An Accomplishment-Based Request for Renewal of the Susquehanna-Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory (SSHO)

在美国国家科学基金会关键区天文台（CZO）项目的资助下，由PI Susan Brantley和共同研究员Chris Duffy（宾夕法尼亚州立大学）领导的CZO工作人员将专注于Susquehanna页岩山CZO的跨学科综合、数据共享和外展。这个8公顷的页岩山流域最初是在20世纪70年代建立的，用于研究森林集水区的水流，2007年作为CZO进行了扩展，以了解更广泛的问题，目标是水、能源、大气气体、生物群、土壤和陆地表面的相互作用。除了小的页岩山集水区外，CZO还包括一套卫星站点，这些站点具有相同的基岩类型（页岩），但位于不同的气候条件下。另一个卫星站点位于富含有机物的马塞勒斯页岩上。这些卫星使研究人员能够了解气候和有机含量如何控制水流和土壤形成，同时与少数民族和本科生服务机构合作。CZO的研究人员正在研究：1)用新的方法模拟水从大气流向地下水的年龄和化学成分；Ii)将土壤湿度测量综合到陆地-大气模式中的新技术；Iii)约束与树木有关的水、能量和溶质通量的观测；Iv)量化页岩上土壤生长的模型；（五）同位素测量土壤形成的新用途；(6)关于描述基岩裂缝分布等深度特征的变量如何与地球表面的特征（如山坡的日照）相结合，以控制土壤和山坡随时间的演变的观察。在线发布高时空分辨率同位素、化学、土壤湿度、CO2和能量通量、LiDAR、sapflux等观测数据集。推广活动包括页岩气开发的社区教育和K-12教育机会。

An Accomplishment-Based Request for Renewal of the Susquehanna - Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory (SSHO)With funding from the NSF Critical Zone Observatory (CZO) program, CZO workers led by PI Susan Brantley and coInvestigator Chris Duffy (Pennsylvania State University) will focus on cross-disciplinary synthesis, data sharing, and outreach at the Susquehanna Shale Hills CZO. Established originally in the 1970s as a site to study water flow in forested catchments, the 8-hectare Shale Hills watershed was expanded in 2007 as a CZO to understand broader questions targeting the interplay of water, energy, atmospheric gases, biota, soils, and the land surface. In addition to the small Shale Hills catchment, the CZO includes a suite of satellite sites that overly the same bedrock type (shale) but which are situated in different climate regimes. One additional satellite site is located on organic-rich Marcellus shale. These satellites allow researchers to understand how climate and organic content control water flow and soil formation while working with minority-and undergrad-serving institutions. CZO researchers are investigating i) new methodologies to model the age and chemistry of water as it moves from the atmosphere to groundwater; ii) new techniques to synthesize measurements of soil moisture for incorporation into land-atmosphere models; iii) observations that constrain water, energy, and solute fluxes related to trees; iv) models that quantify how soil grows on shale; v) new uses of isotopes to measure soil formation; and vi) observations concerning how variables describing characteristics at depth such as the fracture distribution in bedrock combine with features at Earth's surface such as the sunniness of hillslopes to control the evolution of soils and hillslopes over time. Datasets of isotopes, chemistry, soil moisture, CO2 and energy flux, LiDAR, sapflux, and other observables collected at high spatial and temporal resolution are published online. Outreach activities include community education about natural gas development on shale and K-12 educational opportunities.