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Connecting Process and Planet

1) MODIS scene showing strong dust emission in northwestern South Africa. 2) Measuring dust emissivity on cropland in the Free State, South Africa; SNF-funded. 3) Federica Trudu and Nikolaus Kuhn inspecting the Computational Sedimentation on Mars (CompSedMars) Experiment instrument box during the 4th Swiss Parabolic Flight 2020. 4) Sediment settling chambers inside the CompSedMars Experiment instrument box.

Global environmental change is not a single process, but the sum of many, mostly human-induced, direct and indirect changes of land, vegetation, water and atmosphere. Understanding the global impacts of individual human activities is therefore an essential task of geographers. Our research therefore focuses on unravelling the chain of reaction humans initiate at Earth’s surface when changing its use and to identify the local, regional and global impact of these changes. To achieve this aim, our group combines the use of surface process monitoring, experimental geomorphology and remote sensing across scales of millimetres to millions of square kilometres. A major project that illustrates this combination of approaches is the study of dust emissions across southern Africa. Dust has major implications for climate, human health and global nutrient fluxes (Figure 1). Besides, the fine particles that form the dust aerosols often cause a loss of land productivity in the source areas. While wind as a driving force is a rather constant factor, small changes in soil moisture, surface roughness of vegetation cover can either diminish or significantly increase such emissions. Our research therefore aims at understanding the cause and impact of small changes of surface properties (Figure 2) on dust emissions and their global implications. We take similar approaches when studying sediment fluxes and surface-atmosphere Carbon exchange on Earth, vegetation change caused by global warming or the relevance of gravity on erosion, transport and deposition of sediment on Mars.

Contact

Andreas Hueni

 

Prof. Nikolaus J. Kuhn, PhD

Head of the Physical Geography and Environmental Change Research Group

University of Basel

Basel, Switzerland

https://duw.unibas.ch/de/physiogeo/