There is general agreement that global environmental changes will have significant effects on Earth surface systems. The question how global environmental changes will affect our landscapes and the way we interact with them is therefore of highest importance. Denudation, including both chemical and mechanical denudational processes, is of high relevance for Earth surface and landscape development and the transfers of solutes, nutrients and sediments from headwater systems through the main stem of drainage basin systems to the world`s ocean basins. Denudation is controlled by a range of environmental drivers and can be significantly affected by man-made activities. The better understanding of possible effects of ongoing and accelerated environmental changes on present-day denudation requires systematic and quantitative studies on the drivers of denudational processes in different landscape settings. Only if we have an improved knowledge of drivers, mechanisms and rates of contemporary denudation processes across a range of different selected climatic environments, is it possible that the effects of global environmental changes on denudation can be better assessed. Special focus must be given to selected morphoclimatic zones that react in a particularly sensitive manner to ongoing climatic changes and man-made activities. In this respect, a systematic geomorphologic comparison of present-day denudation rates in different defined climatic zones, combined with a coordinated analysis and compilation of the respective key controls of denudation that presently affect these morphoclimatic settings, is still largely missing. This session invites oral and poster contributions on denudation controls, processes and products from any morphoclimatic settings worldwide. Achievements on both chemical and mechanical denudation processes and rates from small headwater systems to continental drainage basin scales are invited. A broad range of different techniques and methods of short-term and long-term data collection and generation, from field-based to remotely sensed, and analysis/modeling is welcomed in this session.

This session is organized by the International Association of Geomorphologists (I.A.G./A.I.G.) Working Group on Denudation and Environmental Changes in Different Morphoclimatic Zones (DENUCHANGE) (2017-2021).

A solicited talk will be given by Laura Stutenbecker & Matthias Hinderer (Darmstadt, Germany):
Controls on erosion and weathering in the Alps and East Africa: The significance of 10Be-derived denudation rates.