In this special issue of Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie the authors present state-of-the-art examples of dryland research with geomorphological focus conducted in Germany during the last years. The articles are ordered spatially, following an East-West transect from Iran and Syria across Africa from North to South and ending in the dry, high altitudes of the Andes.
The first paper presents remotely sensed surface dynamics in Iran recorded in radar data. It is followed by a study on wind regime and sand transport in the Sistan and Registan regions of Iran and Afghanistan. A paper on stable isotope signatures of radiocarbon dated pedogenic carbonate from NE Syria reveals fluctuating paleoenvironmental patterns in the Pleistocene Levant.
From Africa, a study reports on late Pleistocene palaeosol development in Niger. Furthermore, advanced Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) measurements in combination with geomorphological and sedimentological investigations in a dune-interdune system of a hyper-arid environment (Erg Chebbi, Morocco) are presented. Land use in the Souss Region of Morocco and its influence on wadi dynamics is investigated using scour chain measurements over four years within wadi channels in order to detect sedimentary dynamics. In southern Namibia, a remote sensing-based approach investigates how extreme rainfall events in 2006 impacted the evolution of vegetation covers.
The volume closes with a paper presenting results on geomorphodynamics recorded in a high-Andean cushion peatland of the Chilean Central Andes during the last 1800 cal. yr BP.
This supplement issue is not only of interest for all readers and scientists working in the fields of dryland research, but also for readers from the entire disciplines of geomorphology, sedimentology and remote.