Arid geomorphology: recent progress from an Earth System Science perspective

Abstract

These progress reports provide an opportunity for refl ection on the direction of academic inquiry and discourse in physical geography, and hopefully serve as an antidote to the everyday whirlwind of events and short-term deadlines that we are all caught up in. Since the last report (Tooth, 2007), arid geomorphological research output has remained strong, and it is only possible to cite a small selection of published work in the space available here. As ever, research approaches, topics, and themes are diverse, as exemplifi ed by special issues arising from the joint British Geomorphological Research Group/ British Sedimentological Research Group conference (London, 2005) entitled ‘Drylands: Linking Landscape Processes to Sedimentary Environments’, which demonstrate the overlap between those studies concerned primarily with present-day arid processform relationships and those focusing on how these relationships are represented in Quaternary sedimentary successions and the sedimentary rock record (Bullard et al., 2007; Nash et al., 2007).