The Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences expresses deep concern over the government’s decision to reduce funding allocated for research, development, and innovation by CZK 790 million and redirect it to other expenditure items of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (Government Resolution No. 914/2025 of 19 November 2025). The budget of the Czech Science Foundation (GA ČR),...
The traditional Biology Centre volleyball tournament took place once again on the last Saturday of November, marking its eleventh edition. Four teams composed of players from the scientific institutes of the Biology Centre competed for the trophy: the Parasitology Institute, the Entomology Institute, the Hydrobiology Institute, and the team of the Technical and Administrative Services,...
A recent study in Nature Communications marks a significant advance in microbiology by bringing a large collection of previously uncultured freshwater bacteria into culture, organisms long known to be highly abundant in nature but rarely represented in public culture collections.
A new study published in Nature Microbiology provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of the global distribution and genomic diversity of Fontibacterium, a dominant freshwater genus within the SAR11 clade. Through a combination of cultivation, global sampling, and genome-resolved metagenomics, an international team led by researchers from the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of...
Understanding whether lakes are fed predominantly by groundwater or rainwater is critical to managing our water resources in the face of droughts and shortages, new research has found. The study drew on data from 350 lakes across 18 European countries, collected between 2022 and 2024, to provide a comprehensive picture of how the continent’s lakes are coping with climate change. The research...
Biological invasions are widely acknowledged as a serious threat to biodiversity, global economies, and a good quality of life. Yet, they are not universally perceived as a nuisance and are sometimes gaining – often unexpectedly - cultural acceptance in local communities around the world. The consequences of this acceptance are not trivial for invasive species management.
The international portal Research.com has published its latest rankings of the most cited scientists for 2025. More than 20 researchers from the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences appear among the Czech scientific elite across several disciplines. Notably, two of them – Julius Lukeš and Jiří Macas – secured leading positions in the fields of genetics and molecular biology.
A vast international study recently published in Nature reveals surprising and complex changes in Arctic plant biodiversity driven by climate change. Researchers tracked more than 2,000 tundra plant communities across 45 sites over four decades and found no simple pattern of winners and losers: while some areas saw an increase in plant species, others experienced biodiversity loss. Among the 54...
When one thinks about conservation symbols, things that typically come to mind are particular emblematic species—pandas, tigers, elephants, polar bears, dolphins, and the likes. Such iconic animals, referred to as flagship species, are widely used in conservation campaigns to capture public attention and mobilize support for conservation goals. However, a new study by an international team of...
There is an increasing awareness and understanding in global science about a troubling and persistent research imbalance, where studies overwhelmingly originate from economically developed countries, particularly those in Europe and North America. However, a new study published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Evironment argues that despite growing efforts within the scientific community to...
