Vojtěch Jarošík Award for 2021
Despite the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, a number of high-quality papers were published in 2021, and subsequently submitted to the competition for the Vojtěch Jarošík Award for an excellent student publication in ecology. Choosing the winners was – as always – a very challenging task for the evaluators.
In the eighth year of the competition, we received seventeen first-author papers by students or recent graduates, published in their final form in international peer-reviewed journals during 2021. Among the authors, men prevailed over women this year (10:6, one author submitted two articles). The most frequent affiliation was to the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice (7 times to its Faculty of Science, often jointly with the Biology Center CAS, one paper was from the Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters in Vodňany). Four publications came from the Faculty of Science of Charles University, two from the Institute of Botany and Zoology of Masaryk University, and one paper each represented the Czech University of Life Sciences and, for the first time, also the University of Pardubice.
The submitted publications were assessed by twelve evaluators consisting of representatives of the Czech Society for Ecology and the Department of Ecology of Charles University. Each of them had to select three works based on their originality and contribution to the field of ecology. More than half of the papers made it to the shortlist, but in the end four of them clearly came to the forefront.
The winning publication by Peter Mikula, a graduate of the Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, is entitled “A global analysis of song frequency in passerines provides no support for the acoustic adaptation hypothesis but suggests a role for sexual selection” and was published in Ecology Letters.
The second-ranking paper was the macroecological work of Eliška Bohdalková from the Department of Ecology of the same faculty, affiliated also to the Centre for Theoretical Studies, published in Ecography under the title “Universality in biodiversity patterns: variation in species–temperature and species–productivity relationships reveals a prominent role of productivity in diversity gradients”.
The last two awarded works were equally-well ranked. One was a theoretical model “Community structure and collapses in multichannel food webs: Role of consumer body sizes and mesohabitat productivities” by Samuel Dijouxfrom the Faculty of Science of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice (also affiliated to the Biological Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences), published in Ecology Letters. This paper has already successfully represented Czech science internationally, having won the 4th SIL Student Competition organized by the International Society of Limnology.
The last award-winning work “Reproductive senescence in a short-lived fish” published in the Journal of Animal Ecology by Jakub Žák from the Department of Zoology of Charles University and the Institute of Vertebrate Biology CAS in Brno, focused – unlike the other three awarded papers – on biology of a single species, the turquoise killifish, in controlled conditions.
All awardees will be invited to give a talk at the conference of the Czech Society for Ecology, which will be held in mid-September this year, and we will have a chance to read more about their research in the bulleting of the Czech Society for Ecology.
Until the end of April 2023, it will be possible to submit for the Award first-author papers published in their final form during 2022. We will be looking forward to another batch of excellent papers from Czech, Moravian and Silesian campuses!
Vojtěch Jarošík Award for 2021: Best-ranking papers
1. Mikula P., Valcu M., Brumm H., Bulla M., Forstmeier W., Petrusková T., Kempenaers B., Albrecht T. (2021): A global analysis of song frequency in passerines provides no support for the acoustic adaptation hypothesis but suggests a role for sexual selection. Ecology Letters, 24: 477–486. doi: 10.1111/ele.13662
2. Bohdalková E., Toszogyova A., Šímová I., Storch D. (2021): Universality in biodiversity patterns: variation in species–temperature and species–productivity relationships reveals a prominent role of productivity in diversity gradients. Ecography, 44: 1366-1378. doi: 10.1111/ecog.05613
