Lenka Milacek Kajgrova, PhD

I am a freshwater ecologist studying how nutrient dynamics, fish communities, and management shape water quality and food webs in shallow aquatic ecosystems.

Current research

I am currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Hydrobiology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and a research scientist at the University of South Bohemia. My current work focuses on nutrient stoichiometry, trophic interactions, and sustainable management of shallow waters.

Latest

September 2026

New manuscript submitted

Our two-year experiment testing whether nitrate addition can alter seasonal N:P stoichiometry and ecosystem development in hypereutrophic fishponds has been submitted to Limnology and Oceanography.

August–September 2026

A short stay in Texas

I spent a few days at the University of Texas at Arlington thinking about Daphnia, eutrophication, and where I would like to take my research next. Eco-evolutionary questions are rather new territory for me, but they connect naturally to my long-standing interests in nutrient dynamics, eutrophication, and zooplankton. I came home knowing much better what I would like to work on next and with an MSCA proposal submitted. Fingers crossed!

June 2026

New papers on carp pond management

Two papers from our collaboration on experimental carp ponds are now out in Scientific Reports, looking at zooplankton responses to different management practices and at trophic and competitive interactions within plankton communities.

Indices of trophic and competitive relationships in a planktonic meta-network of carp ponds. Scientific Reports. 2026; 16: 23862. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-58900-5. Goździejewska, A.M., Kruk, M., Kajgrová, L., Vrba, J., Bláha, M.

Taxonomic, functional and interspecific response of zooplankton to management practices in carp ponds. Scientific Reports. 2026; 16: 5045. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-35854-2. Goździejewska, A.M., Glińska-Lewczuk, K., Kruk, M.,Vrba, J., Kajgrová, L., Bláha, M., Mráz, J., Roy, K.

September 2025

Jakub Krčín Award

The pond work received another recognition shortly afterwards. My PhD thesis on the functioning and sustainable management of European fishponds was awarded the Jakub Krčín Award by the Rector of the University of South Bohemia. If you are interested in the work behind it, my thesis is available here.

August 2025

Minister of Agriculture Award for Young Scientists

I received the Minister of Agriculture Award for Young Scientists for our work on a cascade of production fishponds and their management. For me, also a confirmation that looking at familiar problems a little differently is worth the effort.