The Free Academy: Kateřina Sam

Food interactions, and the communication involved in them, play a vital role in maintaining balance and supporting diversity in natural ecosystems. Imbalances in predator-prey interactions can impactnutrient cycling and various plant characteristics. Bats, birds and ants are undoubtedly among the most significant insectivorous predators, the disappearance of which can affect insect prey populations and, later, plants. Plants, however, defend themselves vigorously against herbivorous insects, and communicate in a variety of ways with predators higher up the food chain about the presence of insects.

Kateřina Sam is a Czech scientist, field biologist and ecologist at the Biological Centre of the CAS and the Faculty of Science of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice. She explores the untold relationships in nature. In the rainforests of Papua New Guinea and other exotic places around the world she studies the connections between carnivorous birds and insects, or maps the reaction of trees when they are deprived of caterpillars. Forbes magazine has ranked her as one of the best contemporary Czech scientists and she is among a small group of Czech scientists who have been awarded a prestigious ERC grant.