10.10.2022

EarthShape Conference 2022

After six years of activity, the last meeting of the EarthShape consortium, a project founded by the German Science Foundation since 2016, was held. The conference took place from September 17 — 22, 2022, in Obergurgl, Austria, with the participation of more than 60 scientific collaborators from Chile and Germany. The activity included a series of keynote talks, co-working, coaching, networking, and synthesis papers writing sessions, addressing the influence of biota on land surface formation at multiple scales.

Our soil science and geomorphology group at the University of Tübingen participated in both 3-year phases of Earthshape: phase I Project 13: Microbiological stabilization of the Earth's surface across a climate gradient starting January 2016 and phase II Project 3: Microorganisms and soil structure start January 1, 2019, with the collaboration of the GFZ Potsdam, Technical University of Munich, University of Chile, University of Atacama and University of Copenhagen.

In the six years of EarthShape's activity, more than 80 scientific articles were published, outreach activities were carried out in Chile and Germany, about 20 PhDs and postdocs researched in different fields of geosciences and ecology, and strong collaborative links were established between Chilean and German scientists.