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个薄层，岩石，土壤，水，空气和生物体相互作用。临界区支持地球上的生命。在美国西部，临界区对环境的变化很敏感，如火灾或干旱。 这个项目研究关键区域中的过程如何响应环境的变化。数据收集自科罗拉多和加州的五个流域。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。该项目将水的流动和储存方式与树木的生长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。学生在地球科学的几个领域接受培训。为所有年级开发了教育材料，包括K-12和大学。地球的临界区被定义为地球表面的上层，从基岩到树冠，并取决于地球系统过程的共同演化，包括气候，水文，地球化学和地质之间的相互作用。尽管水在临界区过程中具有根本重要性，但对于水如何储存在临界区与水如何影响关键过程之间的关系，或者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。这一关键区网络集群的目标是：（1）增进对美国西部山地生态系统复杂自然地理中水储存、关键区过程和水供应之间相互作用的理解;（2）探索水储存和关键区过程在全球变化驱动因素下将如何改变;以及3）创造教育机会和资源的关键区，可访问不同的学生群体，包括K-12研究生。该网络集群由五个具有不同关键区结构和储水能力的研究集水区组成，研究团队收集了一套通用的现场测量数据，并进行了协调的建模活动。实地测量包括监测水文和地球化学通量，以及调查近地表的地球物理特性和森林结构及动态。该项目的建模平台包括：1）综合水文模型，可以完全解决陆上，非饱和和饱和流，以充分量化气候，植被，地下结构和地形对水文分区的作用，（二）反应输运模型，完全解析地球化学反应网络，灵活实施反应动力学和热力学，以估计风化和地球化学反应速率和流域尺度的通量，以及3）将水文过程与植被和生态系统碳和养分循环动态以及生态系统干扰（包括植被死亡和火灾）耦合起来的生态水文模型。该项目更广泛的影响包括：1）研究经验和培训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）通过创建交互式虚拟现实视频装置来提高公众对临界区过程的科学素养。此外，该网络集群还维护和扩大研究基础设施，为地球科学界提供一个设施。 该项目由临界区合作网络、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.