ABSTRACT
Introduction In studies of global climate change induced by human activities, 'land surface processes' refer to relatively short-term diurnal to decadal interactions of the atmosphere with the land surface biosphere and hydrosphere. These interactions operate in a framework of geological processes including weathering, soil formation, erosion, sediment transport and accumulation, uplift, crustal deformation, deep crustal fluid flow, and magmatism. The geological processes are generally assumed to be so slow in action as to form a kind of static, non-interactive framework for the more rapidly acting processes of the hydrosphere and biosphere. Although this may be so to some extent in low relief forests, grasslands, and agricultural or industrial regions, geological processes play a prominent if not leading role in the interactions of the land surface in mountainous regions of earth. These interactions cover a broad range of timescales from those of concern to human adaptation to the evolutionary changes in the Earth system over geological eras.
