This investigation was concerned with three aspects of the problem of passive dispersal of algae and protozoa by aquatic insects: the role of odonates in passive dispersal of viable small aquatic organisms, the passage of viable algae and protozoa through digestive tracts of field-collected herbivorous and carnivorous aquatic insects, and the viability duration of selected algae, during insect transport under monitored conditions.

The purpose of the present study was to determine the relative importance of aquatic and terrestrial beetles as possible vehicles in the passive overland dispersal of viable microorganisms.

Re-creation and building new small freshwater habitats belong among the important management activities within the Protected Landscape Area Kokořínsko - Máchův kraj (Czech Republic) for almost two decades. These pools keep the water within the landscape and serve as the habitats for vulnerable species of amphibians and invertebrates, which I have studied within this thesis. Most studies focusing on studying metacommunities of small water bodies have been based on the data from one or two seasons, and thus completely neglect the development of composition of these metacommunities over longer periods of time. This thesis builds on previous research on the species composition of small ponds in the Kokořínsko Protected Landscape Area, which had been done in 2005 and 2006. In 2009 and 2017, sampling in the same ponds continued. I investigated the influence of spatial and environmental variables of individual ponds on the species composition of ostracods, copepods and molluscs in specific years and how has the representation of individual species changed among those years. With one exception, I have not observed any new incoming species of copepods and ostracods since 2006; the number of species had in fact decreased. In the case of molluscs, there was a significant exchange of species between individual...