inhabiting the natural calcareous springs? Ecol Engin 136: 38-45.

Publications