Project Details
Projekt
GRK 1364: Shaping the Earth's Surface in a Variable Environment: Interactions between Tectonics, Climate and Biosphere in the African-Asian Monsoonal Region
Subject Area
Geology and Palaeontology
Term
from 2006 to 2015
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 19943600
The principal objective of the Research Training Group is the research of the interaction between tectonics and climate in shaping the surface of the Earth at different length and time-scales. In addition, studying the impact of these processes on the biosphere is an integral part of this effort.
The regional basis for this research are the India-Asia Collision Zone and the East African Rift System, both characterised by pronounced relief contrasts due to recent tectonic processes. Both settings are influenced by the African-Asian Monsoon, which is highly variable on several time-scales. The Himalayan mountain and the East African Rift System thus offer the unique opportunity to decipher the influence of sustained climatic conditions on active tectonic processes on long time-scales, as well as the effects of short-term climate variations on landscape evolution.
The morphotectonic evolution of the region, in turn, influences climate, the distribution of flora and fauna, and even the migration of early humans.
Understanding the interactions between tectonic and climatic processes and the impact on the biosphere in a highly variable environment is an exciting research and teaching challenge that calls for a multidisciplinary research effort. The particular projects of the Research Training Group involve climatology and palaeo-climatology, structural geology and geomorphology, seismology and nonlinear data analysis, thermo-chronology and metamorphic petrology, as well as evolutionary biology and molecular genetics. The ongoing research is fully integrated in a graduate school programme, whose philosophy is based on interdisciplinary, cooperative, team- and network-based teaching and research. The Research Training Group is thus conceived to forge interoperability between junior scientists of different backgrounds at the level of university departments and independent research institutes in the Potsdam/Berlin area, as well as outside Germany.
The regional basis for this research are the India-Asia Collision Zone and the East African Rift System, both characterised by pronounced relief contrasts due to recent tectonic processes. Both settings are influenced by the African-Asian Monsoon, which is highly variable on several time-scales. The Himalayan mountain and the East African Rift System thus offer the unique opportunity to decipher the influence of sustained climatic conditions on active tectonic processes on long time-scales, as well as the effects of short-term climate variations on landscape evolution.
The morphotectonic evolution of the region, in turn, influences climate, the distribution of flora and fauna, and even the migration of early humans.
Understanding the interactions between tectonic and climatic processes and the impact on the biosphere in a highly variable environment is an exciting research and teaching challenge that calls for a multidisciplinary research effort. The particular projects of the Research Training Group involve climatology and palaeo-climatology, structural geology and geomorphology, seismology and nonlinear data analysis, thermo-chronology and metamorphic petrology, as well as evolutionary biology and molecular genetics. The ongoing research is fully integrated in a graduate school programme, whose philosophy is based on interdisciplinary, cooperative, team- and network-based teaching and research. The Research Training Group is thus conceived to forge interoperability between junior scientists of different backgrounds at the level of university departments and independent research institutes in the Potsdam/Berlin area, as well as outside Germany.
DFG Programme
Research Training Groups
Applicant Institution
Universität Potsdam
Participating Institution
Alfred-Wegener-Institut
Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung
Forschungsstelle Potsdam; Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam
Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ)
Department 3
Sektion 3.6: Chemie und Physik der Geomaterialien
Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung
Forschungsstelle Potsdam; Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam
Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ)
Department 3
Sektion 3.6: Chemie und Physik der Geomaterialien
Spokesperson
Professor Manfred Strecker, Ph.D.
Participating Researchers
Professor Dr. Achim Brauer; Professor Dr. Patrick J. O' Brien; Professor Dr. Klaus Dethloff; Professorin Dr. Ulrike Herzschuh; Professor Dr. Matthias Holschneider; Dr. Jens Kallmeyer; Professor Dr. Jürgen Kurths; Privatdozent Dr. Norbert Marwan; Professor Dr. Dirk Sachse; Professor Ralph Tiedemann, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Martin Trauth
