Skip to main content
Multicopter in flight at the University of Potsdam.
Beschreibender Text zu Bild 2
Across-shere impacts
Beyond the Critical Zone

Focus on the coupled geo, bio, and climate spheres at and near the Earth’s surface

Event Cascades

Unterstanding event cascades of the past, present, and future.

Earth Surface System Dynamics

The terrestrial Earth Surface System (ESS) is driven by geological, biological, and climatic forces. They form a complex system of closely coupled processes and feedbacks that are not yet sufficiently understood. Knowledge of these interactions is essential because the Earth’s surface is the foundation for all human activity and its dynamics impact all facets of life, habitability, and sustainability.

Through UP's research initiative NEXUS: Earth Surface Dynamics the renowned earth, environmental, life and data sciences of the Potsdam-Berlin area will intensify existing collaboration and liaise with
new partners to form a network to understand Earth-Surface processes. UP’s science campus Golm will be the center of NEXUS providing modern infrastructure and a concentration of interdisciplinary expertise.

The NEXUS research initiative is coordinating the UP application for a Cluster of Excellence in the context of the Excellence Strategy of the German Federal and State Governments.

News and Featured Stories

Float on Lake Barombi

The Riddle of the “Rainforest Crisis”

Humans Changed the Ecosystems of Central Africa More Than 2,600 Years Ago

Warning sign for flooded areas

RISK_M sucht Studien-Teilnehmer

Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer für ein Computerexperiment zur Hochwasservorsorge gesucht

Titelbild Imagetriler NatRiskChange

Imagetrailer NatRiskChange

The Research Training Group 2917 NatRiskChange.

Prof. Strecker in Argentina.

Prof. Strecker

Prof. Dr. Manfred Strecker re-elected as President of GeoUnion.

Prof. Maria Mutti and PhD student Wera Schmidt. Photo: Thomas Roese.

Layer by layer

Geologists research sedimentary basin formation in the Andes

Prof. Dr. Dirk Wagner. Photo: Karla Fritze.

Quite Warm, Quite Cold

Geomicrobiologist Dirk Wagner researches the smallest lifeforms in extreme environments

From the Partners:

Elbe flooding in Meissen, 2013. Photo: Thinkstock

PIK: Adaptation now

River flood risks increase around the globe under future warming

Taking samples in the Kalahary desert (Foto: S. Genderjahn, GFZ).

GFZ: Microbes in the desert – A new archive for climate science

Under extreme climatic conditions only few “witnesses” of past environmental conditions endure.