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

临界区包括从树冠到土层再到风化基岩底部的陆地环境。这一临界区为人类和生态系统提供关键服务，包括地下水的储存和过滤、径流的维持以及对地球气候的长期调节。该项目是关键区合作网络的一部分，将建立基岩关键区网络，该网络覆盖美国大陆的各种气候条件，从南卡罗来纳州山前的亚热带地区到南加州的温暖和干燥地区。其主要目标是增进对深层临界区的地下过程如何影响储水潜力的了解。此外，该项目将探索蓄水如何影响生态系统对长期干旱等干扰的恢复能力。这项研究将包括通过钻井和钻孔测井直接取样地下材料，以及非侵入性的间接成像技术。该项目将让教师、学生和更广泛的公众参与到强调临界区至关重要的信息会议中，包括开发一套供教育人员使用的交互式3D可视化。临界区从树顶延伸到基岩，因此既包括生命的基质，也包括生活在地球表面的有机体。在丘陵和山地景观中，地表侵蚀从基岩下面剥离出来，临界区最深的地方是基岩开始风化过程的地方，流体和气体首先渗透并反应的地方，生物群开始定居并与矿物相互作用的地方，以及孔隙空间开始打开的地方。该项目建立了基岩临界区网络，向科学界提供关于深层临界区及其对地表过程和生态系统的反馈的新知识。对美国大陆七个地点的观测和建模，跨越了广泛的气候和基岩条件，将检验这一假设，即临界区的结构、演化和过程强烈地受到临界区底部基岩条件的影响。矿物学、环境应力和继承裂缝是影响因素，而这些因素反过来又受到地表过程的影响，如侵蚀、地下水流和生态系统生产力。该项目将解决有关深层临界带基本属性和过程的问题，包括：对风化层厚度的控制及其在不同景观中的变化；物理和化学风化的相对重要性和空间变异性；地下风化如何影响景观演变；以及深层临界带蓄水如何影响生态系统的弹性。该项目将让教师、学生和更广泛的公众参与到关键带的关键重要性上；培训处于不同职业阶段的科学家如何交流；通过有针对性的计划促进关键带科学的多样性、包容性和公平性。该项目将开展一项外展和参与计划，其中包括一套新的交互式3D可视化，称为“虚拟临界区”，基于对路障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项目。所有活动都将通过有意的招募和推广，支持关键区域科学的多样性和包容性。该项目由关键区合作网络、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局的教育项目共同资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.