Centre for Polar Ecology

❄️The Centre for Polar Ecology seeks a postdoctoral researcher focusing on cryosphere dynamics in the Arctic. 🏔️ 🎓The postdoc will strengthen our geoscience laboratory, which currently works on recent glacier dynamics, paraglacial geomorphology, and paleoreconstructions. Interested? More info in 🧵👇

🔗 For more details, please follow the link: www.prf.jcu.cz/images/PRF/f...

prf.jcu.czprf.jcu.cz

📩 For further information about the position, please contact: Jiří Bárta (bartaj03(a)prf.jcu.cz) or Jan Kavan (jkavan(a)prf.jcu.cz).

🎯 We are looking for a highly motivated researcher who is able to pursue and develop his/her own research topics and also collaborate within the team. We expect:

- PhD in Earth Sciences or another relevant field. - Strong publication record appropriate to the candidate’s career stage - Ability to contribute to research grant proposal writing. - Experience with fieldwork in polar environments is highly appreciated but not strictly required.

💼 What we offer: - Full-time position (1 year fixed-term, with extension potential). - Standard salary for this position, with the possibility of an increase depending on involvement in future grant projects. - Five weeks of vacation + 4 days of sick leave

- Standard social and health insurance, access to the university kindergarten, meal allowance, and a flexible working scheme.

📍We take advantage of the Czech Arctic Research Station in Svalbard, operated by our university, and therefore conduct most of our fieldwork in Svalbard.

@subfossilguy.bsky.social

27 Apr

New research from our Geo group! 👇

Martin Lulak@polarandycz.bsky.social

How can an ordinary clam (well, actually more than 1,600 of these shells) reveal what the fjords on Svalbard looked like thousands of years ago? 🧵👇

Centre for Polar Ecology reposted

Melaine Le Roy

23 Jan

Ferdinand Glacier (Svalbard) 1908 | 2018 Svalbard is the most rapidly warming place on Earth! 🔥 We are going back there to early Holocene glacier levels BUT without the same forcings! ☀️ 🌍 We wouldn't be witnessing this colapse today without human emissions. 🏭 journals.muni.cz/CPR/article/...

Centre for Polar Ecology reposted

Martin Lulak

@polarandycz.bsky.social

7 Jan

Take a look at these whale remains. They belong to a creature that once got stranded on a beach and couldn’t make it back to the sea. Except this beach is now several hundred meters inland and dozens of meters above sea level. How is that possible? And why does it matter? New paper alert! 🙂 👇 🧵

30 Oct 2025

Published with help of @fscusb.bsky.social

Martin Lulak@polarandycz.bsky.social

New book out soon! 📖 (Unfortunately only in Czech) Planet of Melting Ice by Zdeněk Zvonek brings together 19 interviews with scientists from all sorts of fields — from biology to geology to social science — all united by one thing: their work in the polar regions. 🧊 👇🧵

8 July 2025

Hello Svalbard! Working hard near the Czech station Nostoc in Petuniabukta. Here are some amazing pictures from our teammember Jan Kavan. He is doing some UAV surveying. Left picture: Hørbyebreen outwash plain Right picture: Ragnarbreen and its proglacial lake dammed by the LIA moraine

The search for life on Mars. That’s the main mission of Lucas Fernandez, a graduate of the Faculty of Science at the University of South Bohemia. 🧵👇

Let’s hope for exciting discoveries—and we wish Lucas the best of luck on this extraordinary mission to Mars! 🚀🔬

P.S. The next Polar Ecology course is coming up in summer 2026. 😉 🧵👆

The search for life on Mars. That’s the main mission of Lucas Fernandez, a graduate of the Faculty of Science at the University of South Bohemia. 🧵👇

Lucas told us that the Polar Ecology course in Svalbard played a key role in preparing him for this amazing opportunity at ESA. And it was also the key factor on his CV. We're thrilled to hear that!

The Rosalind Franklin rover will carry a 2-meter-long drill, allowing it to search beneath the Martian surface, where the odds of finding signs of life are much higher than on the surface, due to the harsh conditions above.

The search for life on Mars. That’s the main mission of Lucas Fernandez, a graduate of the Faculty of Science at the University of South Bohemia. 🧵👇

Back then, much of Mars’s northern hemisphere may have been covered by a vast ocean.

Using data from current orbiters like NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and ESA’s Mars Express, the team is identifying target areas that could hold clues to past—or even present—life on Mars.

The search for life on Mars. That’s the main mission of Lucas Fernandez, a graduate of the Faculty of Science at the University of South Bohemia. 🧵👇

He’s now part of the team planning the upcoming ExoMars rover mission, named after the pioneering scientist Rosalind Franklin. The launch is scheduled for 2028. @exploration.esa.int

Lucas is involved in mapping the rover’s landing site: Oxia Planum, an area that is astrobiologically promising because it's believed to have been part of a Martian coastline billions of years ago.

The search for life on Mars. That’s the main mission of Lucas Fernandez, a graduate of the Faculty of Science at the University of South Bohemia. 🧵👇

Lucas says that without studying at our university—and especially without taking the Polar Ecology course—he would never have landed his current role at the European Space Agency. @esa.int

Oh, hello Svalbard! A completely new perspective on "our" archipelago thanks to so-called framonauts from the board of the spaceship Crew Dragon.

