Geodiversity and Landscape Sensitivity: A Geomorphological Perspective

The concept of geodiversity has its roots in the need for conservation of fossil localities and other sensitive geological sites, but the field has now widened to embrace concerns at the landscape scale as well as the geoscience input to ecosystem management. The geomorphological component of geodiversity becomes central in these wider contexts and is examined here as a response to the operation of endogenic (magmatic) and exogenic (surface) processes interacting over different time periods. Geomorphological diversity thus reflects the history and dynamics of landforms, and the varying sensitivity of earth materials to surface processes and their perturbations. The process coupling between the landscape elements comprising geodiversity requires a dynamic approach to their management and conservation, with attention to their sensitivities to changes in climate, weather patterns and land management. Geodiversity is also dependent on the scale of enquiry, and the unique features of many iconic landforms may have their greatest significance at the global scale. If geodiversity is to be relevant to scenarios for managing climate change impacts on ecosystems and, therefore, biodiversity, a full understanding of the process interactions with the landscape is required, in parallel with the development of numerical modelling of form and process at a variety of scales.