GACR

The aim of the project is to obtain new answers to frequently formulated questions on the form and demise of Late Neolithic rondels using a special methodology. Micromorphological analysis combined with radiocarbon dating and the classic analysis of archaeological finds will be used to resolve specific questions concerning the existence of Neolithic rondels, especially to clarify the method and time of filling rondel dithech.

Central European tektites, moldavites, represent high silica, dry impact glasses, genetically related to the Ries crater. They occur in several discrete areas, sub-strewnfields. Substantial intra- and intersample compositional variations have been reported for them. No larger internally consistent data set, covering their various properties, exists recently to constrain their source material and formational process more precisely. About 150 moldavites representing individual sub-strewnfields and isolated finds from the Czech Republic and possibly also from Lusatia and Austria will be used to collect the new chemical data using INAA, EPMA, and LA-ICP-MS. Chemical composition analyzed both in bulk samples and on the micrometer scale will reveal details of element distribution. Evaluation of these new internally consistent chemical data and critically assessed field geological information would constrain the source material as well as possible original distribution of moldavites, which is important for more accurate modeling of distal impact ejecta formation and transport.

The project is focussed on the estimate of the occult precipitation total and the formulation and validation of pollutant concentration (PC) in different precipitation types (PT) on meteorological conditions, on air particles transport, nature and conditions of the precipitation formation. Water and pollutant input will be evaluated for selected rain/fog events at experimental basins taking account local and distant pollution sources. The project involves experimental and analytical parts. Yearly 12 samples of bulk precipitation and throughfall will be collected. The duration of the project is 5 years in order to obtain at least 50samples of each type of precipitation at the given area which makes possible high quality elaboration of results. The existing data sets of soluble pollutants are available for the project. The main goals of the project are: (i) to estimate the amount of occult deposition using water balance of the forest canopy, (ii) to specify the PC differences in different PT, (iii) to estimate pollutant sources and their impact on the natural environments.

Crystallographic preferred orientation of crystalline rocks will be investigated by neutron diffraction texture analysis and co-related to a number of physical, chemical, and morphological measurements. The study will be performed on two series of rock samples - carbonates and meta-gabbros - taken so as to reflect the material evolution with respect to parameters of petrogenetic processes, namely the pressure and temperature conditions, deformation, and geochemical influences. The texture data will be juxtaposed with the results obtained by electron backscatter diffraction and expressed in form of orientation distribution function suitable for development of models dealing with anisotropy of physical properties: magnetic susceptibility, optical birefringence, electrical conductivity, and velocity of seismic wave propagation. The knowledge will serve to model the relations among the crystallographic preferred orientation, microstructural evolution of the geo-materials under study and their

Cryogenic cave carbonate is a rare type of secondary cave carbonate, which was formed in caves as a result of water freezing. The dissolved load of karst water was concentrated in the residual solution during formation of ice, and upon complete water freezing it was segregated as a carbonate precipitate. The existence of this carbonate type in caves of Central Europe was recognized only several years ago. Samples of cryogenic cave carbonate from localities in the Central European countries will be documented in the field, dated by U-series method and studied both mineralogically and geochemically, using C and O stable isotopes. Based on position of the dated samples, minimum permafrost depth during the Last Glacial Maximum will be estimated. The study will be complemented by experimental laboratory freezing of calcium bicarbonate water, followed by mineralogical and geochemical study of the formed carbonate phases.

The project concerns late Silurian (Ludlow-Přídolí) conodont and graptolite faunas, their taxonomic revisions and biostratigraphic applications. Pending problems in global conodont biostratigraphy and taxonomy caused considerable difficulties in inter-regional correlations. Progress in the worldwide correlation of classic sections of the Prague Synform would be attained by integration of all available and newly obtained stratigraphic data considering different paleoenvironmental conditions with special emphasis on detailed correlation of conodont and graptolite faunas. Paleoenvironmental interpretations will be based especially on changes in the composition of benthic and nektonic faunas. The entire succession of the Upper Silurian in its type area will be supported by a complete and detailed carbon isotope log, and detected local and/or global events will be precisely dated by high-resolution stratigraphy. The goal of the proposed project is to fill blank spots in the stratigraphy of the late Silurian in the classic area near Prague and enhance the correlation potential of the sections that may have crucial implications for the precision of global late Silurian stratigraphy.

The main objective of this project is clarification of the contribution of pores space on physical and mechanical properties of highly porous rocks, i.e. rocks in which pores make important part of bulk rock fabric. The study will be focused on the following research tasks:- relationship between shape of solid rock constituents (clasts) and shape of pore space, their contribution to the bulk symmetry of rock fabric, and validation of the presumption of the transversal isotropy symmetry of clastic sedimentary rocks;- influence of the shape of pore space (in 3-dimensions) on the physical (gas and water permeability, water absorption, capillarity) and mechanical (deformation, strength) properties;- research on the possible determination of pore space and 3D approximation using direct methods (optical microscopy equipped with the image analysis, electron microscopy, diagnostic colouration of pores) and indirect methods (anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility using suction of magnetic fluid in

The late Aeronian Sedgwickii Event belongs is one of the most dramatic global extinctions among planktic graptolites and roughly coincides with one of the most significant carbon isotope excursions so far recorded through the Silurian System. Carbon isotopic data, combined with stratigraphic distribution of oxic beds or gaps in sedimentation, account for sea-level drawdown, tentatively attributed to glacial interval recorded in the Amazon Basin. In the Barrandian area, the mass extinction has been recorded in the latest convolutus-early sedgwickii Biozone along with mottled oxic beds in a generally black-shale succession. In some Barrandian sections, however, this interval is missing due to an offshore gap in sedimentation. A section, temporarily exposed in the Radotin tunnel, provided a unique opportunity for a detailed multidisciplinary study of the whole Sedgwickii Event interval. The Radotin section data will be supplemented with that from other partial sections and correlated with El Pintado section of SW Spain. Detailed analysis of the graptolite mass extinction and recovery, palynomorph abundance and diversity fluctuation, Corg isotope excursion, and facies changes aims to elucidate scenarios, relative timing and causal links of these chemical, biotic and sedimentary proxies of the early Silurian climatic and sea-level fluctuations.

The former Komořanské jezero Lake formed the largest and therefore the most important natural water body in the area of the Czech Republic. The absolute majority of unique lake sediments was destroyed due to the progress in coal mining in the last century. The principal aim of the proposed project is to save the paleolimnological information hidden in four rediscovered sediment profiles gathered in 1980s in order to reconstruct climatic events throughout Late Pleistocene and Holocene by means of multi-proxy approach. Tracking human impacts on the lake ecosystem belongs also to the main objects of the research. Immediate action is necessary on account to stop and prevent further biological decay of the profiles found after almost 25 years of inappropriate stocking.

The existing evidence for different palaeoecological interactions between primary producers and their primary consumers, as well as between primary and higher consumers are only partly established in Lower Palaeozoic communities. The goal of the proposed project is to study, describe and evaluate the already existing extensive materials of Cambrian to Middle Ordovician findings preserving palaeoecological interactions in different parts of the trophic web. Several thousand specimens of microscopical and macroscopical fossils (both skeletal and soft-bodied) have been collected from Cambrian to Middle Ordovician of the Barrandian area in the last 150 years. Obvious but poorly studied and thus unsufficiently established changes in frequence and proportion of different trofic levels within the "middle" Cambrian - Middle Ordovician interval will be evaluated in detail. Such evaluation of existing and new materials provides an exceptional possibility to follow the agronomic revolution and changes of the complex benthic food web from Cambrian to Ordovician in comparable facies.