Science & Research

Environmental geochemistry
& biogeochemistry

Geochemical and biogeochemical research related to environmental problems

The Czech Geological Survey leads and participates in many basic and interdisciplinary environmental research projects including long-term monitoring and mapping. Some of the topics of this research are listed below:

• the geochemical interactions of the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere
• the long-term monitoring of element cycling
• geochemical cycles of sulfur, nitrogen and heavy metals
• the effects of bedrock composition on element cycling
• geochemical and biogeochemical assessment of critical loads
• long-term trends in the atmospheric deposition of sulfur, nitrogen and basic cations
• changes in biogeochemical pathways in Central European forest soils
• acidification and eutrophication of waters and forest soils; nutritional degradation of forest soils (collecting data for new legislation)
• the geochemical aspects of forest decline; data synthesis and formulation of recommendations to forest managers
• interdisciplinary environmental sciences, such as biogeochemistry, medical geology, plant and soil ecology
• mapping and analysis of chemical records; studying the migration and accumulation of inorganic contamination and organic pollutants in terrestrial and aqueous environments
• behavior of trace elements in ecosystems and isotopes as tracers of dispersion of pollutants
• assessment of radon risk
• global change studies
• the effects of climatic changes on the mo-bility & transport of metals in ecosystems

Hydrochemical and biogeochemical processes:

We are conducting the study of hydrochemical and biogeochemical processes in relation to regional pollution and global change. The main methodological approach is that of monitoring water balances, element budgets, and element cycling in a national network of small forested basins. The data we obtain (fluxes of chemical compounds and critical loads) is used for modeling interactions in the bedrock–soil–hydrosphere–atmosphere–biota system. Time studies of inputs and outputs of acidifying and/or toxic compounds at the catchment level can also be used in assessing the health status of ecosystems.

Geomon

Hydrological and chemical data from the GEOMON network, which encompasses fourteen small forest catchments in the Czech Republic, has been collected. Unified field and laboratory methods have been used since 1994, but many catchments have been monitored much longer. Bulk deposition as well as throughfall deposition and runoff of ecologically important components have been measured on a monthly basis. More info...

Biogeochemical studies of forest ecosystems

Stable isotopes of light elements (sulfur, nitrogen, carbon and oxygen) have been used in the biogeochemical studies of forest ecosystems, wetlands, and greenhouse gas emissions. Sulfur isotopes have shown that over 50% of the sulfate sulfur in streams draining spruce die-back affected catchments had been organically cycled. Consequently, the modeling of mere inorganic sulfate adsorption/desorption cannot give reliable predictions of the rates of an acidification reversals. All sulfur is cycled within the soil.
Lead isotope profiles in peat bogs suggest for the predominance of led derived from coal-burning in Central Europe, over lead derived from gasoline burning and ore-smelting.

MAGIC Project

The interest of using dynamic acidification models for predicting the response of soils and drainage waters in atmospheric deposition and land use leads to the application of MAGIC (Model of Acidification of Groundwater in Catchments). The project was designed to reconstruct past and predict future drainage water and soil chemistries at two catchments in the Western Bohemia with contrasting vulnerability to acidification (granitic Lysina & serpentinitic Pluhùv Bor).

The long-term acidification and nutrient degradation of forest soils

has been identified in many areas of the Czech Republic as a major factor that can limit forestry in the near future. It is for the reason that in May 2000, the Czech Government commissioned the Ministry of Environment to develop the "Proposal of Complete and Systematic Measures for Mitigating Forest Soil Degradation due to the Effects of Air Pollution".

Radon risk research

The spatial research of 222Rn (radon) in geological bedrock of the Czech Republic is oriented to confining the areas of enhanced radon concentration in lithological units. The 1 : 50,000 radon risk maps, accessible also free at www.geology.cz, help to distribute efficiently the indoor radon track-etch detectors into municipalities with predicted high and medium radon index.
The research activities covered the test of radon transfer model (ratio of indoor/soil gas radon) in six districts covering the area of the Central Bohemian Plutonic Complex. The indoor – soil gas radon relationship was tested in four districts along the border with Bavaria. The results have proven the increase of  radon in dwellings being situated on lithological units with enhanced soil gas radon concentration. The spatial dependence of radon concentration on proximity to faults was performed by GIS method. The other research study should proof  the dependence of  radon concentration in water sampled from drill wells on the bedrock geology (cooperation with National Radiation Protection Institute). More info...

Research of ¹³⁷Cs marker horizons

This research is focused on monitoring of the distribution of a wide range of contaminants in the region of the Jeseníky Mts. (Jeseníky–Ostrava). In addition to roughly monitored persistent organic compounds and heavy metals, the distribution of anthropogenic ¹³⁷Cs (half-life 30.1 years), 134Cs (half-life 2.06 years) and other radionuclides (U, Th, K) in various soil types (woods, pastures, fields) is being examined. The ecological and radiological significance of the contamination is being analysed with respect to soil utilization and potential transfer of 137Cs and other monitored elements in the food chain.

Lake Research

All five Czech lakes are located in spruce-forested catchments in the Bohemian Forest along the border with Germany and Austria, in the largest woodland area in the Central Europe. The chronology of metallic pollution, and the relative changes in the atmospheric input of pollutants into lake watersheds were studied in 0.3 to 1.3 m long sediment cores collected from Èerné, Èertovo, Plešné and Prášilské Lake.
The 210Pb and 14C dating methods provide a reliable chronology of cores extending back to above more than 6,500 BP (Prášilské Lake). The sediments have recorded both regional and local atmospheric pollution caused by the smelting of metals (for example since about 2,810 BP for Pb). Concentrations of Pb, Cu, Bi, and As increased during three periods of the lst millennium AD (around 0 AD; 550 and 900 AD). The pollution produced by smelting was more pronounced in the 14th and 16th centuries AD, when concentrations of Pb exceeded natural by a factor of 7–8. These maxima of Pb, Bi, Sb, and As are result of pollution from metal smelting in the wider surroundings of the lakes, and are unlike any previously reported. After a complex development during the Renaissance, the pollution peaked twice in 20th century: between 1900 and 1910 and from 1956 to 1978. Only the last increase in metal concentrations in the lacustrine sediments was connected to emissions from coal combustion and mobile sources (traffic). A decrease in metal deposition to the lake watersheds started in the 1970's, which predates the decrease in the deposition of sulfur compounds (1986).