Species composition, structure and ecological characteristics of the vegetation of two pond types with different management, fishponds and storage ponds, in the Českobudějovická pánev basin (South Bohemia), were compared. A selection of 99 relevés from fishponds and 99 from storage ponds (small ponds used for the storage of marketable fish) made in 2000–2004 were analysed using direct and indirect ordination and ANOVA. The difference between storage ponds and fishponds was found to be more important than gradients correlated with temporal changes, soil moisture and mud depth. Storage ponds had a significantly higher mean number of species, bryophytes, archaeophytes and neophytes and beta-diversity. There were no significant differences in cover values, except of moss layer, which had significantly higher cover in storage ponds. Fishponds had significantly higher mean Ellenberg indicator values for light, continentality, moisture and nutrients. Oenanthe aquatica and Rumex maritimus are typical fishpond species and Amblystegium humile and Eleocharis palustris agg. typical storage pond species. The management of storage ponds is more varied and of different intensity than that of fishponds. It is assumed that management is a crucial factor determining the species richness and influencing the vegetation of these two habitats.
Nutrient-rich terrestric habitats form small areas in the peaty alluvial plain of upper stream of the Vltava river. Their vegetation consists of birch and grey alder alluvial woodland, willow and bridewort scrub and tall grassland of sedges, grasses and forbs. A hypothesis that this vegetation is an Early Holocene relic is presented. The relict origin is supported by recent dynamics of habitats and vegetation, findings of palynology, palaeoecology and history of land use, and by the analogical composition and history of relict vegetation of northernmost Europe. The refugial effect of the habitat is suggested by stable conditions on high temporal and spatial scales, and by permanent reclaiming of open gaps along the stream.
Central European lowland wet meadows are habitats of great conservation interest, however, their phytosociological status has been to a large extent dependent on specific phytosociological traditions in different countries. In order to bridge the gaps between different national schemes of vegetation classification, a statistical analysis of variation in species composition of these meadows in the Czech Republic, E Austria, Slovakia, Hungary and NE Croatia was performed, using a data set of 387 geographically stratified vegetation relevés sampled at altitudes < 350 m. Principal coordinates analysiswas used to identify and partial out the noise component in the variation in this data set. The relevés were classified by cluster analysis. A new method for identifying the optimal number of clusters was developed, based on species fidelity to particular clusters. This method suggested the optimum level of classification with three clusters and secondary optimum levels with five and nine clusters. Classification based on three clusters separated the traditional phytosociological alliances of Calthion palustris and Molinion caeruleae, both with a suboceanic phytogeographical affinity, and a group of flooded meadows of large river alluvia, with a continental affinity. The latter group included the traditional alliances of Agrostion albae, Alopecurion pratensis, Cnidion venosi, Deschampsion cespitosae and Veronico longifoliae-Lysimachion vulgaris; however, the internal heterogeneity of this group did not reflect putative boundaries between these alliances as proposed in the phytosociological literature. Therefore we suggest to unite these alliances in a single alliance Deschampsion cespitosae Horvatić 1930 (the oldest valid name). Classification with nine clusters was interpreted at the level of broad phytosociological associations. Particular clusters were characterized by statistically defined groups of diagnostic species and related to macroclimatic variables.
The article examines the long-term changes and the age homogamy of marriages that took place in the Czech Republic between 1920 and 2000. The analysis of data acquired from a study of vital registration is divided into a descriptive part - describing the age structure of the marriage market and the absolute degree of age homogamy - and an exploratory part - creating a log-linear model of the structure and changes of relative age homogamy. Three hypotheses are formulated in connection with the latter part of the analysis, of which the hypothesis about increasing age homogamy seems acceptable. Results from the descriptive analysis and the models show that age homogamy has been increasing during the 20th century, both in the case of first marriages and remarriages. The hypothesis about the greater degree of age heterogamy in the case of remarriages can also be accepted, while the testing of the third hypothesis, that the older the marital partners are the more heterogamous their age structure, proved inconclusive and requires further investigation.
