Jakub Horák

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague | CULS · Department of Forest Protection and Entomology

Water and forest habitats are an indispensable part of the blue-green infrastructure, a network that provides solutions for urban climatic challenges by building with nature. We were interested in the effect of water areas and the surrounding environment on bird species richness; specifically, we studied the influence of different levels of urbaniz...

Our study considered the excavation of sand and gravel, which modifies the landscapes of riparian ecosystems. It promotes the creation of water bodies with surrounding vegetation, but it also results in the loss of natural habitats. We investigated the species richness, composition, and abundance of aquatic and terrestrial breeding birds and th...

Gasteruption is a genus of parasitic inquilines of bees and wasps. They are distributed worldwide, with 21 species occurring in Central Europe. The knowledge of the ecology of this genus is not very good, only their host preferences were summarised. We studied the phenology and habitat requirements of this group based on records from museums and pr...

Introduction As a result of climate change and bark beetle outbreaks in forests, extensive salvage, and sanitary cutting have been undertaken in Europe, resulting in many clear-cuts with coarse stumps. The populations of pine weevils ( Hylobius abietis and Hylobius pinastri ) are steadily increasing. A high abundance of pine weevils feeding on seed...

Background Zygaena carniolica is both a flagship and an umbrella species of calcareous grasslands, which are under decline in central Europe. It used to be a very common species but is currently red-listed. Methods We studied the distribution of Zygaena carniolica in eastern Bohemia in 2010 and 2021 based on historical and recent findings. Moreove...

Purpose of Review The increasing impact of droughts, wildfires and windstorms in temperate areas poses a significant challenge to the adaptation capacity of forests and their associated arthropod communities. Organisms, organic material, and environmental conditions occurring after disturbances, i.e. the disturbance legacies, shape arthropod commu...

Aim The biogeography of European forests presents many interesting case studies, as inferred from phylogeography, contemporary population genetics, and distribution modelling of saproxylic species. Here, we pose four main hypotheses: (i) the phylogeographic paradigm known for temperate species in Europe is also applicable for saproxylic taxa; (ii)...

IntroductionThe present changes in climate and land use have led to an increase in pest population densities. The oak pinhole borer, Platypus cylindrus, is one of the ambrosia beetles, which are known to infect wood tissue with fungi from their mycangia. These fungi are responsible for cellulose degradation. This species is now responsible for more...

Urbanized areas are rapidly expanding into a variety of habitats. Urbanization and suburbanization are often associated with changes in biodiversity, which are naturally influenced by biotic interactions and abiotic habitat characteristics. The main cause of changes caused by suburbanization is fragmentation. Its impacts vary between animals with d...

The change in tree species composition is an important process influencing forest biodiversity worldwide. Therefore, it is important to reveal its actual impacts on forest biodiversity. We selected three animal groups (birds, beetles and soil macroinvertebrates) with different dispersal abilities to answer the following scientific question: how doe...

Fruit orchards under different types of management represent the most common agroforestry practice in central Europe. Traditional fruit orchards with trees usually planted in meadows are at a surplus, providing suitable habitats for many plant and animal species. We examined the influence of different management and biotope types on three insect gr...

Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) is a remote sensing technique with multiple uses throughout scientific fields. It can also be used to transfer point data measured in the field to broader spatial scales, which might enable the evaluation of habitats over large areas and define biodiversity hotspots. Our study took place in Cabañeros National Par...

1. Cavity-bearing trees are important nesting sites for many birds and mammals but have become rare due to anthropogenic modification of natural environments. Nest boxes are often used to compensate for the loss of these microhabitats. 2. Nest boxes contain amounts of organic debris exploited by a variety of organisms, mainly insects. We studied th...

Urban areas have increased greatly in recent decades, which has resulted in habitat loss. However, the promotion of urban green spaces could have a profound effect on biodiversity. Traditional fruit orchards are an important land-use type with the potential to host myriad organisms. Our goal was to determine the most important factors that influenc...

Water surfaces are important landscape elements with respect to ongoing climate change. The most important water surfaces in central Europe are rivers and ponds. Forest ponds are beneficial reservoirs of water and neglected islands, potentially promoting bird fauna. We aimed to determine the response of the bird fauna associated with ponds in lowla...

Some parasitic diseases of wild animals are transmissible to humans and cause health problems. A widespread ectoparasite of vertebrates is the deer ked, Lipoptena cervi ((L.); Diptera: Hippoboscidae). We studied the interaction of this parasite with habitat‐related, host‐related, and temporal factors in the Czech Republic. We analysed observations...

Recent progress in the taxonomy of flat bark beetles (Cucujidae), specifically, in the genus Cucujus, has revealed great diversity in subtropical Asia, but the seemingly well-known temperate and boreal taxa need further attention because of their conservation status. Here, we used an integrative approach using morphology, DNA, and species distribut...