3. –4. Dijoux S., Boukal D. (2021): Community structure and collapses in multichannel food webs: Role of consumer body sizes and mesohabitat productivities. Ecology Letters, 24: 1607-1618. doi: 10.1111/ele.13772
3. –4. Žák J., Reichard. M. (2021): Reproductive senescence in a short-lived fish. Journal of Animal Ecology, 90: 492-502. doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.13382
Other submitted publications (in alphabetical order):
Akmal S.G., Santoso A., Yuliana E., Patoka J. (2021): Redclaw crayfish (Cherax quadricarinatus): spatial distribution and dispersal pattern in Java, Indonesia. Knowledge & Management of Aquatic Ecosystems, 422: 16. doi: 10.1051/kmae/2021015
Ambrožová L., Sládeček F. X. J., Zítek T., Perlík M., Kozel P., Jirků M., Čížek L. (2021): Lasting decrease in functionality and richness: Effects of ivermectin use on dung beetle communities. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 321: 107634. doi: 10.1016/j.agee.2021.107634
Coufal R., Ryelandt J., Peterka T., Dítě D., Hájková P., Hájek M., Horsáková V., Horsák M. (2021): Land snail community patterns related to regional habitat conservation status of European spring fens. Science of The Total Environment, 783: 146910. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146910
Harazim M., Piálek L., Pikula J., Seidlová V., Zukal J., Bachorec E., Bartonička T., Kokurewicz T., Martínková N. (2021): Associating physiological functions with genomic variability in hibernating bats. Evolutionary Ecology, 35: 291-308. doi: 10.1007/s10682-020-10096
Kik A., Adamec M., Aikhenvald A. Y., Bajzekova J., Baro N., Bowern C., Colwell R. K., Drozd P., Duda P., Ibalim S., Jorge L. R., Mogina J., Ruli B., Sam K., Sarvasy H., Saulei S., Weiblen G. D., Zrzavy J., Novotny V. (2021): Language and ethnobiological skills decline precipitously in Papua New Guinea, the world’s most linguistically diverse nation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118: e2100096118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2100096118
Kolar V., Tichanek F., Tropek R. (2021): Evidence-based restoration of freshwater biodiversity after mining: Experience from Central European spoil heaps. Journal of Applied Ecology, 58: 1921-1932. doi: 10.1111/1365-2664.13956
Konopáčová E., Nedoma J., Čapková K., Čapek P., Znachor P., Pouzar M., Říha M., Řeháková K. (2021): Low specific phosphorus uptake affinity of epilithon in three oligo- to mesotrophic post-mining lakes. Frontiers in Microbiology, 12: 735498. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.735498
Kozel P., Sebek P., Platek M., Benes J., Zapletal M., Dvorsky M., Lanta V., Dolezal J., Bace R., Zbuzek B., Cizek, L. (2021): Connectivity and succession of open structures as a key to sustaining light-demanding biodiversity in deciduous forests. Journal of Applied Ecology, 58: 2951–2961. doi: 10.1111/1365-2664.14019
Novotná Jaroměřská T., Trubač J., Zawierucha K., Vondrovicová L., Devetter M., Žárský J.D. (2021): Stable isotopic composition of top consumers in Arctic cryoconite holes: revealing divergent roles in a supraglacial trophic network. Biogeosciences, 18: 1543−1557. doi: 10.5194/bg-18-1543-202
Sarkar U.K., Roy K., Karnatak G., Naskar M., Puthiyottil M., Baksi S., Lianthuamluaia L., Kumari S., Ghosh B.D., Das B.K. (2021): Reproductive environment of the decreasing Indian river shad in Asian inland waters: disentangling the climate change and indiscriminative fishing threats. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 28: 30207–30218. doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-12852-7
Vejmělka F., Okrouhlík J., Lövy M., Šaffa G., Nevo E., Bennett N.C., Šumbera R. (2021): Heat dissipation in subterranean rodents: The role of body region and social organization. Scientific Reports 11: 2029. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-81404-3
Zahra S., Novotny V., Fayle T.M. (2021): Do reverse Janzen-Connell effects reduce species diversity? Trends in Ecology & Evolution 36: 387-390. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2021.02.002
Žák J., Vrtílek M., Polačik M., Blažek R., Reichard M. (2021): Short-lived fishes: annual and multivoltine strategies. Fish and Fisheries 22: 546–561. doi: 10.1111/faf.12535