The pelagic zone of lakes is defined as the water column over the area of the lake benthos that does not receive enough light from the sun to allow macrophytes to grow. The four chapters of this thesis explore the spatial ecology of predator-prey interactions between schooling fish and their fish predators in this featureless environment. We first developed novel hydroacoustics methods to study fish and fish school swimming behaviour in the pelagic zone (Chapter 1 and 2). Then we characterized our in-situ school formation and prey movement observations using an ideal gas model to better understand the mechanisms that lead to fish and school densities during the daytime (Chapter 2 and 3). With this model we estimated the functional relationship between the schooling prey densities and predator encounter rates, and verified with empirical data a counterintuitive relationship that encounter rates decreased as overall prey densities increased (Chapter 3). The encounter rates suggested that predation within the pelagic zone might be greatly influenced by external forces if they provide spatial structure which encourages greater degrees of prey aggregation in predictable locations. In this regard we examined the predator-prey dynamics under wind and found large redistributions of prey and predators under windy conditions leading to greater aggregations in downwind locations. Further, we found that our study fish were larger in lakes that were oriented into the wind, perhaps demonstrating a benefit to fish growth under windy conditions (Chapter 4).

Biodiversity of planktonic crustaceans, cladocerans and copepodans in southbohemian Naděje fishponds system were studied. Both fishpond and non-fishpond (pools, canals, sand-pits, river) localities were observed. Samples were taken from pelagic and littoral zones. Total of 21 species of copepodans and 44 species of cladocerans were recorded over whole area. Hypothesis {\clq}qA higher fish management intensity and higher fish stock cause a lower diversity of zooplankton in a pelagic zone`` was proven. Suppressed species are able to survive in a smaller space (littoral zones, pools, canals, fishponds with a lower fish stock and other non-fishpond localities), where predation pressure is not so strong. None or mild decline of a species diversity can be observed in large areas rich in different water ecosystems, with a reasonable management and production intensity. Different methods of sampling were also compared, those of {\clq}qprolovení litorálních partií`` proved good with the view of effectiveness.