CAREER: Retention and Mobility of Beryllium in Soils and Sedimentary Environments

保持土壤对于维持世界不断增长的人口至关重要。该项目旨在通过开发一种测量现代景观变化和重建过去地球状况的工具，提高对土壤可持续性的科学认识。该项目将有助于为一位有前途的女性地球科学家的职业生涯奠定基础。她将致力于发展能够应对社会环境挑战的多元化劳动力。她在这个项目上的努力将突出土壤作为一种资源的重要性，并通过K-12教育和名为“土壤厨房”的公民科学活动，扩大公民对社区污染物的认识，将在一个“承诺区”举行被白宫倡议确定为经济需求和社区振兴的领域。这个跨学科项目旨在提高我们对限制和机会，使用铍同位素作为工具，跟踪沉积物运动的景观。吸附在沉积物上的铍同位素现在正在被广泛测量，以了解土壤颗粒的运动和自然反馈。然而，我们缺乏对吸附和解吸过程的机制的理解，这对于解释新数据至关重要。该项目将使用实验室实验和现场规模测量相结合的方法来了解铍的流动性，以及它可以告诉我们关于地球现在和过去的关键区域的信息。该项目将聘请一个本科生，研究生和博士后学者在工作的各个方面的团队。数据将在NSF支持的数据库中存档。

Maintenance of soil is critically important for sustaining the world's growing population. This project aims to enhance scientific understanding of soil sustainability by developing a tool for measuring modern landscape change and reconstructing past Earth conditions. The project will help build the foundation for the career of a promising female earth scientist. She will contribute towards the development of a diverse workforce capable of tackling society's environmental challenges. Her efforts on this project will highlight the importance of soil as a resource and broaden citizen awareness of pollutants in their neighborhoods through K-12 education and a citizen-science activity called "Soil Kitchen", which will take place in one of the "Promise Zones" identified by the White House initiative as an area of economic need and community revitalization.This interdisciplinary project aims to improve our understanding of the limitations and opportunity of using beryllium isotopes as a tool for tracking sediment movement on landscapes. Beryllium isotopes sorbed to sediments are now being measured extensively to understand movement of soil particles and natural feedbacks. However, we lack understanding of the mechanisms of adsorption and desorption processes that are critical for the interpretation of new data. This project will use a combination of laboratory experiments and field-scale measurements to understand beryllium mobility and what it can tell us about the Earth's critical zone today and in the past. The project will engage a team of undergraduate students, graduate students, and a postdoctoral scholar in all aspects of the work. Data will be archived in NSF-supported databases.