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

萨斯奎哈纳-页岩山临界区观测站(SSHO)基于成就的更新申请由美国国家科学基金会临界区观测站(CZO)计划资助，由Pi Susan Brantley和宾夕法尼亚州立大学的合作研究员Chris Duffy领导的CZO工作人员将专注于萨斯奎哈纳页岩山临界区观测站的跨学科综合、数据共享和拓展。始建于20世纪70年代的页岩山流域最初是一个研究森林流域水流的地点，2007年扩大为CZO，以了解针对水、能源、大气气体、生物群、土壤和陆地表面相互作用的更广泛的问题。除了小型页岩山集水区外，CZO还包括一套卫星站点，这些站点的基岩类型(页岩)完全相同，但位于不同的气候条件下。另外一个卫星站点位于富含有机物质的马塞卢斯页岩上。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，同时与服务于少数族裔和本科生的机构合作。CZO的研究人员正在研究i)对水从大气到地下水的年龄和化学成分建模的新方法；ii)合成土壤湿度测量以纳入陆地-大气模型的新技术；iii)限制与树木有关的水、能量和溶质通量的观测；iv)量化页岩上土壤生长的模型；v)用同位素测量土壤形成的新用途；vi)关于描述深度特征的变量如何与地球表面的特征相结合的观测，例如山坡的日照程度，以控制土壤和山坡随时间的演变。在高空间和时间分辨率收集的同位素、化学、土壤水分、二氧化碳和能量通量、激光雷达、SAP通量和其他可观测数据的数据集在网上发布。外联活动包括关于页岩天然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.