CNIC: U.S. - Czech Geomorphologic Study of Soil Erosion, Floodplain Sedimentation, and Agricultural Sustainability over Decadal to Centennial Timescales

该项目发起了一项跨学科研究合作，由丹佛大学的首席研究员与捷克共和国三个机构的合作伙伴领导。他们将一起开始在十年到百年的时间尺度上研究土壤侵蚀、洪泛区沉积和农业可持续性之间的关系。土壤侵蚀是21世纪社会面临的一个紧迫的环境问题。在美国和世界各地的许多地区，侵蚀率已被证明超过了土壤形成的自然速率，并与农业生产力的下降直接相关。以前大多数关于农业景观中土壤侵蚀和下游沉积的工作都是使用基于过程的方法进行的；这项工作已经产生了许多模型，可以在几天到几年的时间尺度上相当好地预测侵蚀率。然而，地貌学理论表明，这些模型可能不容易按比例预测几十年到几个世纪的侵蚀率。这些较长的时间尺度很重要，因为它们符合土壤形成的自然速率，而且具有更广泛的影响，因为它们可以为长期农业土地利用管理提供信息。项目开发工作将邀请一名美国研究生作为美国-捷克团队的一员，进行实地数据收集、水文和沉积学建模以及土壤和洪泛平原沉积物的地球化学分析。由于几个原因，与捷克科学家的合作研究是必不可少的。首先，捷克共和国南部的研究区域自中世纪早期以来一直存在农业土地利用模式。它代表了一个独特的环境，在其中经验评估侵蚀率在十年至百年的时间尺度。捷克生命科学大学的合作者与研究区域的土地使用管理人员和财产所有者合作，使项目的实地组成部分可行。其次，捷克技术大学的合作者已经根据每年的时间尺度对这些农业景观的现有侵蚀模型进行了校准。第三，来自捷克科学院无机化学研究所的合作伙伴开发了新的地球化学和年代地层学方法，用于记录洪泛平原的沉积速率。为这个项目组建的团队是高度跨学科的，具有解决基础研究问题的技术专长。初步结果有可能导致后续的、长期的联合研究努力，从而促进对地貌学、空间科学和土地利用动力学的理论理解。

This project initiates an interdisciplinary research collaboration led by the principal investigator at the University of Denver with partners in the Czech Republic from three institutions. Together they will begin to examine relationships between soil erosion, floodplain sedimentation, and agricultural sustainability over decadal to centennial timescales. Soil erosion is a pressing environmental concern facing 21st century society. Erosion rates in many regions of the United States and throughout the world have been shown to exceed natural rates of soil formation and have been directly linked to declines in agricultural productivity. Most previous work on soil erosion and downstream sedimentation in agricultural landscapes has been conducted using process-based approaches; this work has resulted in a number of models that predict erosion rates reasonably well over timescales of days to years. However, geomorphological theory suggests that these models may not be easily scaled to predict erosion rates over decades to centuries. These longer timescales are important because they correspond with natural rates of soil formation, and for broader impact, because they can inform long-range agricultural land-use management.Project development efforts will engage a U.S. graduate student as part of the U.S.-Czech team for combined field-based data collection, hydrologic and sedimentologic modeling, and geochemical analyses of soils and floodplain sediments. Cooperative research with Czech scientists is essential for several reasons. First, the study area in southern Czech Republic has an agricultural land-use pattern that has persisted since the early medieval era. It represents a unique setting in which to empirically assess erosion rates over decadal to centennial timescales. Collaborators at Czech University of Life Sciences work with land-use managers and property owners in the study region that will make the field component of the project feasible. Second, existing erosion models for these agricultural landscapes have been calibrated over annual timescales by collaborators at Czech Technical University. Third, novel geochemical and chronostratigraphic methods for documenting floodplain sedimentation rates have been developed by the partner from Czech Academy of Sciences' Institute for Inorganic Chemistry. The team assembled for this project is highly-interdisciplinary and has the technical expertise to address fundamental research questions. Preliminary results have the potential to lead to follow-on, longer-term joint research efforts that advance theoretical understanding in geomorphology, spatial science, and land-use dynamics.