Collaborative Research: Network Cluster: Bedrock controls on the deep critical zone, landscapes, and ecosystems

临界带包括从树冠到土壤层，再到风化基岩底部的陆地环境。这一关键地带为人类和生态系统提供了至关重要的服务，包括地下水的储存和过滤、河流的维持以及地球气候的长期调节。该项目是关键区域协作网络的一部分，将建立跨越美国大陆各种气候条件的基岩关键区域网络，从南卡罗来纳州皮埃蒙特的亚热带地区到南加州温暖干燥的地区。主要目标是提高对深部临界带地下过程如何影响储水潜力的认识。此外，该项目将探索储水如何影响生态系统对长期干旱等干扰的恢复能力。该研究将包括通过钻井和钻孔测井以及非侵入性间接成像技术对地下物质进行直接采样。该项目将吸引教师、学生和更广泛的公众参加信息会议，强调关键区域的重要性，包括开发一套供教育工作者使用的交互式3D可视化。关键地带从树顶延伸到基岩，因此既包括生命的基质，也包括生活在地球陆地表面的生物。在丘陵和山地景观中，表面的侵蚀会挖掘出基岩下的基岩，临界带的最深处是基岩开始风化过程的地方，是流体和气体首次渗透和反应的地方，是生物群开始定居并与矿物质相互作用的地方，也是孔隙空间开始打开的地方。该项目建立了基岩临界带网络，为科学界提供关于深层临界带及其与地表过程和生态系统反馈的新知识。在美国大陆跨越广泛气候和基岩条件的七个地点进行观测和建模，将检验关键带的结构、演化和过程受到关键带底部基岩条件的强烈影响这一假设。矿物学、环境应力和遗传裂缝是影响因素，而这些因素又受到侵蚀、地下水流和生态系统生产力等地表过程的影响。该项目将解决有关深层临界带基本特性和过程的问题，包括：对风化层厚度的控制及其在景观中的变化；物理和化学风化的相对重要性和空间变异性；地下风化对景观演化的影响；以及临界区蓄水深度如何影响生态系统的恢复能力。该项目将吸引教师、学生和更广泛的公众关注关键地带的重要性；培训处于不同职业阶段的科学家如何沟通；并通过有针对性的项目促进关键区域科学的多样性、包容性和公平性。该项目将开展一项推广和参与计划，其中包括一套新的交互式3D可视化，称为“虚拟关键区域”，基于对道路切割和采石场的广泛成像和测量。该项目还将包括为高中教师和学生提供的实践课程。所有活动都将通过有意的招募和推广来支持关键区域科学的多样性和包容性。该项目由关键区域协作网络、地球科学部的地貌学和土地利用动力学项目以及地球科学理事会的教育项目共同资助。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Critical Zone comprises the terrestrial environment from the tree canopy through the soil horizon and down to the base of weathered bedrock. This Critical Zone provides crucial services to humans and ecosystems, including the storage and filtering of groundwater, maintenance of streamflow, and long-term regulation of Earth’s climate. This project, part of the Critical Zone Collaborative Network, will establish the Bedrock Critical Zone Network that spans a wide range of climatic conditions across the continental US, ranging from a subtropical site in the South Carolina Piedmont to warm and dry sites in southern California. The principal goal is to improve knowledge of how subsurface processes in the deep Critical Zone influence water storage potential. In addition, the project will explore how water storage affects ecosystem resilience to disturbances such as prolonged drought. The research will involve direct sampling of subsurface materials via drilling and borehole logging together with non-invasive, indirect imaging techniques. The project will engage teachers, students, and the broader public in information sessions that emphasize the crucial importance of the Critical Zone, including development of a set of interactive 3D visualizations for use by educators.The Critical Zone extends from treetop to bedrock and thus includes both the substrate for life and the organisms that live at Earth’s land surface. In hilly and mountainous landscapes, where erosion at the surface exhumes underlying bedrock, the deepest reaches of the Critical Zone are where bedrock begins the weathering process, where fluids and gases first penetrate and react, where biota begin to colonize and interact with minerals, and where pore space begins to open. This project establishes the Bedrock Critical Zone Network to provide the scientific community with new knowledge of the deep Critical Zone and its feedbacks with surface processes and ecosystems. Observations and modeling at seven sites spanning a wide range of climatic and bedrock conditions in the continental US will test the hypothesis that Critical Zone structure, evolution, and processes are strongly influenced by bedrock conditions at the base of the Critical Zone. Mineralogy, ambient stress, and inherited fractures are influential factors, and these, in turn, are influenced by surface processes like erosion, subsurface flow, and ecosystem productivity. The project will address questions about fundamental deep Critical Zone properties and processes, including: controls on regolith thickness and its variation across landscapes; the relative importance and spatial variability of physical and chemical weathering; how subsurface weathering influences landscape evolution; and how deep Critical Zone water storage affects ecosystem resilience.The project will engage teachers, students, and the broader public on the crucial importance of the Critical Zone ; train scientists at diverse career stages on how to communicate; and promote diversity, inclusion, and equity in Critical-Zone science through targeted programs. The project will undertake an outreach and engagement program that includes a new set of interactive 3D visualizations, called the "Virtual Critical Zone," based on extensive imaging and measurements of roadcuts and quarries. This project will also include hands-on programs for high school teachers and students. All activities will support diversity and inclusion in Critical-Zone science through intentional recruiting and outreach. This project is jointly funded by the Critical Zone Collaborative Network, the Geomorphology and Land-use Dynamics programs in the Division of Earth Sciences, as well as the Education Program in the Geosciences Directorate.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.