Geological Institute: Earth system at the intersection of geological processes, evolution of life, climatic and anthropogenic impacts

Geological Institute of the ASCR, v.v.i.
AV0Z30130516
Earth system at the intersection of geological processes, evolution of life, climatic and anthropogenic impacts

Earth system consists of mutually interlocked processes connected by feedbacks encompassing internal Earth dynamics, effects of living organisms and also – in young geological past – human activities. The research is focused on the understanding of general and local processes producing specific geological environments and on their relationships to the evolution of biota, climate and environment in a sequence of time slices from the Proterozoic to the Holocene. While the study of lithospheric plates, terranes, volcanic and intrusive processes is crucial for the understanding of earlier formations, studies of co–evolution of living and non–living systems prevail in younger formations. Key issues of the present and future development of the Earth system are also included: landscape evolution, climatic oscillations, geochemical elemental cycles and the evolution of soil and sedimentary environments, i.e., phenomena at the boundary between natural and anthropogenic processes.