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Planetary Futures Competition Vol. III (2024/2025) - Desert Pavements by Prof. Dr. Markus Fuchs

An interdisciplinary approach towards a holistic understanding of desert pavements, their dynamics and global climatic and geoecological significance. Organized by Prof. Dr. Markus Fuchs

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Apr 02, 2025 from 11:00 (Europe/Berlin / UTC200)

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...Desert Pavements – A Geomorphological and Geoecological Phenomenon of Global Significance

organized by: Markus Fuchs 

An interdisciplinary approach towards a holistic understanding of desert pavements, their dynamics and global climatic and geoecological significance

Desert pavements are global phenomena in arid environments, representing one of the most extensive geomorphological and geoecological systems on Earth. To a significant extent they determine the interplay of key processes governing current and past landscape dynamics: landform evolution, surface runoff, soil water dynamics, weathering and soil formation, microbial activity, dust deposition and entrainment into the atmosphere. Hence, the characteristics of desert pavements and their future trajectories of change have a strong local to global impact on related earth and atmosphere system components. To unfold the complexity of the role that desert pavements play in the earth surface–atmosphere system, a holistic approach is needed. With this research objective, a team of researchers from various disciplines (geomorphology, soil science, geomicrobiology, atmospheric and data sciences) is investigating desert pavements and their local to global importance within the geoecological and atmospheric system at key sites in southern Namibia.