CAREER: Subsurface critical zone architecture controls on hydrologic partitioning across spatial scales

面对气候变化，全球水循环正在加速，然而，提高我们的预测要求我们完善对地球地下如何调节水的运动和储存的理解。目前，我们并不完全了解是什么控制着降水如何分配给土壤水和地下水补给、河流流量或植物用水。这项研究和教育计划将量化关键的水文过程是如何被地下结构（如基岩深度、孔隙度）和水文强迫（如降水量和强度）之间的动态相互作用所控制的。这一领域和建模工作将以加利福尼亚中部沿海半干旱的橡树林地为基础，项目结果将为区域水资源管理者当前的水资源管理工作提供信息。该项目将消除本科生参与地球科学研究的障碍，并通过以利益相关者为基础的本科生研究经验，展示其在现实世界中的应用。通过开发水文科学和环境正义交叉学科的在线高中和本科课程，该项目将有助于培养一支强大而多样化的地球科学人才队伍。该项目将超越传统的流域水文边界，改变我们对地下垂直范围的理解，从浅层土壤到未风化的基岩，如何控制生态系统对植物用水、地下水补给和下游地表水资源的可用性。为了实现这一目标，这项工作将对一个概念模型进行实证检验，该模型将不同方面（南坡和北坡）的山坡内部地下结构差异与关键水文过程的主要驱动因素联系起来。具体而言，项目成果将是确定斜坡内新鲜基岩的深度差异和材料性质的梯度如何调节地下水储存，以及这反过来如何调节水流和蒸散发。这种内部水文调节将帮助我们更好地了解是什么控制着植物用水、溶质出口和水停留时间从山坡到流域尺度。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 global water cycle is accelerating in the face of climate change, however improving our predictions requires that we refine our understanding of how Earth’s subsurface regulates water movement and storage. Currently, we do not fully understand what controls how precipitation is allocated to soil water and groundwater recharge, streamflow, or plant water use. This research and education program will quantify how key hydrologic processes are controlled by the dynamic interactions between subsurface structure (e.g. depth to bedrock, porosity) and hydrologic forcings (e.g. precipitation amount and intensity). This field and modelling effort will be based in a semi-arid oak woodland in central coastal California and project outcomes will inform current water resource management efforts by regional water managers. This program will remove barriers for undergraduate participation in earth science research and showcase real-world applications through stakeholder-based undergraduate research experiences. Through development of online high school and undergraduate curriculum at the intersection of hydrologic sciences and environmental justice, the project will contribute to the development of a strong and diverse workforce in the earth sciences. This program will reach beyond traditional catchment hydrology boundaries to transform our understanding of how the vertical extent of the subsurface, from shallow soil down to unweathered bedrock, controls ecosystem water availability for plant water use, groundwater recharge, and downstream surface water resources. To meet this goal, this work will empirically test a conceptual model that relates differences in within-hillslope subsurface structure across contrasting aspects (south and north facing slopes) to dominant drivers of key hydrological processes. Specifically, project outcomes will be the identification of how differences in depth to fresh bedrock and gradients in material properties within hillslopes modulate subsurface water storage, and how this in turn regulates streamflow and evapotranspiration. This internal hydrologic regulation will help us better understand what controls plant water use, solute export, and water residence times from the hillslope to watershed scale.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.