The Hunchback of Bezděz: newly-discovered crustacean species triggers series of furth












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            * The Hunchback of Bezděz: newly-discovered crustacean species triggers series of further 
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            For twenty years now the Charles University Grant Agency has been helping talented scienti

            costs of their research. One of the projects to receive financial assistance was that of h
            Mgr. Petr Jan Juračka from the CU Faculty of Science and his colleagues from the Departmen
            [ URL "http://www.natur.cuni.cz/biology/ecology?set_language=en"] , who are interested in 

            description of water fleas (Daphnia). These tiny aquatic crustaceans are some of the most 
            studied freshwater organisms in the world. Recognising the different species is important 
            scientists, who use water fleas in their experiments and applied research.

            Petr Jan Juračka came to the Morphological description of cryptic, Western Palaearctic spe
            flea from the Daphnia family project with his interest in the study of organisms inhabitin

            reservoirs near the Bohemian village of Kokořín. Juračka devoted his bachelor’s and master
            dissertation, which he will defend next year, to this topic. While researching in the Koko
            scientists came across a new species of water flea, Daphnia hrbaceki, called the ‘Hunchbac

            to its peculiar appearance and place of discovery. The Latin name of the species further p
            docent Jaroslav Hrbáček, a major figure in Czech hydrobiology, who died in 2010.
            “In the past there has been a steep fall in the number of small areas of water in the coun

            due to intensive agriculture. At the same time, ponds and small reservoirs are home to a w
            organisms that you won’t find anywhere else. It is for precisely this reason that we have,
            years, been building a network of new ponds, some of them in the Kokořínsko Protected Land

            we carried out our study. During this study we found a water flea that looked slightly dif
            ones we’re used to,” explained Petr Jan Juračka.
            This discovery led Petr Jan Juračka and his colleagues to carry out a more detailed study 

            and their taxonomy; water fleas are a model organism, used in research by other scientists
            their experiments to be successful, however, these scientists need to know precisely what 
            are working with.

            As part of the project, therefore, the hydrobiologists from the Faculty of Science describ
            discovered species of water flea and are now working on the taxonomy of water fleas from t
            cooperation with scientists from Switzerland and China, and are also engaged in the system

            circumpolar species of water flea, that is, those species inhabiting the Arctic and subarc
            Northern Hemisphere.
            Petr Jan Juračka has, in the course of the project, spent hundreds of hours over a scannin

            to study the crustaceans and their eggs. At the same time he is preparing, together with s
            Bakalář PLUS programme, methodological instructions on how to prepare sets of long-lasting
            for scanning microscopes.

            The study of these tiny crustaceans is far from over. The new discoveries constantly being
            ever more questions, and Petr Jan Juračka is sure that he’ll be studying them for some tim
            The CU grants Agency was established in 1993 and aims to provide financial support for you
            November, a conference took place featuring the most successful postgraduate projects fina
            fields. One of these researchers was Petr Jan Juračka, who gave a presentation on the Morp
                                                                                                      
            study, on which he is working with Emeritus Professor Vladimír Kořínek and his supervisor,
            PLUS programme at the Faculty of Science have also contributed, is ongoing.