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Follow me on Bluesky for news...
10/2025: Recon-THrUst proposal approved by BGR executive board.
10/2025: Recon-THrUst proposal approved by BGR executive board.
As of 10/2025 our Chilean-German cooperation project THrUst and the respective reconnaiissance mission has been approved for BGR-internal funding. See THrUst for more details.
05/2025: Recon-Mission Debris Flow prone sites in Chilean Andes.
05/2025: Recon-Mission Debris Flow prone sites in Chilean Andes.
We conducted a first mission to the Chilean Andes to strengthen bilateral cooperation in natural hazard assessment and risk management. We assessed debris-flow hazards around Osorno Volcano and in the Cajón del Maipo, emphasizing the need for integrated monitoring and mitigation. Technical exchanges with SERNAGEOMIN, UFRO (Temuco; Ivo Fustos), SERNAPRED, CopLAC Chile, and AHK Chile provided insights into Chile’s volcanic and hydrometeorological hazard initiatives and revealed opportunities for collaboration on early warning, geomonitoring, and applied research.
01/2025: As of 02/2025 I am going to head the group 'Engineering Geological Hazard Assessment' at the Federal Insitute for Geosciences and Natural Hazards, Hannover.
01/2025: As of 02/2025 I am going to head the group 'Engineering Geological Hazard Assessment' at the Federal Insitute for Geosciences and Natural Hazards, Hannover.
07/2024: Our work on connectivity, compounding disturbance effects and how this all relates to human beings is now accepted and published here.
07/2024: Our work on connectivity, compounding disturbance effects and how this all relates to human beings is now accepted and published here.
This study compares short-term (decades) and long-term (millennia) erosion rates using sediment data. Despite logging, forest roads, wildfires (2015, 2017), and an 8.8-magnitude earthquake (2010), recent erosion rates remain low. Suspended-sediment loads have declined since 1986, in line with decreasing rainfall and streamflow. This contradicts expectations, suggesting erosion is underestimated because reduced rainfall masks sediment transport. Overall, both human activity and climate changes contribute to landscape degradation in complex ways.
05/2024: Erkan Istanbulluoglu visited Potsdam within the RETROGRESS project.
05/2024: Erkan Istanbulluoglu visited Potsdam within the RETROGRESS project.
Thanks Erkan for visiting Potsdam and our Department. We had a good time jontly working on the conceptualization of a model to simulate 'suicidal forests'. The first simulations look promising and built on tremendous work priviously done by Sina.
03/2024: Our Pumalin Critical Zone Observatory is launched and about to provide novel insights into the eco-geomorphic functioning of Patagonian Rainforests. Check out how we explore this particular ecosystem and also the Editor's story here.
03/2024: Our Pumalin Critical Zone Observatory is launched and about to provide novel insights into the eco-geomorphic functioning of Patagonian Rainforests. Check out how we explore this particular ecosystem and also the Editor's story here.
We introduce the Pumalín CZO, the first of its kind in Chilean Patagonia, representing an undisturbed ecosystem. Our research focuses on four key areas: (1) carbon storage, (2) biota-driven landscape changes, (3) water and energy fluxes, and (4) disturbance impacts. Using advanced, low-impact monitoring techniques like environmental seismology, we aim to understand how forests influence surface processes and carbon cycling. This integrated approach reinforces the need for conservation efforts along Chile’s coast.
08/2022: New preprint published on ESSOAr. We studied how connectivity, discrete disturbances, and a prolonged drought affect erosion in the Chilean Coastal Range. Check the story out here.
08/2022: New preprint published on ESSOAr. We studied how connectivity, discrete disturbances, and a prolonged drought affect erosion in the Chilean Coastal Range. Check the story out here.
Feel free to comment.
07/2022: New preprint published on ESSOAr. We studied how and why Patagonian rainforest are more erosion and denudation prone than previously assumed. Check the story out here.
07/2022: New preprint published on ESSOAr. We studied how and why Patagonian rainforest are more erosion and denudation prone than previously assumed. Check the story out here.
Feel free to comment.
05/2022: First Field Campaign of RETROGRESS successfully done. Check out the project webpage for an update.
05/2022: First Field Campaign of RETROGRESS successfully done. Check out the project webpage for an update.
At EGU General Assembly, I presented our joint work exploring the exceptionally high erosion rates under dense Patagonian Rainforest and provided a new mechanistically explanation. You find the abstract and a link to the display material here.
Michael Manga presented our work on trees taking tremor at the EGU 2022, You find the abstract and a link to the display material here.
Violeta presented our work on balancing erosion effects of discrete disturbance events, connectivity and droughts at the EGU 2022. Find the abstract and the recorded video here.
Eric Parra proposed a rarely appreciated landslide trigger: Wind. And there is plenty of it in the Patagonian Andes. Check out the abstract of his talk presented at the EGU 2022 here.
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