IMPLEMENTATION OF EUROPEAN LANDSCAPE

CONVENTION TO STUDENTS EDUCATION IN

ECOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

BOŘIVOJ ŠARAPATKA

PALACKÝ UNIVERSITY IN OLOMOUC

Olomouc is a prominent centre of education and culture. The history of

higher education in Olomouc began in 1566, when a Jesuit college was

established here. In 1573 this college was granted University rights,

identical with those of other European institutions of higher education.

The University of Olomouc, the second oldest university in the Czech lands

(after Charles University in Prague), spread its influence not only through

Moravia and Silesia, but also in Austria, Germany, Poland, Eastern Europe

and Scandinavia.

Palacký University is a public university with eight faculties: - Sts. Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology - Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry - Faculty of Health Sciences - Philosophical Faculty - Faculty of Science - Faculty of Education - Faculty of Physical Culture - Faculty of Law The University has about 24 000 students and over 1800 teaching staff.

Sciences were taught already at the old university of

Olomouc, founded by the Jesuit Order in 1573. The

reputation of their high standard was spread in the Czech

lands and abroad by the careers of several remarkable

persons, the best known is Georg Mendel, the founder of

genetics. After World War II the re-established university re-

introduced the study of sciences .

Now more than 2,500 students in B.Sc. and M.Sc.

programmes in the departments of the Faculty of Science

can obtain professional education in mathematics,

informatics, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, geology

and ecology. All doctoral programmes are accredited in

Czech as well as in English.

The Department of Ecology & Environmental Sciences Research activities of our faculty members are concentrated into several thematic domains: - Basic ecology (population ecology, community ecology,

autecology …..), - Ecology of agricultural landscape, agroecology, landscape

planning - Soil science and soil ecology, - Microbial ecology of streams and chemistry of water, ecology of

riverine landscape, - Ecology and conservation biology of fauna and flora; nature

conservation with focus on landscape fragmentation, restoration and biodiversity.

Our Department offers: - undergraduate program in Ecology & Environmental Science - graduate programs in Ecology & Environmental Science, and

Landscape Protection & Development - doctoral study program (Ph.D.) in Ecology & Environmental

Science – Ecology major.

54 % of arable land - problems with water erosion

South

Moravia –

very

productive

region

MSc. theses

on land use optimization

Assessment of soil erosion and deposition using 137Cs

The key assumption to use caesium-137 radionuclide as a erosion tracer is

finding of significant relationship between soil loss and radionuclide loss. Then

the spatial distribution of these radionuclides in the field can determine areas

of net soil loss (erosion) and net gain (deposition).

The assessment of 137Cs redistribution is based on a comparison of measured

inventories (137Cs total activity per area) of a individual sampling point in the

field with an reference inventory (stable site, without erosion/deposition).

Flow accumulations

Landscape changes in Krupá catchment from 30´s of 20th century.

Important for soil degradation evaluation – research in

soil zoology

• Evaluation of a wide spectrum of species, mainly mezoedafon. The samples are distributed to individual families (Carabidae, Aranae, Opiliones, Chilopoda, Diploda, Isopoda, larvae of all edaphon and others). Individuals are identified to species.

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Pardosa agrestis Pterostichus melanarius

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• The most common method of trapping of invertebrates on the soil surface: pitfall traps, Berlese-Tullgren containers and Winkler extractors.

• For this project we used the method with pitfall traps and Berlese-Tullgren containers.

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Agri-envi measures – optimization of agricultural landscape

Insect evaluation in different landscape structure and management

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Water landscape elements – important part of our ladscape

Research of ponds – evaluation of 19. century and current situation

Ponds – East

Bohemia

MSc. theses on

landscape planning –

Jeseník

Bc. theses –

old apple varieties