SPP 1803:  EarthShape: Earth Surface Shaping by Biota

• Subject Area: Geosciences
• Term: from 2015 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 255469939

The EarthShape priority program defines four testable hypotheses centered on quantifying the influence of biota on Earth surface processes. We do this by creating a unique opportunity for interdisciplinary research that spans traditional boundaries between the geosciences, biology, geomorphology, soil science, and hydrology. This coordination proposal tackles several administrative challenges related to testing our scientific hypotheses and fostering an interdisciplinary research atmosphere for future surface processes research in Germany. These challenges include: a) providing essential instrumentation and data sets that benefit many EarthShape subprojects; b) coordinating field work, permits, and international collaborations in remote field areas in Chile; and c) ensuring the development and mobility of participants as interdisciplinary researchers through young-scientist complimentary skills workshops, gender equality measures, and project meetings. In this proposal, we highlight key goals and administrative and financial needs of the EarthShape Priority Program for the next 3 years. In doing so, we draw attention to the important ingredients the coordinators and steering committee have envisaged over the preceding 4 years as essential elements of a successful priority program. These considerations include: a) the need for participants to address the research clusters and timescale bridging that are outlined in the original EarthShape scientific proposal, b) pairing of investigators from distinctly different disciplines to foster interdisciplinary research, and c) the need for participants to work within (or very near) the selected focus study areas to enable a cross comparison and integration of results from different projects.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• International Connection: Austria, Chile, Netherlands, USA

Projects

• Biogeomorphic feedbacks and their role for sediment erosion and connectivity along a climatic gradient in Chile (Applicants Eichel, Jana ;  Hoffmann, Thomas ;  Schmidtlein, Sebastian ;  Schrott, Lothar )
• Biota, fractures, and thresholds: Emergent self-organization in landscape evolution? (Applicant Scherler, Dirk )
• Bridging Timescales of Climate and Vegetation Change Effects on Denudation: A Coupled Modeling Approach (Applicants Ehlers, Todd Alan ;  Hickler, Thomas )
• Connecting the green and the grey world: an experimental approach to separating climate, vegetation, and geochemical effects on nutrient cycling along a climate gradient (Applicants Neidhardt, Harald ;  Oelmann, Yvonne ;  Tielbörger, Katja )
• Coordination Funds (Applicant Ehlers, Todd Alan )
• Coordination Funds (Applicant von Blanckenburg, Friedhelm )
• Coordination of the DFG Priority Program 1803 (Phase I): EarthShape- Earth Surface Shaping by Biota (Applicant von Blanckenburg, Friedhelm )
• Correlation between composition of microbial biofilms and weathering of exposed rock surfaces (biodeterioration) along a climatic and temporal gradient in Chile (Applicants Friedl, Thomas ;  Reitner, Joachim )
• DeepEarthshape - Biogeochemistry: Microbial element cycling as a driver of soil formation (Applicant Lehndorff, Eva )
• DeepEarthshape: Geomicrobiology "Iron-metabolizing bacteria as a driving force in weathering of silicate minerals" (Applicants Kappler, Andreas ;  Neumann, Thomas )
• DeepEarthShape - Geophysical Imaging: Imaging weathering fronts in deep regolith with seismic and electromagnetic methods [GIDES] (Applicants Krawczyk, Charlotte ;  Weckmann, Ute )
• DeepEarthshape - Reaction fronts in deep regolith and their advance mechanism (Applicant von Blanckenburg, Friedhelm )
• Diversity and functional traits of microbial communities in the terrestrial subsurface habitat along a climatic gradient: from surface into the weathering front at depth (Applicants Friedl, Thomas ;  Wagner, Dirk )
• EarthShape - BOFEDAL: Biota's forcing of earth surface dynamics ascertained on land and sea (Applicants Mächtle, Bertil ;  Schittek, Karsten )
• Effects of bioturbation on rates of vertical and horizontal sediment and nutrient fluxes (Applicants Bendix, Jörg ;  Brandl, Roland ;  Farwig, Nina )
• Fire-Induced Redistribution and Losses of Elements in the Weathering Zone (FIRE) (Applicants Dippold, Michaela ;  Gorbushina, Anna A. )
• Interactive plant-trait and climate effects on soil organic carbon along the Chilean coastal cordillera (Applicant Bader, Maaike )
• Landscape evolution constrained by the intraplate stress field: Direct coupling of tectonics and the influence of biota on long-term geomorphic development in the Chilean Coastal Ranges (Applicant Stüwe, Kurt )
• Microbial Engineers – Drivers of Earth Surface Development and Stabilization (Applicants Kögel-Knabner, Ingrid ;  Scholten, Thomas )
• Multi-scale imaging of the weathering front with geophysical and geochemical techniques (Applicants van der Kruk, Jan ;  Schaller, Mirjam )
• SECCO- Chile: The coupled vegetation, weathering, erosion, and sediment-export response to climate change unravelled from novel proxies in Chilean marine sediment (Applicants Bernhardt, Anne ;  Sachse, Dirk ;  Wittmann-Oelze, Hella )
• Structure and function of biocrusts in weathering, soil formation and erosion processes (CRUSTWEATHERING). (Applicants Bendix, Jörg ;  Büdel, Burkhard ;  Karsten, Ulf ;  Leinweber, Peter )
• Vegetation control on long-term to short-term landscape evolution from thermochronology and remote sensing (Applicants Bendix, Jörg ;  Glotzbach, Christoph )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Todd Alan Ehlers