The paper summarizes a four-year effort of 4 PhD students, 4 MSc students and many helping hands within the SNF/DFG-funded Hillscape project.

We measured 39 different physical, biological, and chemical soil-properties on glacial moraines that are 30 – 13,000 years.

Many of the measured characteristics show very similar changes through time. This observation led us to define a “Hillslope development Index” (HDI) that summarizes the overall state of physical and biological development of the hillslopes, and we find that the HDI saturates around 5000 – 10,000 years in both glacier forefields.

About: Greinwald, K., Bufe, A., Blume, T., Demand, D., Egli, M., Gebauer, T., Hartmann, A., Maier, F., van Meerveld, I., Musso, A., Scherer-Lorenzen, M., Weiler, M. (2026). Co-development of physical and biological variables on glacial hillslopes over millennia. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 688, 120100. Journal Link