And it is so nice to see the archipelago including Longyearbyen as well as (still frozen!) Petuniabukta on their beautiful videos. Their mission is not just a trip. For example, they are also studying aurora borealis together with the SolarMAX program.

We wish you successful and safe landing and thank you for these pictures!

Oh, hello Svalbard! A completely new perspective on "our" archipelago thanks to so-called framonauts from the board of the spaceship Crew Dragon.

The mission of four private astronauts is called Fram2 - a reference to the Roald Amundsen's legendary expedition ship Fram. They all have met previously on Svalbard.

28 Mar 2025

Our paper 🥰👇 but kinda sad topic for near future…

Nature Portfolio@natureportfolio.nature.com

As marine-terminating glaciers retreat, they reveal new coastlines in many regions. A study in Nature Climate Change shows these changes for the Northern Hemisphere, finding that between 2000 and 2020, a total of 2,466 km of new coastline has been uncovered. https://go.nature.com/423sOMX 🧪

newscientist.comGreenland has gained over 1600km of new coastline as glaciers retreatMelting ice is revealing new coastal zones in the Arctic, but while this new landscape might fuel speculation about natural resources, it is vulnerable to rockfalls and landslides that can cause dangerous tsunamis

24 Mar 2025

Our new research in @newscientist.com! 👇

New Scientist@newscientist.com

Greenland's coastline has grown by more than 1600 kilometres as glaciers retreat, potentially opening up new access to natural resources - but these new coastlines are vulnerable to landslides that could trigger tsunamis.

nature.comNew coasts emerging from the retreat of Northern Hemisphere marine-terminating glaciers in the twenty-first century - Nature Climate ChangeAs marine-terminating glaciers retreat, they reveal new coastlines in many regions. Here the authors use satellite data to quantify these changes for the Northern Hemisphere, finding that between 2000...

24 Mar 2025

Full paper in @natclimchange.bsky.social is available here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Centre for Polar Ecology reposted

Roger Creel

@rogercreel.bsky.social

23 Mar 2025

Did you know that from 2000 to 2020, retreat of marine-terminating glaciers exposed >2,400 km of new Arctic coastline? www.nature.com/articles/s41... Congratulations, @mettebendixen.bsky.social, @cpecz.bsky.social, Jan Kavan, Matt Strelecki, and co., on your excellent paper!

We are stoked to present a brand-new @natclimchange.bsky.social paper by our Jan Kavan! ❤️ Did you know that between 2000 and 2020, retreat of marine-terminating glaciers has exposed more than 2,400 km of new coastline in the Arctic? 🧵👇

The loss of marine-terminating glaciers also affects life in the Arctic. These regions, where the atmosphere, cryosphere, and hydrosphere connect, are biodiversity hotspots. Losing them means losing one of the richest bio-hotspots in the Arctic.

You can check out the full article, published in @natclimchange.bsky.social, at this link. 🧵👆 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

youtube.comTsunami i NuugaatsiaqYouTube video by Anguteq Larsen

Valleys that were historically held and stabilized by glaciers may now be much more prone to landslides. And these landslides are already happening in Greenland—some are so massive that they can trigger mega-tsunamis. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBmk...

But that's not all. As glaciers retreat, they don’t just expose new coastlines—they also uncover new islands. Jan et al. identified 35 new islands larger than 0.5 km², most of them in Greenland.

Thanks to detailed analyses of satellite images, Jan et al. discovered that most of these new coastlines are in Greenland. This could have significant impacts on local ecosystems and communities.

For example, these newly formed paraglacial coastlines are highly dynamic, exhibiting high sediment fluxes and rapidly evolving landforms. What does this mean?

New paper just arrived! Did you know there are trees in the High Arctic? They indeed are, just a little bit small. Just couple of centimetres. But they are a very important part of the ecosystem! 🧵👇

In the partly and fully vegetated tundra willows provided microbes with limited N via exudation of low molecular mass organic acids with specific composition which allowed them to utilize available P from older soil organic matter and significantly accelerate their microbial growth.

link.springer.comArctic willow (Salix polaris) exudation as a driver of microbial activity and soil formation in the high arctic tundra - BiogeochemistryColonization by pioneer plants, among which the arctic willow (Salix polaris) is one of the most important, accelerates soil development after deglaciation. This is achieved through the increased inpu...

The paper is available here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Our research further reveals the detailed effect of plant root stoichiometry on nutrient content in exudates, and their ability to regulate microbial activity to cope with harsh conditions after deglaciation.

The measured rate of C exudation by roots was comparable at all habitats, but the N and P exudation was found to be affected by plant root stoichiometry.

Our new paper studies the rhizosphere effect of one of the pioneer plants in Svalbard, Salix polaris, on biochemical parameters of habitats at different stages of vegetation development.

The results confirm the importance of dwarf willow colonization in enhancing nutrient availability and microbial activity during soil development after deglaciation, especially in early-stage soils.

18 Feb 2025

Hello BlueSky world! If you are interested about polar ecology or polar science in general, you are more than welcome here on this profile!