Although previous research has documented the occurrence of antagonists of bark beetles, the studies have only evaluated individual antagonists and have not assessed the overall effect of all antagonists on adult beetles. In this study, we determined which body-cavity antagonists were associated with a reduction in the fecundity and maternal galler...

Urban landscapes are places with high interaction between humans and nature, and the benefit of maintaining their biodiversity to enhance human wellbeing is becoming clear. There is, therefore, an urgent need for understanding what influences biodiversity in cities to inform and influence urban landscape planning. We used a multi-taxa approach (pla...

Forests in lowlands are altered by a man for a long time. The most important disturbances that have been influencing hardwood floodplain forests are foresters and floods. We focused on the influence of the forest structure and soil chemistry on forest pedobiodiversity. The study was done in floodplain forests of Sava and Dunaj rivers in Serbia. Its...

Although previous research has documented the occurrence of antagonists of bark beetles, the studies have only evaluated individual antagonists and have not assessed the overall effect of all antagonists on adult beetles. In this study, we determined which antagonists were associated with reduction in the fecundity and maternal gallery lengths of t...

• Cavity-bearing trees are important nesting sites for many birds and mammals but have become rare due to anthropogenic modification of natural environments. Nest boxes are often used to compensate for the loss of these microhabitats. • Nest boxes contain amounts of organic debris exploited by a variety of organisms, mainly insects. We studied the...

The springtail, Tetrodontophora bielanensis, dwells in the litter and upper soil layers. This arthropod mainly inhabits humid litter and soil and prefers a cold climate. We determined the main factors influencing this springtail in forests at the landscape level in Krkonoše and site level in Orlické hory in the Czech Republic. We used passive trunk...

Niche partitioning among species with virtually the same requirements is a fundamental concept in ecology. Nevertheless, some authors suggest that niches have little involvement in structuring communities. This study was done in the Pardubice Region (Czech Republic) on saproxylic beetles with morphologically similar larvae and very specific require...

Human-induced climate and land-use changes are important factors influencing global insect diversity. Nevertheless, the influence of weather on biodiversity is still relatively rarely studied. Grassland insects may be the taxon that is most affected by changing weather. We focused on the influence of weather and land-use management on butterflies i...

Fruit orchards under different types of management represent the most common agroforestry practice in central Europe. Traditional fruit orchards with trees usually planted in meadows are at a surplus, providing suitable habitats for many plant and animal species. We examined the influence of different management and biotope types on three insect gr...

Non-native trees have been introduced into Europe for hundreds of years. Some have become an important part of the human diet, and many have aesthetic value. Nevertheless, some of them became aliens and host other alien species that might have undesirable effects on native organisms. We studied the possible effects of an alien-alien relationship (f...

Tropical forests have high biodiversity. Nevertheless limited information is available about the species richness of fungus weevils in the family Anthribidae in disturbed and undisturbed tropical forests. Anthribids are saproxylic, i.e., they depend on dead wood. Our aim was to investigate the relationships between the species richness of anthribid...

The expected future intensification of forest disturbance as a consequence of ongoing anthropogenic climate change highlights the urgent need to more robustly quantify associated biotic responses. Saproxylic beetles are a diverse group of forest invertebrates representing a major component of biodiversity that is associated with the decomposition a...

Jako čtenář úvody a doslovy v zásadě nečtu, proto zde s nimi nebudu trápit ani Vás. Snad si jen pro jistotu uvedeme, že v tomto druhém díle skript z ekologie naleznete kapitoly, které se zabývají biodiverzitou, biogeografií, sukcesí, vlivem prostoru, zdroji dat pro ekologii a jejich analýzám.

Non-parasitic bees differ in the degree of their taxonomic specialisation for pollen collection to feed their brood. Surveys of published data on pollen specialisation by bees of central Europe showed that about two-thirds of species are pollen generalists (polylectic) while the remainder only collect pollen of one family, genus or species (monolec...

Relativně nedávno vyšla publikace čtveřice entomologů týkající se všech doposud nalezených kobylek, sarančí, cvrčků a dalších zástupců rovnokřídlého hmyzu (Orthoptera) v Praze (Natura Pragensis 2018, 25: 1–240).

Norway spruce (Picea abies) is one of the most important target trees in forestry. In Central Europe, it is grown primarily in forest plantations. However, the distribution area of this tree species is declining due to climate change and trends toward sustainable forest management. The question how artificial habitats such as plantations influence...

Conservation of threatened animals is frequently limited by lack of knowledge about their ecological preferences, and often artificial feeding is one of the few chances to save endangered species. We investigated the possibility to artificially feed two endangered flat bark beetles dependent on dead wood for their diet—namely, Cucujus cinnaberinus...

