Recently, EGU announced the 2025 medals and awards to be presented at the General Assembly in April, and the winner of the Geomorphology Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is Dr. Jana Eichel, Assistant Professor at Utrecht University. Dr. Eichel is a biogeomorphologist working at the forefront of geomorphology, using multidisciplinary methods to study the feedbacks between plants and moving mountain slopes, across minute to landscape scale. Our blog editors questioned Dr. Eichel to learn more about their background and success in geomorphology. And – be sure to check out Dr. Eichel’s medal talk at the EGU Genral Assembly next month!
Jana Eichel. (PC: Daniel Draebing)
How would you explain or describe your research in brief?
My research aims to unravel how plants and geomorphic processes interact on mountain slopes. For this, I employ and link concepts, approaches and methods from geomorphology and ecology across spatial and temporal scales: from plant functional traits to small mountain catchments. Following up on my previous work in glacier forelands, I am now investigating if increasing slope movements due to climate change can limit mountain vegetation shifts, and thereby potentially diminish biodiversity, or if shifting mountain plants could actually stabilize moving slopes and thereby provide protection against natural hazards. Besides, I am very interested in rather inconspicuous, but very widespread periglacial landforms, solifluction lobes, that appear to form by strong interactions between freeze-thaw processes and adapted “ecosystem engineer” plants.
Turtmann glacier foreland where I started my scientific journey and where feedbacks between paraglacial geomorphic processes and colonizing plants strongly shape the landscape following glacier retreat. Looking closely, you might even spot one of my favorite landforms: a solifluction lobe.
What part of your research do you find most exciting?
Fieldwork. Exploring the beautiful Swiss Alps each summer drives my research by providing me with new ideas (and data) to test. However, as I now have family, (long) fieldwork gets more difficult. So I am switching my focus to other exciting parts of my research: analyzing data (and finding patterns!), reading inspiring papers and, most recently, experimenting on “my” own small piece of mountain slopes just next to my office in the Utrecht University Botanic Gardens.
Exciting fieldwork next to my office: Alpine soil erosion experiments in Utrecht Botanical Gardens, with help from our 5-year-old daughter.
Where do you see future directions in geomorphology?
As a biogeomorphologist, I want to better understand feedbacks between life and landscapes. This is highly relevant in today’s world, e.g. in light of climate change and the biodiversity crisis. However, the role of geomorphic dynamics is still little recognized and integrated in ecological and biodiversity research, at least in high mountains. To change this, I believe we need more geomorphologists to actively collaborate in ecological and interdisciplinary research and initiatives, contributing their invaluable geomorphic knowledge and expertise. This will not only improve our fundamental understanding of biogeomorphic feedbacks, but also help to protect biodiversity and mitigate climate change impacts.
What has been the biggest challenge of your career?
Being caught in the middle between disciplines. I am neither a “full” geomorphologist nor was trained as an ecologist. I am not even working on rivers and coasts like most fellow biogeomorphologists. However, being the “odd person out” was also a huge gain because this challenge inspired me to think out of the box. My “biogeomorphic feedback window” concept, for example, is the product of my geomorphology colleagues regularly questioning the impact of my small plants on their highly dynamic mountain slopes.
Exciting fieldwork at the other end of the world: Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) survey of vegetation and landforms in Mueller glacier foreland, Southern Alps, New Zealand. (PC: Daniel Draebing)
What do you think has led to your success in the field?
I love what I am doing and am still highly curious to understand how landscapes and ecosystems work and interact. When I started my research, understanding of biogeomorphic feedbacks was developing in rivers, notably with the work of Dov Corenblit, which (and who) was a great inspiration for me. I wanted to see if things work similarly in high mountains where no one used clear biogeomorphic approaches before. They do, and here I am still investigating high mountain biogeomorphic feedbacks more than ten years later. Besides the usual portion of luck needed, I think what made me successful was my strong systems thinking and conceptual approach that I followed and developed over the years, working with both geomorphologists and ecologists. And I was supported by great supervisors and mentors, Richard Dikau, Sebastian Schmidtlein and Maarten Kleinhans, who gave me the needed large freedom to develop my own research line.
Typical Dutch short “break to make a breakthrough” during winter: Lunch break ice skating
What advice do you have to share with students and early career geomorphologists?
Have fun in what you are doing and remember to “take breaks to make breakthroughs”. Even short breaks help to keep you creative, on the longer term, avoiding working evenings and weekends and using your holiday hours keeps you happy and productive!
