The Limnology Research Group of the Center for Natural Sciences at the University of Pannonia has a diversified scientific portfolio. The main research area of the Research Group is the ecology of planktic and benthic algae mostly in freshwaters and its responses to environmental change. Major researches of the Research Group include exploring the diversity of silicon-based algae in saline and brown-water forest lakes and the impact of climate change on lake algal communities. Several indices have been developed to determine the ecological status of lakes and rivers based on phytoplankton and benthic diatom communities.
The research infrastructure includes
- Zeiss Axio Vert A1 Inverted microscope
- Zeiss Imager A1 Upright trinocular microscope
- Custom made photosynthetron and chemostat
- Radio-telemetry system with 868 MHz custom made 0.5g transmitter
The Evolutionary Ecology Research Group primarily examines the impact of urbanization through a comparison of urban and forest bird populations. The group’s most significant work appeared in Nature, in which it obtained new results on the genetic background of the adult sex ratio of four-legged vertebrates. Research has shown that males or females of a species are present in higher proportions in populations if the two sex chromosomes are the same. For example, in humans, there are usually more males with the XX chromosome, while in birds there are more males with the ZZ chromosome.