Naše lesy i lesníci stále čelí mnoha výzvám. Jedna z těch současných je například příprava hospodářských lesů na změnu klimatu. Biouhel a jeho aplikace do půdy je jednou z nemnoha příležitostí, jak lze lesům poměrně snadno pomoci. Důležité je i to, že aplikace biouhlu není pro naše lesy nic nového. Žďáření se v našich lesích provádělo již od samotn...

Cities, towns and villages are important places with almost specific greening in comparison with open landscapes. Cemeteries are one of the most common land-use types in Central European settlements; however, they are still rather marginal regarding their total extent. In this study, we focused on the diversity of lichens in these important artific...

Open habitats are disappearing from European forests. This is mainly due to various management-related practices, such as afforestation and the maintenance of closed canopy plantation forests. Open forests are also declining as a result of the abandonment of traditional forest use practices and natural succession. The effects of the establishment a...

Open habitats are disappearing from European forests. This is mainly due to various management-related practices, such as afforestation and the maintenance of closed canopy plantation forests. Open forests are also declining as a result of the abandonment of traditional forest use practices and natural succession. The effects of the establishment a...

Smrk ztepilý je v současnosti jednou z nejkontroverznějších dřevin u nás-někým až blahořečený, jiným proklínaný. Jen málokdy platilo tak jako dnes, že si na něm lze ušít slušivý "mediální kroj". O tom však můj příspěvek nebude, pokusím se v něm shrnout výsledky osmiletého vědeckého výzkumu biodiverzity na různých místech České republiky. Rád bych t...

One of the main questions in ecology and conservation is how organisms are governed and affected by their traits within the context of abiotic gradients. The main question of our study addresses how patch, topography, and land use influence conservation trait status (rarity and red-list index) of birds generally, and of farmland and woodland specia...

Rádi bychom nastínili možné finanční motivace k provozování zemědělského lesnictví (neboli agrolesnictví) ve formě ovocných sadů. Problém jistě nerozklíčujeme, ale snad trochu pomůžeme při objasnění současné situace. Některé z důvodů, proč je dobré mít sady v naší krajině, byly uvedeny v minulém příspěvku (v Selské revue č. 5). I vzhledem k odezvě...

Definice příliš v oblibě nemám, ale asi by bylo vhodné hned na začátek napsat, co to ta ekologie je. Má totiž minimálně dvě tváře. Jedna je ta mediální, která s ekologií má společného asi tolik jako slon se žížalou. Druhá je ta pravá. Ta hovoří zhruba o tom, že ekologie je věda o interakcích organismů s neživým prostředím, a také interakce mezi org...

Forest plantations are still often considered the antithesis of real nature. However, plantations can host many organisms. The problem is that some of the hosted species are regarded ad hoc as pests. The main aim of our paper was to study the carpenter ant (Camponotus ligniperdus) in windstorm habitats. We studied forests in East Bohemia, Czech Rep...

Tradiční ovocné sady se stromy naroubovanými na vysokém kmeni se u nás vysazují velmi dlouho. Je to již od 15. století. Jde o čistě lidský výtvor. Bez péče člověka sady nakonec vždy z krajiny zmizí.

Organisms dependent on dead wood (i.e., saproxylic) are some of the most threatened by changes in the forest environment. Aside from anthropogenic disturbances resulting in forest fragmentation and a decrease in dead wood, the expansion of homogenous closed-canopy forests due to successional changes is identified as the main threat for many saproxy...

Research on jewel beetles (Agrilus spp.) associated with oak stands were carried out in 2008–2009, in the Krotoszyn Forest District – both in a managed forest stand and in that with restricted forest management activities, situated in the buffer zone of the Smoszew Nature Reserve. The aim of the study was to examine the habitat preferences of speci...

While the use of truffles in Poland has a long tradition, for historical reasons this knowledge was almost lost. Currently, truffles and truffle orchards are again receiving public attention. For example, the Polish State Forests supported the establishment of truffle orchards by the Forestry Research Institute. In recent years, knowledge concernin...

Aim Beech forests comprise a globally unique temperate forest type in Europe. The dominance of beech in these forests developed during the ongoing post‐glacial northward re‐colonization, concurrently with intensified forest use by humans. We investigated how these two processes together with climate shaped the patterns of functional diversity of tw...

Forest plantations represent a globally important land use, and their growth is expected to triple by the end of the century. Therefore, they could represent an important habitat remnant to support the survival of species. We measured the impact of forest plantations on biodiversity with a focus on eight groups of biota including saproxylic and gro...