The spatial concentration of social disadvantage in rural areas not only poses a risk to social cohesion but also represents a challenge for public policy. This article draws on a multidimensional concept of disadvantage to study spatial aspects of disadvantage in Czech rural areas. Current studies aimed at identifying ‘inner peripheries’ as areas with an increased risk of social exclusion fail to distinguish between different forms of disadvantage. Their methodological approach blends regions struggling with various problems into one category. Contesting the one-dimensionality of peripheries, this article presents an alternative approach that allows the delimitation of multiple types of peripheral areas based on four separate dimensions of disadvantage. It is possible then to distinguish: peripheries characterised by low qualifications, lower living standards, and the absence of a middle class; peripheries with an increased risk of social exclusion; peripheries with poor accessibility; and peripheries facing demographic challenges. Differences in the spatial patterns of the four types of peripheries indicate that different sociospatial processes contribute to the emergence of different types of peripheries and this calls for varied public policy tools and measures.
This article focuses on welfare surveillance as a sociological sub-discipline and a specific issue that has emerged in the past two decades in relation to the neoliberal revolution and the transformation of social systems in the West. The paper has three main goals: (1) a theoretical conceptualisation of welfare surveillance based on an analysis of existing empirical research; (2) an analysis of socio-practical manifestations and impacts of welfare surveillance; and (3) a contextualisation of the implementation of welfare surveillance within the Czech social milieu during recent social reforms. Within the scope of the first two goals, the author shows that welfare surveillance is theoretically construed along the lines of a specific combination of social justice and neoliberal governmentality, and that welfare surveillance enables the application of specific illiberal practices to welfare applicants and recipients in order to effectively discipline and normalise them, which results in the stigmatisation and criminalisation of recipients. Given that there is relatively little research on surveillance in the Czech Republic, the article opens with an introduction to the issue of surveillance.
V době příprav nové legislativy upravující podmínky pro působení archeologie otevírají následující texty diskusi o provádění terénních výzkumů v České republice. Výchozí text kritizuje praxi, kdy si tzv. oprávněné organizace zaměstnávající profesionální archeology najímají na výkopové a dokumentační práce komerční organizace, tzv. servisní firmy, které vyplácejí z finančních prostředků poskytnutých zpravidla investorem na úhradu nákladů na výzkum. Pokud archeologie rezignuje na neustálé řízení postupu terénního výzkumu, přestává být poznávacím oborem, popsaná praxe navíc může být v rozporu s principem financování archeologických výzkumů vycházejícím z nonprofitního pojetí realizace odborné činnosti ve veřejném zájmu. Oponenti poukazují na to, že nejde o problém servisních organizací, ale o otázku jejich korektního či nekorektního využití. Nutnost jejich zapojení do terénního výzkumu zdůvodňují mj. omezenými kapacitami profesních archeologů a podmínkami rozsáhlých a striktně termínovaných záchranných prací; archeolog – vedoucí výzkumu je plně odpovědný za úroveň řešení odborných otázek i využití vynaložených prostředků. Nalézt průnik obou pohledů nebude snadné, avšak archeologie musí v každém případě eliminovat společenská rizika spojená s těmito problémy. and The conducting of terrain excavations in the Czech Republic is the topic of the ensuing discussion at a time when new legislation is being prepared on the conditions for archaeological operations. The starting text involves a critique on the practice of licensed organisations, which employ professional archaeologists, hiring commercial organisations, i.e. so-called “service companies”, to perform digging and recording work, and who pay these “service companies” from funds provided by investors to cover excavation costs. If archaeology resigns to the continuous management of terrain excavation procedures, it will stop being an epistemic field. The described practice can furthermore be in conflict with the principle of financing archaeological excavations stemming from the non-profit conception of the execution of professional activities in the interest of the public. Objectors see it as not being a problem of service companies, but a question of the correct or incorrect utilisation of these companies. These organisations state one of the reasons for using these service companies in terrain work as being the limited capacity of professional archaeologists and the conditions surrounding extensive rescue excavation work and its strict deadlines; the archaeologist – the head of the excavation is fully responsible for the standard of resolving specialised issues and the utilisation of expended resources. Finding a meeting point between these two views will not be easy, however archaeology must in all cases eliminate the social risks linked with these problems.
