Current projects
Strategies of freshwater ectotherms for a warming world: from individual to community
perspective (co-PI, 2021-2024)
In collaboration with Lumir Gvozdik
at the Institute of Vertebrate Biology (Czech Academy of Sciences),
we will examine the impacts of realistic warming scenarios on
life histories, species interactions and community dynamics of freshwater ectotherms.
This project is a follow-up on our previous collaboration and
focuses on aquatic insects and newts as model groups
and combines laboratory and mesocosm experiments with numerical simulations.
Funding: Grant Agency of the Czech Republic
Understanding the effects of multiple stressors on freshwater biota:
Will climate change alter the impact of chemical pollution? (PI, via Faculty of Science USB, 2020-2022)
In collaboration with
Tomáš Randák group
at the Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters, University of South Bohemia,
we examine the combined impacts of realistic warming and water pollution scenarios on
life histories, species interactions and community dynamics of freshwater invertebrates as a model group,
combining laboratory and mesocosm experiments.
Funding: Grant Agency of the Czech Republic
Overlooked man-made habitats: understanding the drivers and patterns of freshwater biota in
polluted standing waters (PI, via Faculty of Science USB, 2018-2021)
In collaboration with
Robert Tropek,
we study the conservation value and communities of fly ash lagoons and nearby natural sites
by combining a landscape-scale field survey, field enclosure experiments, and analyses of
heavy metal content across trophic levels and taxa.
Funding: Grant Agency of the Czech Republic
Previous projects (selection)
Freshwater ectotherms under climate change:
the role of phenotypic plasticity in life histories and trophic interactions
(PI, via Faculty of Science USB, 2017-2019)
In collaboration with Lumir Gvozdik
at the Institute of Vertebrate Biology (Czech Academy of Sciences),
we examined the roles of individual thermal performance curves
and thermally induced plasticity in life histories and species interactions of freshwater ectotherms
under the anticipated climate change.
The project focused on aquatic insects and newts as model groups and combined laboratory experiments
with numerical simulations.
Funding: Grant Agency of the Czech Republic
SoWa: Soil and Water National Research Infrastructure (2016-2019)
The Sowa Research Infrastructure brought together experts from various fields.
Its main goal is to support excellent research on aquatic and soil ecosystems.
As member of the team at the Faculty of Science,
University of South Bohemia, I was involved in developing experimental and
modelling approaches to assess the effects of anthropogenic impacts on communities in freshwaters,
using invertabrates in small standing waters as a model system. The project supported a significant
upgrade of our lab facilities and the construction of a brand new mesocosm array in late 2019.
Funding: Czech state budget / Ministry of Education
ClimeFish: Co-Creating a Decision Support Framework to
Ensure Sustainable Fish Production
in Europe under Climate Change (2016-2020)
The overall goal of the project was to support sustainable fisheries, enable an increase in European
aquaculture production, facilitate employment and regional development through effective forecasting,
and develop management tools for adapting to climate change.
As associate member of the team at the Biology Centre CAS, I was involved in studying the effects of
climate change on fish populations in Central European reservoirs.
Funding: EU H2020 Programme
Impact of predation risk and habitat complexity on the dynamics of macroinvertebrate
community assembly in freshwater (PI, 2014-2016)
The aim of the project was to improve our understanding of processes driving
community assembly in small fishless waters. Emphasis was on the role of predation risk
and habitat complexity as two ubiqitous factors that may affect colonization and
food web interactions. The project was centered around a long-term field experiment in
small pools a newly reclaimed sandpit but we also used shorter lab and outdoor experiments
and simulation modelling as complementary methods.
Funding: Grant Agency of the Czech Republic
How plastic are freshwater insects? Measuring growth, phenotypic plasticity
and evolution in selected taxa (PI, 2010-2013)
In collaboration with the members of the
PapLab, we collected data on life-history variation in several
groups of freshwater insects. We compiled datasets on bugs and mayflies
and carried out laboratory experiments to disentangle plastic and genetic
components of observed variation in age and size at life-history transitions in
several model taxa.
Funding: Grant Agency of the Czech Republic
Modelling individual life histories and population dynamics of predatory
aquatic insects: the role of body size (PI, 2009-2013)
Combination of laboratory and mesocosm experiments and mathematical models with
the aim to better understand the ecological and evolutionary processes that
shape life histories and community dynamics of predatory freshwater insects in
small fishless water bodies in Central Europe.
Link to the project website is here.
Funding: Marie Curie European Reintegration Grant
Monitoring man-made lakes: what can fisheries data and models tell us? (PI,
2009-2010)
Collaboration with the FishEcU group
at the Institute of Hydrobiology in Ceske
Budejovice and Institute of Marine Research in
Bergen, Norway. This project summarized what is known on the long-term
dynamics of several fish stocks in selected Czech man-made lakes and linked
these data to models of optimal exploitation based on stakeholder preferences
and models of fisheries-induced life history evolution. Link to the project website
is here.
Funding: EEA Grants + Norway Grants
Contact information:
Department of Ecosystem Biology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia &
Laboratory of Biodiversity and Ecology of Aquatic Insects, Institute of Entomology, Biology Centre AS CR
Branisovska 31, CZ-37005 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
tel: +420 387 772 327, fax: +420 387 775 367
email: boukal_AT_entu.cas.cz
2009-2021 David Boukal | last modified 04 May 2021 | based on A. Viklund's template