Identify and constrain the mechanisms by which surface processes influence the Earth’s Carbon Cycle and to develop new concepts for future landscape-scale carbon management.

The erosion-aided geological draw down of CO₂ is essential to the long-term relative stability of Earth’s climate that has permitted emergence of life and evolution of complex organisms. Moreover, burial of organic carbon sourced by erosion contributes to the formation of carbon reservoirs in predictable locations and quantities. We explore the natural pathways through which CO₂ is exchanged between Earth’s atmosphere and geological repositories. Specific areas of emphasis include:

• weathering in surface and subsurface reservoirs,
• transfer and stabilization of organic carbon to soils,
• the role of soil erosion and landsliding,
• the delivery of organic carbon to geological depocenters, with emphasis on rivers as conduits,
• the preservation of organic carbon in geological storage.
• The effect of human modifications to landscapes on their long-term carbon budget,
• The long-term effect of carbon dioxide removal options (such as enhanced weathering) on surface carbon cycle dynamics

An explicit target of our research is to quantitatively constrain the carbon mass budget of active orogenic systems and alluvial/fluvial landscapes. We also work on the integration of dissolved inorganic and particulate organic carbon fluxes in numerical models of landscape dynamics to explore scenarios involving geomorphic, climatic or tectonic change over longer time scales.

Furthermore, we aim to quantify the effect human landscape interventions have and have had during the Holocene period on the long-term carbon cycle. Here we focus on river systems and their floodplains as conduits, transformers and reactors of carbon. Human activities have reshaped many river systems, changing sediment, inorganic and organic carbon supply and affecting weathering processes and carbon stabilization in floodplains, but the net effect remains unquantified.

We use geochemical tools to trace these processes over time, quantify carbon fluxes and aim to develop numerical models that can predict fluxes.

Based on our findings, we aim develop concepts towards future landscape-scale carbon management, that consider the efficiency of landscapes to store and stabilize carbon and contribute to a long-term strategy for a net-zero future in the Anthropocene.