Collaborative Research Network Cluster: Quantifying controls and feedbacks of dynamic storage on critical zone processes in western montane watersheds

临界区是地球表面的一层薄层，岩石、土壤、水、空气和生物在这里相互作用。这个临界区支撑着地球上的生命。在美国西部，临界区对火灾或干旱等环境变化很敏感。该项目研究临界区中的进程如何响应环境中的变化。数据是从科罗拉多州和加利福尼亚州的五个流域收集的。该项目将水科学、森林生态、岩石化学和土壤化学等领域联系起来。该项目将水在地下的流动和储存方式与树木的生长方式以及土壤和岩石的变化联系起来。研究这些相互作用对于理解地球将如何应对未来的气候变化非常重要。来自六所大学的研究人员共同工作。学生们在地球科学的几个领域接受培训。教材是为包括K-12和大学在内的所有年级编写的。地球临界区被定义为地球表面的上层，从基岩到树冠，依赖于地球系统过程的共同演化，包括气候、水文、生物地球化学和地质之间的相互作用。尽管水在关键区进程中具有基本重要性，但人们对水如何储存在关键区与其如何影响关键进程之间的关系，以及气候变化和干扰等全球变化驱动因素将如何改变这些相互作用之间的关系，还没有得到广泛的理解。这一关键地带网络群组的目标是：1)增进对美国西部山地生态系统复杂地貌中蓄水、临界地带过程和供水之间相互作用的理解；2)探索在全球变化驱动因素下，蓄水和临界地带过程将如何改变；3)创造关于关键地带的教育机会和资源，供包括K-12在内的不同学生群体使用。该网络群由五个不同临界区结构和储水量的研究集水区组成，研究小组在这些集水区收集一套共同的实地测量数据，并进行协调的建模活动。实地测量包括监测水文和生物地质化学通量，以及调查近地表地球物理性质和森林结构和动态。该项目的模拟平台包括：1)可完全分解陆地、非饱和和饱和径流的综合水文模型，以充分量化气候、植被、地下结构和地形对水文分区的作用；2)反应输运模型，可完全分解生物地球化学反应网络，灵活地实施反应动力学和热力学，以估计流域尺度上的风化和生物地球化学反应速率和通量；以及3)生态水文学模型，将水文过程与植被和生态系统碳、养分循环和生态系统扰动(包括植被死亡和火灾)的动态相结合。该项目的更广泛影响包括1)研究经验和对多个教育水平的学生的培训，包括中学、本科院校和研究生院的学生；2)通过创建交互式虚拟现实视频装置，提高关键区域过程的公共科学素养。此外，该网络群组维护和扩展研究基础设施，为地球科学界提供设施。该项目由关键区合作网络、水文科学和地球科学部的教育和人力资源项目共同资助。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 is a thin layer at the Earth’s surface where rock, soil, water, air, and living organisms interact. The critical zone supports life on Earth. In the western United States, the critical zone is sensitive to changes in the environment, such as fires or droughts. This project studies how processes in the critical zone respond to changes in the environment. Data are collected from five watersheds in Colorado and California. The project links the fields of water science, forest ecology, rock chemistry and soil chemistry. The project connects the way water moves and is stored in the ground to how trees grow and to how soil and rocks change. Studying these interactions is important to understanding how Earth will respond to future changes in climate. Researchers from six universities work together. Students are trained in several areas of Earth science. Educational materials are developed for all grade levels including K-12 and college. The Earth’s critical zone is defined as the upper layer of the Earth’s surface, from bedrock to the tree canopy, and is dependent upon the co-evolution of Earth system processes including interactions among climate, hydrology, biogeochemistry, and geology. Despite the fundamental importance of water in critical zone processes, there is not widespread understanding of the relations between how water is stored in the critical zone and how it affects key processes, or how global change drivers, such as climate shifts and disturbance, will modify these interactions. The goals of this critical zone network cluster are to 1) advance understanding of the interactions among water storage, critical zone processes, and water provisioning in the complex physiography of western United States montane ecosystems; 2) explore how water storage and critical zone processes will be altered under global change drivers; and 3) create educational opportunities and resources about the critical zone that are accessible to a diverse student population, including K-12 to postgraduates. The network cluster consists of five research catchments with differing critical zone structure and water storage capacity where the research team collects a common suite of field measurements and conducts coordinated modeling activities. Field measurements include monitoring of hydrologic and biogeochemical fluxes, as well as, surveys of near-surface geophysical properties and forest structure and dynamics. The modeling platforms for this project include: 1) integrated hydrologic models that can fully resolve overland, unsaturated, and saturated flow to full quantify the roles of climate, vegetation, subsurface structure, and topography on hydrologic partitioning, 2) reactive transport models that fully resolve biogeochemical reaction networks with flexible implementation of reaction kinetics and thermodynamics to estimate weathering and biogeochemical reaction rates and fluxes at the catchment scale, and 3) an ecohydrology model that couples hydrologic processes with dynamics of vegetation and ecosystem carbon and nutrient cycles and ecosystem disturbance including vegetation mortality and fire. The broader impacts of this project include 1) research experiences and training of students at multiple education levels, including students in middle school, undergraduate institutions, and graduate school; and 2) improving public science literacy of critical zone processes through the creation of interactive virtual reality video installations. In addition, this network cluster maintains and expands research infrastructure to provide a facility for the Earth science community. This project is jointly funded by the Critical Zone Collaborative Network, the Hydrologic Sciences, and the Education and Human Resources programs in the Division of Earth Sciences.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.