CZO: Transformative Behavior of Water, Energy and Carbon in the Critical Zone: An Observatory to Quantify Linkages among Ecohydrology, Biogeochemistry, and Landscape Evolution

这项建议将使用2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)提供的资金授予，《临界区能源、水和碳的转化行为：一个量化生态水文学、生物地球化学和景观演变之间联系的观测站》我们正在美国西南部建立一个跨学科的观测站，将提高我们对组成临界区(CZ)的生物群、土壤和地貌的功能、结构和共同进化的基本理解。天文台被设计为一个自然实验室，供地球科学界测试与气候和水循环变化有关的CZ函数的假说。我们假设CZ系统的组织和演化响应于开放系统的能量和质量通量，这些通量可以从点到分水岭尺度进行量化。这些通量包括辐射、水和碳的大气CZ输入，这些输入受到表面生物群的调制，以产生在梯度驱动的运输过程中经历生物和非生物转化的流体和生物地球化学成分。我们假设，物理、化学和生物过程的耦合可预见地与这些通量的时间和大小有关。因此，我们的CZ天文台(CZO)旨在研究能量和水通量的时空变异性对沿两个良好约束的气候梯度的耦合过程的影响。第一个是关于新墨西哥州北部杰梅兹河盆地的流纹岩母质(JRB)，第二个是关于亚利桑那州南部圣卡塔利纳山脉(SCM)内的花岗岩和片岩基岩(SCM)。在母岩、海拔、坡向、坡度、土壤发育和植被不同的地点进行测量、建模和实验，将能够量化能量和质量通量(由化学和物理梯度驱动)与CZ结构的测量成分之间的反馈。我们的团队开发了迭代建模和度量策略，以及促进学科间集成的管理结构。JRB-SCM CZO是围绕广泛的问题组织的，需要综合的、多学科的方法。这些问题包括：能量输入和相关质量通量的可变性如何影响CZ的结构和功能？景观演变与水和碳的循环之间的反馈如何改变CZ的短期和长期发展？为了确定物理、化学和生物过程之间的耦合，我们的研究整合了三个跨学科和多尺度的交叉科学主题：生态水文学和水文分区、地下生物地球化学和景观演变。我们正在采用一种集成的、基于过程的建模方法，以(I)确定测量结构和过程的最佳位置，(Ii)改进通过基于现场的观察和测量而开发的假设，(Iii)探索反馈和紧急系统行为，以及(Iv)开发可用于在不同尺度和观察模式之间关联系统行为的传递函数。JRB-SCM CZO的发现将提高我们预测CZ对气候和土地覆盖变化的反应的能力。这些信息对区域资源管理人员立即有用，并最终将为更广泛的决策提供信息。我们将与其他CZO密切协调，支持数据收集、存储和成果传播。我们的教育和外展活动建立在亚利桑那州大学构思和培育的高效教育努力的基础上，并与活跃在该地区的科学中心的相关努力相联系。我们正在为K？16学生、公众和利益相关者开发一系列产品和活动，包括为当地高中生和本科生提供的暑期天文台实地体验、研究生课程和地球科学野外夏令营。我们邀请全球地球科学界的新研究人员在JRB-SCM CZO进行新颖和协作的研究。

This proposal will be awarded using funds made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5), Transformative Behavior of Energy, Water and Carbon in the Critical Zone:An Observatory to Quantify Linkages among Ecohydrology, Biogeochemistry, and Landscape EvolutionWe are developing an interdisciplinary observatory in the southwestern US that will improve our fundamental understanding of the function, structure and co-evolution of biota, soils, and landforms that comprise the Critical Zone (CZ). The observatory is designed as a natural laboratory for the earth science community to test hypotheses related to CZ function in relation to climate and water cycle variation. We posit that CZ systems organize and evolve in response to open system fluxes of energy and mass that can be quantified from point to watershed scales. These fluxes include meteoric CZ inputs of radiation, water, and carbon that are modulated by surficial biota to produce fluids and biogeochemical components that undergo biotic and abiotic transformation during gradient-driven transport. We hypothesize that the coupling of physical, chemical and biological processes is related predictably to the timing and magnitude of these fluxes. Therefore, our CZ Observatory (CZO) is designed to examine the impacts of space-time variability in energy and water flux on coupled processes along two well-constrained climate gradients. The first is on rhyolitic parent material in the Jemez River Basin of northern New Mexico (JRB) and the second is on granite and schist bedrock within the Santa Catalina Mountains in southern Arizona (SCM). Measurement, modeling, and experimentation at sites that vary in parent rock, elevation, aspect, slope, soil development, and vegetation will enable quantification of the feedbacks between energy and mass fluxes (driven by chemical and physical gradients) and measured components of CZ structure. Our team has developed an iterative modeling and measurement strategy, and a management structure that fosters integration among disciplines. The JRB-SCM CZO is organized around broad questions that require an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach. These questions include: How does variability in energy input and related mass flux influence CZ structure and function? How do feedbacks between landscape evolution and the cycling of water and carbon alter short- and long-term CZ development? To identify the couplings among physical, chemical, and biological processes, our research integrates three cross-cutting science themes that are multi-disciplinary and multi-scale: Ecohydrology and Hydrologic Partitioning, Subsurface Biogeochemistry, and Landscape Evolution. We are employing an integrated, process-based modeling approach to (i) identify optimal sites for measuring structure and process, (ii) refine hypotheses developed through field-based observation and measurements, (iii) explore feedbacks and emergent system behaviors, and (iv) develop transfer functions that can be used to relate system behavior across scales and modes of observation. Discoveries made at the JRB-SCM CZO will improve our ability to predict CZ response to changes in climate and land cover. Such information is immediately useful to regional resource managers and will ultimately inform broader-scale decision making. We will coordinate closely with other CZOs to support data collection, storage, and dissemination of results. Our education and outreach activities are built upon highly effective educational efforts conceived and cultivated at UA, and they are linked to related efforts of science centers active in the region. We are developing a range of products and activities for K?16 students, the general public, and stakeholders, including summer Observatory field experiences for local high school and undergraduate students, graduate courses, and field camps in earth science. We invite new investigators throughout the global earth sciences community to conduct novel and collaborative research at the JRB-SCM CZO.