Global climatic changes in the Earth’s past and their influence on evolution of life
Research at Czech University of Life Sciences PragueThe effects of current and future climate changes on global ecosystems represent a critical issue in modern science. However, modeling of future climate changes and their influence on global ecosystems is difficult without knowledge of past climate changes. The geological record provides abundant evidence that climate as well as overal biodiversity have varied throughout Earth‘s history. The scientific team at the Department of Environmental Geosciences of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences focuses on study of rapid global changes in the Earth´s past that substantially influenced the overall biodiversity of the Paleozoic marine ecosystem. This multidisciplinary research has included different geochemical, paleontologic, sedimentologic and geophysical methods and it has been conducted on different paleocontinents. The data obtained on the paleoenvironment as well as on biodiversity development before, during, and after global crises have been used for testing of different evolutionary, paleoclimatic and paleoecologic hypotheses. Our research has resulted in many new paleoecological observations and models as well as description of several dozens of new fossil species.
Team leader
prof. RNDr. Jiří Frýda, Dr.
Projects
- Ca and O Isotope Constraints on the Origin of C Isotope Anomalies: Testing the Model of Global ‘Carbonate Hypersaturation’ of Silurian Seawater
