We are very pleased to welcome Dr. Esteban Acevedo-Trejos in Section 4.7, who joined us from the Systems Ecology Group at the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research, Bremen. The position in our section forms part of Project C7 entitled „Modelling the co-evolution of life and landform“ of the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1211 . The CRC is a project between several German universities, with the University of Cologne as a lead institution. We are delighted to have gained such an experienced researcher and look forward to an exciting exchange of ideas.