Kateřina Macháčová is a plant physiologist working in the interdisciplinary research field of greenhouse gas exchange of forest ecosystems since her PhD studies at the University of Freiburg, Germany. She investigates methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) flux dynamics of different tree species (stems, leaves), cryptogams, soils and forest ecosystems of various climatic zones. She also studies the effect of environmental parameters on the greenhouse gas exchange within forest ecosystems. Her team defined for the first time that trees can act not only as sources of CH4 and N2O into the atmosphere, but also as important sinks of both gases from the atmosphere, and that the N2O exchange of trees shows seasonal dynamics following the tree physiological activity. Since 2012, she is employed at the Global Change Research Institute, Czech Republic, as scientist and since 2018 as head of the newly established Department of Ecosystem Trace Gas Exchange.