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

临界带是地球表面的一个薄层，岩石、土壤、水、空气和生物在这里相互作用。这个关键地带支持着地球上的生命。在美国西部，关键地带对环境变化很敏感，比如火灾或干旱。该项目研究关键区域的过程如何响应环境的变化。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、森林生态学、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了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一起工作。学生们在地球科学的几个领域接受培训。教育材料是为所有年级开发的，包括K-12和大学。地球的临界带被定义为地球表面的上层，从基岩到树冠，它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。尽管水在关键带过程中具有根本的重要性，但人们对水在关键带中的储存方式与它如何影响关键过程之间的关系，以及气候变化和扰动等全球变化驱动因素如何改变这些相互作用，还没有广泛的了解。这个关键区域网络集群的目标是：1)促进对美国西部山地生态系统复杂地形中水储存、关键区域过程和水供应之间相互作用的理解；2)探索在全球变化驱动因素下，水储存和关键区域过程将如何改变；3)为包括K-12到研究生在内的不同学生群体创造关于关键区域的教育机会和资源。该网络集群由五个具有不同临界带结构和储水能力的研究集水区组成，研究小组在这些集水区收集了一套共同的现场测量数据，并进行了协调的建模活动。实地测量包括监测水文和生物地球化学通量，以及调查近地表地球物理特性和森林结构和动态。本项目建模平台包括：1)综合水文模型，可全面解析陆地、非饱和和饱和流量，充分量化气候、植被、地下结构和地形对水文分配的作用；2)反应输运模型，可全面解析生物地球化学反应网络，灵活实施反应动力学和热力学，以估算流域尺度上的风化和生物地球化学反应速率和通量；3)将水文过程与植被和生态系统碳和养分循环动态以及植被死亡和火灾等生态系统扰动耦合起来的生态水文模型。本项目的广泛影响包括：1)研究经验和培养多个教育层次的学生，包括中学、本科院校和研究生院的学生；2)通过互动虚拟现实视频装置的创作，提高公众对关键区域过程的科学素养。此外，这个网络集群维护和扩展研究基础设施，为地球科学界提供一个设施。该项目由关键区域协作网络、水文科学以及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 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.