News archive

Macrofungi (mushrooms) may accumulate high concentrations of toxic metals in their fruit-bodies. The team led by Jan Borovička of the Department of Environmental Geology and Geochemistry (GLI) has focused on the saprotrophic fungus Cystoderma carcharias. According to the joint study published together with collaborating laboratories (University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, University of Graz, Nuclear Physics Institute CAS, Charles University), cadmium concentrations in C. carcharias are elevated at pristine sites. However, concentrations reaching 600 mg/kg in dry weight, the highest ever reported in macrofungi under natural conditions, have been found from a polluted site in the vicinity of Příbram (Central Bohemia, Czech Republic). In the study published in Science of the Total Environment (IF 4.610) the authors investigated the chemical species of the accumulated elements, particularly cadmium and arsenic. Cadmium appeared to be associated with specific proteins (possibly metallothioneins) but arsenic was present in numerous low-molecular-weight methylated compounds of which two have been known only from marine environments yet.

The Institute of Geology of the Czech Academy of Sciences organized the 19th Czech–Slovak–Polish Palaeontological Conference together with the 11th MIKRO 2018 Worskshop on 18th–20th October 2018. The conference took place in Villa Lanna, a beautiful architectonic place and a representative residence of the Czech Academy of Sciences. One-hundred and two researchers from the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Poland, Ukraine and Slovenia participated in the conference. There were representatives of a wide range of interests including palaeobotany, palaeozoology, micropalaeontology and also anthropology. Forty-four lectures and forty-seven posters were presented during this conference. The last day, a guided field excursion focused on stratigraphy and tectonics of the Prague Basin was led by František Vacek of the National Museum. A special issue of the Folia journal dedicated to this conference was published. It is available through the Library of the Institute of Geology or on the official webpage of the Folia journal.

Interview with director Dr. Tomáš Přikryl issued the AB academic bulletin. In this interview, Dr. Přikryl describes some of research topics of the staff and outlines the way of their work. For details (in Czech) click here.
In the second official academic magazine “Áčko- science and research”, an article was published based on an interview with the deputy director Dr. Michal Filippi. This article describes long-term research performed in a unique salt karts in Iran, but also a new exploration of the unknown karst regions in central China. For details (in Czech) click here.

The Faroe Islands (Føroyar) are formed by several thick series of subaerially emplaced plateau basalts of Palaeogene age. During the systematic volcanological survey of the Faroe Islands conducted since 2014, actively participated by Assoc. Prof. RNDr. Lukáš Krmíček, Ph.D. of the Institute of Geology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, unusual volcanogenic structures occurring on the surface of a basaltic dyke located on the Sandfelli mountain ridge (754 m a.s.l.) were discovered. The rock wall of the dyke is covered by a dense mosaic of angular to rounded polygonal convex structures designated as pseudo-hieroglyphs. The discovery of pseudo-hieroglyphs, which probably represent unique examples of a chaotic stage of horizontal columnar jointing developed in basaltic rocks, has been described as a part of a worldwide natural heritage in the recent issue of the Geoheritage journal.