Geomorphologists typically use terrestrial archives to elucidate the evolution of landscapes and to decipher the geomorphological processes that created them. The step from archive inventory decomposition to process interpretation is crucial and prone to pitfalls. The link between archive and process is usually established based on the principle of actualism, laboratory and field experiments, numerical approaches and, most important, conceptual models.

Consideration of these established theorems, preconditions and assumptions is crucial to maintain unbiased archive interpretation and, accordingly, appropriate process reconstructions and respective implications.

We welcome contributions with a conceptual and technical scope that highlight these challenges as well as possible solutions. Contributions may focus on issues such as time lags between driving factors and proxy reactions (caused by unknown feedback mechanisms or system-inherent non-linear relationships), on continuous and discontinuous archives (e.g. fluvial sequences, that receive increasing attention), on coupling of such terrestrial and marine systems, on equifinality of process and landform (e.g. due to yet unresolved interplay between climate, tectonics and geomorphological driving forces), and on the interplay of sedimentation and soil formation.