anglicky - Institute of Hydrobiology

2 JAROSLAV HRBÁČEK (1921–2010)
He passed away on the 16 th of July, 2010, aged 89, and remains without exaggeration the
greatest Czech limnologist, respected around the world in limnological circles.
His interest in zoology and aquatic ecosystems dated from an early age, and it was not
„platonic“: by 1950 (he was 29 at the time) he was publishing papers in international
zoological journals, mainly on water beetles [1]. Ten years later he had progressed to
Cladocera [2], which remained his favourite group for the rest of his life. Few are aware of the
fact that the Czech universities were shut down by the Germans in 1939, when Hrbáček was
eighteen. He was thus able to resume his studies only after the war. He majored in 1949 in
biology and chemistry, with a dissertation on water beetles. He then worked as a research
assistant at the Charles University in Prague until 1958. During this period (using partly grant
finance, but predominantly his own funding) he established a hydrobiological field station
near the Elbe (Labe) River in Central Bohemia, equipped to enable both biological and
chemical (nutrient analysis) research of backwaters, and put together a team of co-workers
with diverse specialisations. His approach to the study of aquatic ecosystems was systemic
Jaroslav Hrbáček (middle) together with Prof. Nauwerck
and Ms. Nauwerck at the Institute of Hydrobiology (24 Jun 2010)
and complex. Already in 1958 he published a paper [3] where he explains the influence of
feedback mechanisms from fish all the way to nutrients. Another paper, published in 1962,
elaborated on and clarified this key topic, and, although published „only“ in the journal of the
Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (Rozpravy ČSAV), it became his most-quoted article [4].
It also served as a springboard for biomanipulation approaches in aquatic ecosystems. He
received the Naumann-Thienemann Medal of the International Society of Limnology (SIL)
for this work in 1983.
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