NSF Workshop Proposal: Towards a Unifying Theory of Critical Zone Structure, Function and Evolution

本“研讨会”提案要求为将于2011年5月9日至12日在亚利桑那州图森市附近的生物圈2号举行的“全民”国家临界区观测计划会议提供资金。临界区观测站（CZO）主要研究人员之间正在进行的讨论确定了在年度会议中纳入更大规模的CZO人员的必要性，以便（i）使CZO学生，博士后科学家，和共同调查员的活动，其他CZO的网络，（ii）加强跨CZO的信息交流和合作，（iii）使合作参与的CZO的任务的发展必要的理论和测量的关键区的结构，功能和演变。拟议的讲习班旨在实现这些目标，扩大社区对CZO研究的参与，并吸引年轻的研究人员进一步发展跨CZO科学议程。研讨会将包括一系列的六个讲座，由受邀（非CZO资助）演讲者介绍，他们正在进行关键区过程的研究，除了CZO人员，特别是学生和博士后科学家的口头和海报介绍。它还将涉及大量的专门时间用于讨论研究学科整合，以及为期一天的研讨会，以制定一套问题，假设和研究方法/方法，用于CZO团队可能的网络追求，这些研究方法/方法将：（i）协同利用CZO数据集的现有共性，和/或（ii）产生新的X-CZO合作。

This "workshop" proposal requests funding for the "All Hands" National Critical Zone Observatory Program meeting to be held at Biosphere 2 near Tucson, Arizona, May 9-12, 2011.Ongoing discussions between Critical Zone Observatory (CZO) Principal Investigators has identified the need to incorporate a larger cross section of CZO personnel in the annual meeting in order to (i) expose CZO students, postdoctoral scientists, and co-investigators to the activities of other CZOs in the network, (ii) to enhance cross-CZO information exchange and collaboration, and (iii) enable collaborative engagement of CZOs in the task of the development of requisite theory and measurement of critical zone structure, function and evolution. The proposed workshop is intended to meet these objectives.The workshop is intended to broaden community involvement in CZO research and engage young investigators in furthering the development of the cross-CZO science agenda. The workshop will contain a series of six lectures presented by invited (non-CZO-funded) speakers that are conducting research on critical zone processes, in addition to oral and poster presentations by CZO personnel, particularly students and postdoctoral scientists. It will also involve a significant amount of dedicated time for discussions on research disciplinary integration, and a one-day workshop to develop a set of questions, hypotheses, and research approaches/methods for possible network pursuit by the CZO teams that will: (i) make synergistic use of existing commonalities across the CZO data sets, and/or (ii) give rise to novel X-CZO collaborations.