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From the publisher's synopsis:
"This volume contains the unfinished text of a first draft written by my husband, Heinrich Rohdenburg, before his sudden death. He intended that it should become a text on “Geomorphology and Landscape Ecology” (cf Introductory Chapter). In this first part, he attempted to outline speculations, hypotheses and models which were to be expanded, exemplified and compared with the field evidence later in the text. Regrettably, he did not have time to develop the text further, to add examples, figures, photographs or to improve on the first draft. Nevertheless, I want to make this section available to his professional colleagues in this form, with all the shortcomings to be expected in a first draft. For this, I ask for their understanding. I hope that the hypotheses and speculations found therein will provide a stimulus to other researchers, and provide a fresh attack on the neglected larger spatial scales and longer time scales of geomorphological evolution.
In order to preserve the authenticity of the book the style has not been changed and the English version has remained as faithful as possible to the German text. This book was intended to become not only a presentation of the overall conceptual structure of Heiner’s thinking concerning geomorphological process systems, in a form that would be more comprehensible than his Einführung in die Klimagenetische Geomorphologie, published in 1971; it was also intended as a basis for “geoecological” approaches. As a result of the insights gained in fieldwork that he had subsequently undertaken, the text contains interpretations and model concepts that differ from those presented in his earlier book.
The introductory chapter discusses the present importance of geomorphology in landscape ecology. In the text that follows the process is shown to generate particular landforms. The landform itself serves only as an “indicator value for the analysis of the three-dimensional structure of the landscape”. As stated in the introduction, one of the main concerns of the book is to “encourage synthesis by a discussion of the “intellectual tools” and by reference to relevant but often neglected facts. Examples are used as a basis for deduction even though a complete analysis is not yet possible”.
Only the first part of the book the “intellectual tools” had been completed (Chapters 1-10). Of the second part, in which these intellectual tools were to be used for the interpretation of process patterns, only the discussion of one example, “The wet-dry tropics” (Chapter 11) had been started. The readers of this book will now have the opportunity to discuss, debate, challenge and adopt the “tools” offered in the context of their own work."
Preface
In Memory of Heiner Rohdenburg
1 Introduction: Geomorphology and Landscape Ecology 1
2 Landform development by periglacial processes 6
2.1 Periglacial 6
2.1.1 Soil displacement by freeze-thaw 9
2.1.2 Slide movements 10
2.1.3 Soil flowage due to supersaturation 10
2.1.4 Sorting 10
2.1.5 Movements of soil caused by differences in density 12
2.1.6 Soil movement caused by hydrostatic pressure 12
2.1.7 Development of fissures in the active layer 13
2.2 A genetic classification of periglacial soil differentiation in the active layer 13
2.3 Formation by gelisolifluction 18
3 Landform development by surface runoff 25
3.1 Streamdynamics 40
3.2 Stream long profile 40
3.3 The channel pattern 45
3.3.1 River terraces 48
3.3.2 Stream channel pattern types 51
3.4 Stream long profile and stream channel pattern 52
4 Tectonics and morphodynamics 57
4.1 Tectogenetic landform development cycles 64
4.1.1 The spatial subdivision of regions with uniform tectonics 65
4.1.2 The interference between basigenous and tectogenetic landform development cycles 65
4.2 Differentiation of morphodynamics by weathering and bedrock patterns. Climatic-zonal differences 69
4.3 Effects of differing rock resistance 78
4.4 Differentiation of relief on the basement rocks and on the sedimentary rock covers 84
4.5 Vegetation and landform development 89
4.6 Feedback between vegetation and geomorphodynamics 92
5 Climatic change and geomorphodynamics 97
6 Extreme aridity — dry periods 108
7 Are there zones of valley development and of planation? 112
8 Interference of climatic cycles with differing characteristics 116
9 The interference of climatic variations with the effects of tectonics and baselevel changes 120
9.1 Long term increasing aridity of the climate 126
9.2 Long term increasing humidity of the climate 129
9.3 Long term changes in temperature 130
9.4 Effects of simultaneous decrease of temperature and humidity and of a lowering of baselevel 134
9.5 The effect of simultaneous increases in temperature and precipitation and of a rise in sealevel 136
9.6 Additional ways of distinguishing between the influence of tectonics and climatic changes 136
10 Geomorphology of the climatic zones 138
11 The wet-dry tropics 141
References 152
Bibliography H. Rohdenburg 155
Commented list of publications of H. Rohdenburg 162
Index 167
