WHAT ROLE FOR GEOMORPHOLOGY IN STUDIES ON QUATERNARY ENVIRONMENTS?

National audienceThe question “What role for geomorphology in studies on Quaternary Environments?” rises here from the fact that, since several decades, researches on the Quaternary Epoch of the Geological history of our Earth are getting more and more complex because of an increasing diversity of scientific domains involved in what used to be mainly studied -since the 19th century- by Physical Geographers and, more precisely, by Geomorphologists (Annex 1). Today, Quaternary researches are flourishing. They concern specialists of:- “classic” scientific domains such as Geomorphology, Geology (palaeontology, stratigraphy, tectonics, sedimentology, mineralogy etc.), Climate, History, Biology, Prehistory (archaeology-anthropology), and, increasingly:- specialists from other domains, working on indicators of the evolution of climate and on its possible impacts and/or relationships with human societies, such as: chemistry, soil sciences, hydrology, vegetation and faunal associations, human geography, genetics, palaeoecology, chemistry, statistics, economy, modelling, etc.A mirror of this increasing addition of approaches to past environments can be well observed in the titles of scientific journals interested in publishing data and discussions on “Quaternary environments”, from specialist journals to more specialized ones , or less specialized ones . This profusion/plethora of scientific approaches for the study of the evolution of life and environments on our Earth during the last 2 Million years (Myrs), is producing a creative dialogue in which Geomorphology has a place to occupy (or to keep). This place and the contributions from geomorphologist’s works cannot be replaced by those of other sciences. The discussion thus focuses on why and how, as well as for which expected results, researches on environments in whatever time slice in Quaternary, do or may need scientific approaches performed and tools used by geomorphologists and physical geographers