Personal page of Karel Prach

RNDr., PhD (CSc.)

 

Status: Professor of Botany

Born in Planá u Mariánských Lázní, Czech Republic, October 20th, 1953 

Professional education:

1972-77 Faculty of Natural Sciences, Charles University Prague, graduated in plant ecology/botany; Master thesis: Ecological study of shrubby successional stages in abandoned fields

1980-82 Faculty of Natural Sciences, Charles University Prague , PhD (ecology); Thesis: Contribution to the topic of ecological succession

Research interests: Vegetation ecology, vegetation dynamics, especially succession, and invasion of alien plants; ecology of river floodplains; restoration ecology

 

Experiences:

1977-82 Charles University Prague, Research Assistant and Lecturer in Ecology - Research in succession in man-made habitats: abandoned fields, dumps from coal mining; 1983 to date (since 1991 part time job) Department of Plant Ecology, Institute of Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences, Třeboň, study on succession in man-made habitats, research in dynamics and ecological functioning of river floodplains; 1988 International Agricultural Centre at Wageningen, Netherlands (five months), study stay – grant; 1989-1995 Charles University Prague, External Lecturer in Ecology; 1991 International Centre of Landscape Ecology, Loughborough University of Technology, UK (six months), research in ecology of invasive riparian weeds; 1991 to date, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of České Budějovice, 1999 – 2006 head of Department of Botany

Member of the Executive Committee of the Czech Botanical Society, member of the International Association for Vegetation Science, Society for Ecological Restoration – member of the European Chapter board

Grants and projects: Various grants of the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic and the Grant Agency of the Czech Academy of Sciences; four international grants; leader of the long-term research project on the Ecology of the Lužnice River Floodplain under the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic

Other activities:

Member of the Editorial Boards of Restoration Ecology, Acta Botanica Fennica, Annales Botanici Fennici, Preslia, earlier Plant Ecology (Associate Editor), Folia Geobotanica and Plant Biology (sectional co-editor)

 

Publications: : Up to now about 200 papers on various topics of plant ecology, especially on succession, ecology of invasive alien plants, and ecology of river floodplains with applications in restoration ecology; three monographs, co-editor of three proceedings (for the list of publication see the web pages of the Department of Botany, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of České Budějovice: http://www.prff.jcu.cz)

SCI: 660 registered in the past 5 years (2006-2010)