Vojtěch Jarošík Award for 2024
First-author papers by eleven early-career authors, evaluated by eleven judges, in the eleventh round of Vojtěch Jarošík Award… Sounds neat, but there were in fact twelve papers, one more than in the previous two years, as one student decided to submit two papers published in 2024 to the competition. It seems that after peaking in the number of entries in 2019–2021 (see figure below), the quantity has stabilized at a slightly lower level. In terms of quality, however, there is plenty to choose from every year. Considering the gender balance, the pendulum has swung in favour of female authors this year: women outnumbered men by a ratio of 8:3.
The affiliations of the first authors are dominated by the same universities as in the previous years: Charles University and Masaryk University (with four papers each), and the University of South Bohemia (with two papers); each of these institutions had one author with a shared affiliation with a research institute. One publication was submitted from the Czech University of Life Sciences, and this year’s unusual feature was a paper without a university affiliation of the first author, which was nevertheless based on a chapter from a dissertation defended at a Czech university.
Number of entries in the history of the Vojtěch Jarošík Award and university affiliations of their authors. A total of eight universities were represented, but only half of them appear among the entries on a regular basis: Charles University (UK), Masaryk University (MUNI), University of South Bohemia (JU) and Czech University of Life Sciences (ČZU). To date, we have had only two entries from Palacký University (UP) and the University of Ostrava (OU), and one each from Mendel University in Brno (MENDELU) and the University of Pardubice (UPCE). One submission this year was without the university affiliation (“bez”).
Each of the eleven evaluators selected three papers to the shortlist for the award from among the submitted works. This ultimately allowed us to determine the three best-rated publications. It is worth noting, however, that ten of the twelve papers made it to the shortlist at least once, which indicates the overall high quality of the award portfolio. The top-rated papers were thematically very diverse, ranging from modelling biological invasions to processing big data on plants in long time series to a mycological study based on detailed fieldwork on small spatial scales.
The award for 2024 goes to Samuel Dijoux from the Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, and the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, for his paper entitled “Body size and trophic position determine the outcomes of species invasions along temperature and productivity gradients” published in one of the most prestigious ecological journals, Ecology Letters.
Raking second was Klára Klinkovská from the Faculty of Science, Masaryk University with her paper “Dynamics of the Czech flora over the last 60 years: winners, losers and causes of changes” from the renowned journal Biological Conservation.
And the third was Monika Kolényová from Masaryk University and the Silva Tarouca Research Institute with her paper “Microhabitat diversity – A crucial factor shaping macrofungal communities and morphological trait expression in dead wood” published in the mycological journal Fungal Ecology.
The authors of these three top-ranking papers will be invited to present their research at the conference of the Czech Society for Ecology, which will be held in September 2026 at the Czech University of Life Sciences campus in Prague. Original works by students and recent graduates published in 2025 are eligible for the 12th annual Vojtěch Jarošík Award. We are already looking forward to the submissions!
Vojtěch Jarošík Award for 2024: Best-ranking papers
1. Dijoux S., Pichon N.A., Sentis A., Boukal D.S. (2024): Body size and trophic position determine the outcomes of species invasions along temperature and productivity gradients. Ecology Letters, 27: e14310. DOI: 10.1111/ele.14310
2. Klinkovská K., Glaser M., Danihelka J., Kaplan Z., Knollová I., Novotný P., Pyšek P., Řezníčková M., Wild J., Chytrý M. (2024): Dynamics of the Czech flora over the last 60 years: winners, losers and causes of changes. Biological Conservation, 292: 110502. doi: 10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110502
3. Kolényová M., Běťák J., Zíbarovál L., Dvořák D., Beran M., Heilmann-Clausen J. (2024): Microhabitat diversity – A crucial factor shaping macrofungal communities and morphological trait expression in dead wood. Fungal Ecology, 71: 101360. doi: 10.1016/j.funeco.2024.101360
Other submitted publications (in alphabetical order):
Bhatta S., Hejda M., Pyšek P. (2024): Impact of invasive plants on vegetation in protected areas of Nepal. Biological Invasions, 26: 3745-59. doi: 10.1007/s10530-024-03408-0
Chitambala T., Ny V., Ceacero F., Bartoň L., Bureš D., Kotrba R., Needham T. (2024): Effects of Immunocastration and Amino Acid Supplementation on Yearling Fallow Deer (Dama dama) Testes Development. Animals, 14: 115. doi: 10.3390/ani14010115
de Donnová S., Devánová A., Barešová L., Zahrádková S., Bojková J. (2024): Hydromorphological degradation modifies long-term macroinvertebrate responses to water quality and climate changes in lowland rivers. Environmental Research, 261: 119638. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.119638
Devánová A., Sychra J., Wessely J., Essl F., Mock A., Horsák M., Schernhammer T. (2024): Land-use determines the distribution of large branchiopods in climatically homogeneous northern Pannonia. Global Ecology and Conservation, 56: e03300. doi: 10.1016/j.gecco.2024.e03300
Grünwald J., Hanzelka J., Voříšek P., Reif J. (2024): Long-term population trends of 48 urban bird species correspond between urban and rural areas. iScience, 27: 109717. DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109717
Grünwald J., Auniņš A., Brambilla M., Escandell V., Eskildsen D.P., Chodkiewicz T., … [altogether 21 authors], Reif J. (2024): Ecological traits predict population trends of urban birds in Europe. Ecological Indicators, 160: 111926. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2024.111926
Lepková B., Mašková T. (2024): Seeds in the guts: can seed traits explain seed survival after being digested by wild ungulates? Oecologia, 205: 49–58. doi: 10.1007/s00442-024-05538-7
Sammarco I., Díez Rodríguez B., Galanti D., Nunn A., Becker C., Bossdorf O., Münzbergová Z., Latzel V. (2024): DNA methylation in the wild: epigenetic transgenerational inheritance can mediate adaptation in clones of wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca). New Phytologist 241: 1621–1635. doi: 10.1111/nph.19464
Soto I., Balzani P., Carneiro L., Cuthbert R.N., Macêdo R., Tarkan A.S., Ahmed D.A., Bang A., Bacela-Spychalska K., Bailey S.A., Baudry T., Ballesteros-Mejia L., Bortolus A., Briski E., Britton J.R., Buřič M., Camacho-Cervantes M., Cano-Barbacil C., Copilaș-Ciocianu D., … [altogether 138 authors], Haubrock P.J. (2024): Taming the terminological tempest in invasion science. Biological Reviews, 99: 1357-1390. doi: 10.1111/brv.13071