The Biology Centre is a national public research institution founded in 2006 by the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic by merging five previously separate scientific institutes and service centres. Its research covers ecological topics with a focus on biomedicine and is based on interdisciplinary cooperation, the use of various methodological approaches (molecular biology, genetics, taxonomy, field ecology, mathematical modelling, etc.) and a combination of analytical and holistic problem-solving approaches. Its Department of Hydrochemistry and Ecosystem Modelling investigates biogeochemical cycles and processes that control the composition and quality of surface waters, e.g. the recovery of mountain lakes and their catchments after acidification, the eutrophication of lakes and reservoirs due to external and internal nutrient loads, the modelling of lake hydrodynamics, the recovery of historical trends in biogeochemical cycles in catchments and the photochemical processes involved in the transport of nutrients via dissolved organic matter from soils into aquatic systems.