Surface Processes & Palaeoclimate

DomůResearchResearch teamsSurface Processes & Palaeoclimate

We study the geophysical interactions between the lithosphere, atmosphere and biosphere. The core of our work explores questions concerning the process dynamics of landscapes and especially how climate, tectonics and life transform Earth’s surface through time. Our expertise spans the fields of geomorphology, sedimentology and geodynamics and includes the following topics:

  • computational modelling of sea level and long-term landscape evolution
  • the sedimentary record of environmental change, including fluvial, lacustrine and aeolian archives
  • geochronology via cosmogenic nuclides and luminescence dating
  • cryospheric processes and forms
  • extreme geological events, such as floods and landslides
  • archaeology and the impacts of human activities.

 

John Jansen PhD Senior researcher & team leader geomorphology, cosmogenic nuclides, Quaternary geology
Caroline Fenske Mgr., PhD Postdoctoral researcher surface process modelling, geomorphology, sedimentology
Filip Havlíček BSc MSc student analogue modeling, structural geology, extensional tectonics
Jiří Laurin PhD Senior researcher sedimentary geology, palaeoclimate, Milanković cycles
Angus Moore MSc, PhD Researcher geomorphology, cosmogenic nuclides, geochemistry
Greg Ruetenik PhD Researcher surface process modelling, geodynamics
Lenka Špičáková PhD Researcher clastic sedimentology
David Uličný RNDr, CSc Senior researcher sedimentology, sequence & stable isotope stratigraphy, sedimentary basins
Tomáš Uxa RNDr, PhD Researcher cryosphere, palaeoclimate, geothermics
Kaleb Wagner MSc PhD student geomorphology, Quaternary stratigraphy, geochronometry
Lotta Ylä-Mella MSc PhD student numerical modelling, geochronometry

 

Currently funded projects

  • The first ice sheets of North America (Czech Science Foundation 2026–28, J. Jansen PI)
  • Tropical climate & vegetation response during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age; an integrated study of spatial & temporal variability (Czech Science Foundation 2025–27, J. Laurin Co-PI)
  • Unravelling the influence of frost heave & thaw settlement on thermal regime of permafrost & seasonally frozen ground & its implementation in freeze-thaw models (Czech Science Foundation 2025–27, T. Uxa PI)

Cutting rock samples for cosmogenic nuclide analysis, Hellheim Fjord, East Greenland (photo—DL Egholm, 2018)

Performing analogue experiments in a low pressure chamber (Open University, UK) to investigate the behaviour of mud flows on Mars (photo—P Brož, 2019)

Sampling cryoturbation structures, Brno–Černovice, Czechia (photo—M Křížek, 2020)

Setting up weather stations and dust traps at Mt San Jacinto, California, to investigate the influence of altitude-driven climate variations on soil weathering (photo—K Hu, 2020)

Downloading data from a temperature logger in sorted patterned ground on James Ross Island, Antarctica (photo – L Kaplan Pastíriková, 2024)

Sampling the Tununk Shale in southern Utah (USA) to study the record of past sea level and environmental changes during a peak greenhouse climatic regime.​