Offer of dissertation topics:

• After life of a rhizome: senescence, microbiome, decomposition
• Application of sedaDNA in studying past insect outbreaks
• Diversification of plants and fungi: key molecular and ecological mechanisms
• Drivers of plant trait variation at inter- and well as intra-specific level
• Ecology of Botryosphaeria dothidea and its relationship with ambrosia gall midges
• Forces driving the species emergence in chrysophytes
• Functional Vegetation Paleoecology: Mitigate the impact of climate change with data-driven insight from past vegetation
• Hybridization as a driver of evolution in opportunistic Aspergillus pathogens
• How do pollinators choose plants to pollinate?
• Characterizing changes in ecosystem properties and function by application of ecological attributes to paleoecological data
• Microbial Hitchhikers: Understanding Bird-Facilitated Dispersal
• On the establishment of the photobiont plurality – the effect of reproductive strategies in Cladonia lichens
• Plant adaptations to changing climatic conditions
• Plant-soil interactions and their role in plant climate responses, plant invasions and/or species coexistence
• Predator-Prey Interactions in the Cladocera – Synurales Model System: Testing Hypotheses on Anti-Predation Adaptations
• Seasonality as a trait of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in temperate zones
• Taxonomy, phylogeny and biogeography of the Allium ericetorum group
• The effects of changing climatic conditions on plant-herbivore and/or plant-pollinator interactions
• The role of epigenetic memory in ecology and evolution of plants
• The role of epigenetic variation in adaptive evolution.

Profile of the graduate

Students will acquire knowledge in a broad field of botany and specialization in the field of their their doctoral thesis. A part of education is thorough knowledge of the conceptual background and important techniques in the field. Graduate of the Botany study program is an expert in plants (autotrophic organisms including protists) and fungi. He / she is an expert in their diversity, their relationships, the dynamics of their populations and communities, and the evolutionary history and processes of evolution. He / she has a good general overview of current world scientific literature in the field and is able to solve problems that are unresolved and contribute thus to the general understanding of the studied organisms and their relationships. At the same time, he / she has thoroughly mastered the methodology of scientific work, starting with literature work, methodology of data collection design and experimentation, and their analysis. He / she is able to present his / her results (of course in English) at international scientific forums, especially in the form of scientific articles and in the form of conference presentations and posters. He / she is able to quickly orientate himself in botanical and ecological fields outside his / her immediate specialization. He / she is also able to comprehensively present his / her knowledge and results in a popular form in both printed and electronic media written in Czech. Graduates can work in all professions where field and laboratory knowledge of these organisms of their relationships and evolution is needed. Graduates will be able to work both in basic research institutions (universities, ASCR, other research institutions) and in the applied sphere, ranging from state and non-state nature protection, environmental organizations and so on, both in the Czech Republic and abroad.