As global warming affects the environmental conditions worldwide, the spatial distribution and intensity of erosion processes might in turn be modified significantly in the near future. Earth Surface Dynamics and related fields of research aiming at exploring those geological processes shaping the Earth’s landscapes have therefore strong societal impacts, especially in mountain regions where the response of slope stability and sediment supply to a changing climate might affect numerous human communities.
Although numerous studies have demonstrated how climate forcing influences erosion processes and mountain topographic evolution, the impact of intrinsic climate variability on surface processes and on long-term landscape dynamics has remained largely unexplored, possibly because it has proven difficult to assess.
Quantifying the geomorphic response to (1) high-frequency climate variability (e.g. freeze-thaw cycles, monsoonal precipitations), (2) extreme climatic events (e.g. tropical cyclones, flood/debris flow events), and (3) long-term climate evolution (e.g. Plio-Pleistocene glacial/interglacial cycles, late-glacial to Holocene climatic change) are of prime importance to understand the erosional processes and sediment fluxes at the Earth’s surface.
This session aims at presenting original studies that quantify surface processes and landscape dynamics over different temporal and spatial scales in relation with climate variability, from short-term high-frequency observations to longer-term trends. We welcome contributions including (but not limited to) remote-sensing, field investigations, surface-process modelling, geochemical tracers (e.g., U-series, cosmogenic nuclides, short-lived radionuclides etc.), continental sediment or ecological archives or other innovative tools.

Confirmed solicited speakers: Bodo Bookhagen (UC Santa Barbara), Mitch D'Arcy (Imperial College London)