A phytosociological synthesis of weed vegetation of southern Moravia (Czech Republic) was performed using the Braun-Blanquet approach. Gradsect sampling, i.e. a priori stratified selection of sampling sites, was used for the field survey. Using this method, 115 quadrants of the Central European mapping grid (6 × 5.6 km) were chosen. Three hundred and ten relevés recorded in 1997–2002 were classified, based on the Cocktail method, which defines sociological species groups and then creates formal definitions of vegetation units. In total, nine associations of the class Stellarietea mediae were distinguished in southern Moravia. Three associations were included in the alliance Caucalidion lappulae (Lathyro-Adonidetum, Euphorbio-Melandrietum, Veronicetum hederifoliotriphylli) and three in the alliance Scleranthion annui (Aphano-Matricarietum, SperguloScleranthetum, Erophilo-Arabidopsietum). For each of the alliances Veronico-Euphorbion, Spergulo-Oxalidion and Panico-Setarion one association was distinguished, respectively, SetarioFumarietum, Panico-Chenopodietum polyspermi and Echinochloo-Setarietum pumilae . Species composition of these associations is documented in a synoptic table. Their structure, ecology, and distribution are commented.
Socialisation in a single-parent family has been associated with negative consequences both in previous research and popular discourse. This article investigates whether this association may be different in a society with a high rate of divorce and extramarital fertility. Using data from the Czech contribution to the EU-SILC survey, it tests hypotheses concerning the difference between the current situation of adults who grew up in single-parent families and those who were raised in intact families. We look for the influence of socialisation on single-parent families in three areas—educational attainment, current partnership situation, and current family income. The results of regression analyses show that the differences between children from single-parent families and those from intact ones are very small in the area of education (the influence is apparent only at the secondary school graduation level, no difference is present at the tertiary education level), relatively weak in the area of partnership situation, and imperceptible from the viewpoint of family income. These results exclude a causal explanation for the influence of single-parent families on outcomes, cast doubt on selective principles, and open space for interpretation in terms of mechanisms of family de-institutionalisation.
Semi-dry grasslands in the White Carpathian (Bílé Karpaty) Mountains on the Czech-Slovak border are famous for their extremely high species richness. In places they contain more than 130 species of vascular plants per 100m2 and for some plot sizes they hold world records in the number of vascular plant species, but the reasons for this are poorly understood. Here we ask whether the high number of species in these grasslands can be explained by local ecological factors. We compared the White Carpathian grasslands with similar grasslands in adjacent areas in the west (southern Moravia) and the east (Inner Western Carpathians), which are on average notably poorer in species than those in the White Carpathians. In both of these areas, we sampled grasslands that were among the species richest in the regional context and had a similar physiognomy, species composition and ecology as those in the White Carpathians. We found 75 sites with >70 and >25 species of vascular plants per 100 m2 and 1 m2, respectively, in which we recorded species composition and local environmental conditions, including precipitation, soil depth, soil pH and nutrient concentrations, above-ground biomass production and nutrients in plant biomass. Although the White Carpathian grasslands were considerably richer in species than the richest grasslands in the adjacent regions, there were no differences in the values of the factors studied that could provide an unequivocal explanation of their high species richness. However, the values of the factors studied were within the ranges reported in the literature as conducive to high species richness in temperate grasslands. We conclude that the high species richness recorded in the White Carpathian grasslands cannot be explained by a single factor. It results from a unique combination of regional factors (long history of these grasslands, large size of individual grassland areas and their existence in a landscape mosaic with forests, scrub and small wetlands), local abiotic factors (soil pH, soil nutrient status, moisture regime and resulting grassland productivity that are suitable for many species from the regional species pool) and management (low fertilizer input and mowing once a year in late spring or summer).