CZO: Susquehanna/Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory

苏斯奎汉纳/页岩丘关键区观测站智力优势：地球表面包括一个风化机或磨坊，它溶解和分解岩石形成风化层。从长远来看，风化和侵蚀的速率联合收割机控制着景观的演变，并有助于确定关键带（CZ）内水和能量的进入、运动速率和时间尺度。尽管这些过程的重要性，我们通常无法定量预测的速度或机制，风化层的形成或它如何控制水流。了解这些利率是特别重要的，因为快速的变化率的CZ在人为和气候扰动。在这里，我们提出了一个临界区观测站，致力于发展这种理解地球上最常见的岩性之一。我们的临界区观测站网站，自20世纪70年代以来国家科学基金会支持的研究的重点，提供水文响应的长期数据集，这些数据集将通过新的地球化学，地貌，生态和土壤数据集在这里得到增强。该天文台是宾夕法尼亚州中部玫瑰山页岩上的一个小集水区（以下称为萨斯奎汉纳/页岩山天文台或SSHO）。作为一个构造静止和相对原始的分水岭，页岩山提供了一个机会，调查一个简单的，但普遍存在的基岩岩性风化层形成的速率和机制。在SSHO的风化层经历了至少两个潜在的重大扰动，在地质最近的过去：从近冰期到现代条件的气候扰动和生物扰动从人类清除森林殖民占领期间。这些扰动的幅度及其对风化层生成的影响提供了一个机会，以评估土壤生产的长期气候变化和人类活动的响应的时间尺度。更广泛的影响：为了预测我们森林景观中的地球化学，水文，生物和地貌过程的功能，风化层的创建，演变和结构，我们创建了一个由来自8所大学，1个联邦机构和2个国家实验室的14名科学家组成的跨学科团队。该团队不仅将协调SSHO，还将协调六个卫星站点，我们将在这些站点启动类似但不太广泛的调查，以探索气候和成分对页岩风化的影响。其中，亚拉巴马A M和波多黎各大学是少数民族服务机构，将促进代表性不足的群体参与临界区科学。来自每个卫星站点的科学家和REU学生（三年内有18名学生）将与宾夕法尼亚州立大学团队的成员密切合作，开展各种活动，从土壤和基岩样本的地球化学分析到现场探测器测量土壤湿度。将通过CZEN网络基础设施举措，通过时间序列数据和地理空间数据的网络服务，提供在拟议工作中开发的观测数据和模型能力。SSHO在线信息系统的开发将得到NSF观测站和网络基础设施赠款的支持。我们的愿景是，SSHO将成为临界区观测和建模科学的典范，吸引更多来自更广泛社区的研究人员来测试想法，技术和预测。

EAR-0725019DuffyTHE SUSQUEHANNA/SHALE HILLS CRITICAL ZONE OBSERVATORYIntellectual Merit: The surface of the earth comprises a weathering engine or mill that solubilizes and disaggregates rock to form regolith. Over the long term, the rates of weathering and erosion combine to control the evolution of landscapes and help to define the access, rates of motion, and time scales of water and energy within the Critical Zone (CZ). Despite the importance of these processes, we are generally unable to quantitatively predict the rates or mechanisms by which regolith forms or how it controls water flow. Understanding these rates is of particular importance due to the rapid rates of change of the CZ in response to anthropogenic and climate perturbation. Here we propose a Critical Zone Observatory dedicated to developing this understanding for one of the most common lithologies on earth. Our Critical Zone Observatory site, the focus of National Science Foundation-supported research since the 1970s, provides long term datasets for hydrological response that will be augmented here by new geochemical, geomorphological, ecological, and soils datasets. The observatory is a small catchment in central Pennsylvania (hereafter termed the Susquehanna/Shale Hills Observatory or SSHO) on Rose Hill Shale. As a tectonically quiescent and relatively pristine watershed, Shale Hills presents the opportunity to investigate the rates and mechanisms of regolith formation on a simple but ubiquitous bedrock lithology. The regolith at the SSHO has experienced at least two potentially significant perturbations in the geologically recent past: a climatic perturbation from peri-glacial to modern conditions and a biologic perturbation from anthropogenic clearing of forests during colonial occupation. The magnitude of these perturbations and their influence on regolith generation afford an opportunity to assess the time scales of response of soil production to both long-term climate change and human activity. Broader Impacts: To predict the creation, evolution, and structure of regolith as a function of the geochemical, hydrologic, biologic, and geomorphologic processes in our forested landscape, we have created an interdisciplinary team of 14 scientists from 8 universities, 1 federal agency, and 2 national laboratories. This team will coordinate not only the SSHO but also six satellite sites where we will initiate similar but less extensive investigations to explore the effect of climate and composition on shale weathering. Among these, Alabama A&M and University of Puerto Rico are minority-serving institutions that will facilitate the involvement of under-represented groups in Critical Zone science. Scientists and REU students from each satellite site (eighteen students over three years) will work closely with members of the Penn State team on a variety of activities ranging from geochemical analyses of soil and bedrock samples to measurement of soil moisture with onsite detectors. The observational data and model capabilities developed in the proposed effort will be made available through web-services for both time series data and geospatial data through the CZEN cyberinfrastructure initiative. Development of the SSHO on-line information system will be supported by ongoing NSF observatory and cyberinfrastructure grants. It is our vision that the SSHO will become an exemplar for Critical Zone observational and modeling science that will attract many additional investigators from the broader community to test ideas, techniques, and predictions.