The aim of Geocycles is to gain deeper insights into the fundamental processes of the Earth system and to better understand the interaction between our environment and human (cultural) development - from the past to the present day. Geocycles thus contributes to basic research in this complex field and helps to anticipate potential developments in the future by understanding the past. Thevarious research aspects are grouped into four themes: "Modern Climate", "Processes of the solid Earth", "Paleoclimatology" and "Culture and Society" (Fig.1). Geocycles combines anthropology, biology and molecular biology with the traditional disciplines of earth sciences such as geology, geography, meteorology, mineralogy and paleontology. This interdisciplinary approach is supported by two basic factors: An efficient common infrastructure with state-of-the-art micro-and nano-analytical methods and the aggregation of data from different disciplines for quantitative modeling of (terrestrial) processes. Thus scientists from different research areas can now work on issues that were previously not covered by the traditional disciplines alone.