The microsporidium Larssoniella duplicati (Weiser, Holuša, Žižka, 2006) is a specific pathogen of the bark beetle Ips duplicatus (C.R. Sahlberg, 1836), which is a serious pest of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst) in Europe. From 2011 to 2016, infection levels of L. duplicati and other pathogens in I. duplicatus populations were assessed alo...

The structure of forests is an important stabilizing factor regarding ongoing global climate and land use change. Biodiverse mountain forests with natural structure are one of the ecosystems most endangered by these problems. We focused on the mountain forest islands of European beech (Fagus sylvatica) and their role in the natural distribution of...

Urban forests are important for the health of cities. These forests face high anthropogenic pressure, including demands on their multi-functional role. Therefore, the impact of pests-induced disturbances may be greater for urban forests than forests outside of cities. Monitoring of pests in their native environment is an important tool for the mana...

Burgundy truffle (Tuber aestivum Vittad.) has a wide-ranging distribution across Europe, yet its ecology are far from being well understood. For instance, although the literature on the ecophysiology of this species is dominated by the symbiosis with deciduous hosts, the real range of hosts in nature seems to be much wider than the distribution of...

Large areas of formerly oak-dominated woodlands are currently managed for timber products, and if they are used in a conservation-oriented way, they are often abandoned and left to become wilderness. We focused on the situation when an oak woodland is still partly managed as an ancient game park and partly abandoned as a nature conservation amendme...

Post-industrial sites form a unique phenomenon in the landscape. They enable us to study the human-altered succession of communities. Regarding this, we studied an ant community in three types of habitats-reclamation and spontaneous succession in an ore basin together with unaltered surroundings in the Czech Republic. More than 30 years after being...

Bees and wasps are usually known to occur in open habitats, with most species recorded from sand, loess, and open rock biotopes. Although most species nest underground (45% of the fauna of the Czech Republic), followed by parasitic species (31%), many species from various groups use dead wood for nesting. Of the group of species nesting in various...

The value of urban environments to saproxylic insect conservation remains largely unstudied but is known to vary depending on the number and density of trees as well as their age, distribution, and species composition. Perhaps the most important factor influencing the distribution of saproxylics in urban areas is the degree of isolation among suita...

The rural landscapes surrounding large cities are rapidly becoming incorporated into the urban environment. The most conspicuous changes involve green spaces, such as former agro-forestry systems like fruit orchards. In this paper, we assess the influence on biodiversity of restoring a large urban traditional fruit orchard as reflected by six selec...

For the past two decades in the Czech Republic, Norway spruce (Picea abies) trees have been weakened by drought and subsequent attack by the honey fungus and bark beetles. We determined whether thinning of trees decreased mortality at 40 forest locations in the Czech Republic. We also identified the species of honey fungus (Armillaria) associated w...

The maintenance of biodiversity in forestlands has become one of the major concerns of global forestry. Regarding the situation of Italy, the Mediterranean forests belong to the less studied in Europe. There is an urgent need to individuate reliable indicators that help to assess forest features important for their future management and biodiversit...

Modrásci rodu Phengaris patří mezi vysoce ohrožené denní motýly. Intenzita jejich výzkumu v Evropě odpovídá jak jejich ochranářském statusu, tak i vysoce zajímavému životnímu cyklu. Vyvíjejí se jako sociální paraziti v hnízdech mravenců rodu Myrmica. Referujeme o nejnovějších poznatcích o jejich evoluci, biologii a ochraně. Large blues (Phengaris)...

Plantation forests with timber production as the major function are highly fragmented and disturbed regarding the tree species composition and stand area. Their closed canopies also have different microclimatic conditions compared to better studied conservation areas. We studied three beetle families (click, longhorn and rove beetles) with differen...

Only one species of the family Prostomidae occurs in the Czech Republic, Prostomis mandibularis (Fabricius, 1801). No other species are distributed in Europe (Löbl & Smetana 2008b). Its occurrence in the Czech Republic was mapped by Mertlik (2011b). It is a saproxylic beetle. Its larvae, which are up to 1 cm long, develop in the terminal decay stag...

The family Pythidae is only represented in the Czech Republic by the genus Pytho (Latreille, 1796), specifically by two species – locally relatively common P. depressus (Linnaeus, 1767) and very rare Pytho abieticola (J. Sahlberg, 1875). Apart from them, only P. kolwensis (C. Sahlberg, 1833) can be found in Europe. Painter et al. (2007) wrote about...

Pana Humla, který lovil mamuty, měl rýmu a nakonec se stal školníkem, který ohýbal třešně, asi zná z Macha a Šebestové kdekdo. Těžko říct, zda měl pan Macourek na mysli opravdového Neandrtálce (tj. Homo neanderthalensis), ale docela by se to hodilo (mch. tato epizoda z roku 1977 má na ČSFD 91%). O Neandrtálcích se toho ví čím dál víc, to bez pochyb...