Assistant professor
Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlarska 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic. Office: Complex University Campus at Bohunice, Kamenice 5, building D32/309
- phone: +420 549 49 8498
- akonecny@sci.muni.cz
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Population history of European and African rodents and other vertebrates (phylogeography, invasion genetics and speciation; inferring population history through Approximate Bayesian Computations using genetic markers)
- Interactions between rodents and their gut helminths and ectoparasites
- Distribution and dynamics of rodent-borne viruses (LCMV, hantaviruses)
- Social network analyses revealing small mammal social structure, behaviour and parasite/pathogen dynamics
- How global environmental changes affect wild small terrestrial mammal populations and communities
ACADEMIC EDUCATION
- 2009
Université Montpellier 2 (Montpellier, France) and Faculty of Sciences (Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic) – PhD thesis: Consequences of Anthropogenic Changes on Rodent Communities and Populations: Study Cases on Native and Introduced Species in Eastern Senegal. - 2005
Faculty of Sciences, Masaryk University Brno – MSc thesis: Litter Sex Ratio Variation in Natural Populations of Common Vole (Microtus arvalis).
PROFESSIONAL CAREER
- since 2013
Assistant Professor in Vertebrate Research Group, Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Sciences, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic - 2010-2013
Post-doc researcher at Department of Biodiversity and Molecular Ecology, Fondazione Edmund Mach, San Michele all’Adige, Italy - 2008-2010
Research assistant, Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Brno
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Training and professional experience received in the Czech Republic, France, Italy and UK in sampling small mammals (rodents, shrews, bats) both in Europe and Africa (through a range of habitats and countries); laboratory experience (DNA analyses at various levels and screening of rodent helminths); and a range of statistical data analyses in population genetics (various classic and Bayesian methods including Approximate Bayesian Computation), population and community ecology, host-parasite interactions and social networks of animals.
PARTICIPATION IN RESEARCH PROJECTS
- 2010 – 2013: Rodent Communities in a Changing Environment: Implications for Human Health in the Alps (holder of the FP7 European project).
- 2010: Comparative Phylogeography of Zambezian Region in Southeastern Africa Using Small Mammals as Model.
- 2005 – 2008: The Diversity and the Ecology of Vertebrates of the West Africa.
- 2002 – 2004: Sex Ratio in Voles – Can Mothers Manipulate Sex of Their Offspring?
Selected publications
- Dianat M., Konečný A., Lavrenchenko L. A., Kerbis Peterhans J. C., Demos T. C., Nicolas V., Ortiz D. & Bryja J. 2024: How to cross the desert if you are small and need mountains? Out-of-Ethiopia dispersal in Afromontane shrews. Journal of Biogeography 51: 230–245.
- Hánová A., Bryja J., Goüy de Bellocq J., Baird S. J. E., Cuypers L., Konečný A. & Mikula O. 2023: Historical demography and climatic niches of the Natal multimammate mouse (Mastomys natalensis) in the Zambezian region. Mammalian Biology 103: 239–251.
- Voet I., Denys C., Colyn M., Lalis A., Konečný A., Delapré A., Nicolas V. & Cornette R. 2022: Incongruences between morphology and molecular phylogeny provide an insight into the diversification of the Crocidura poensis species complex. Scientific Reports 12: 10531.
- Mikula O., Nicolas V., Šumbera R., Konečný A., Denys C., Verheyen E., Bryjová A., Lemmon A. R., Moriarty Lemmon E. & Bryja J. 2021: Nuclear phylogenomics, but not mitogenomics, resolves the most successful Late Miocene radiation of African mammals (Rodentia: Muridae: Arvicanthini). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 157: 107069.
- Konečný A., Hutterer R., Meheretu Y. & Bryja J. 2020: Two new species of Crocidura (Mammalia: Soricidae) from Ethiopia and updates on the Ethiopian shrew fauna. Journal of Vertebrate Biology 69: 20064.1.