The overarching research question of this project is how microorganisms, animals, and plants influence the shape and development of the Earth’s surface over time scales from the present-day to the distant geologic past.
EarthShape bridges between scientific disciplines and includes geoscientists and biologists to study this complex question from different viewpoints. Approximately 60 German and 20 Chilean researchers are involved in a diverse range of projects of this priority program.
All study sites are located in the north-to-south trending Coastal Cordillera mountains of Chile, South America. These sites span from the Atacama Desert in the north to the Araucaria forests approximately 1300 km to the south. The site selection contains a large ecological and climate gradient ranging from very dry to humid climate conditions. The sites were selected to avoid other complicating factors such as differences in rock type, and glacial, and volcanic impacts.
EarthShape is a 6-year priority program that started in 2016 and is funded through the German Science Foundation (DFG-SPP 1803).
You find our EarthShape Movies and supplements on Youtube (en, es, de)
direct link to the english version:
For viewing the image below, showing the involved disciplines - please click on the preview below.
News & Press |
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17 - 22 September, 2022
Final EarthShape consortium meeting
23 - 27 May, 2022
EarthShape @ EGU
New EarthShape articles:
29 June 2022. Canessa et al. Trait functional diversity explains mixture effects on litter decomposition at the arid end of a climate gradient
20 June 2022. Seuss et al. N2 fixation is less sensitive to changes in soil water content than carbon and net nitrogen mineralization
13 June 2022. F. Hampl et al. The role of iron-bearing minerals for the deep weathering of a hydrothermally altered plutonic rock in semi-arid climate (Chilean Coastal Cordillera)
project publications full list
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