HR: 14:50h
AN: H33H-04 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: The Critical Zone Exploration Network: A Tool For Understanding Earth's Weathering Engine
AU: * Brantley, S L
EM: brantley@eesi.psu.edu
AF: Penn State University, Earth & Environmental Systems Institute, 2217 EES Building, University Park, PA 16802 United States
AU: White, A F
EM: afwhite@usgs.gov
AF: U.S. Geological Survey, 1014 Bldg 15, McKelvey Building Mail Stop 420, Menlo Park, CA 94025 United States
AU: Derry, L
EM: lad9@cornell.edu
AF: Cornell University, 4140 Snee Hall Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Ithaca, NY 14853-1504 United States
AU: Chadwick, O
EM: oac@geog.ucsb.edu
AF: University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Geography, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4060 United States
AU: Anderson, S
EM: suzanne.anderson@colorado.edu
AF: University of Colorado at Boulder, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Department of Geography 1550 30th Street Campus Box 450, Boulder, CO 80309-0450 United States
AU: Richter, D
EM: drichter@duke.edu
AF: Duke University, Nicholas School of the Environent and Earth Sciences, Box 90328, LSRC, Durham, NC 27708 United States
AU: Firestone, M
EM: mkfstone@nature.berkley.edu
AF: University of California, Berkeley, Division of Ecosytem Sciences 333 Hilgard Hall 642-3677, Berkeley, CA 94720-3114 United States
AU: Kirchner, J
EM: kirchner@seismo.berekely.edu
AF: University of California Berkeley, Earth and Planetary Sciences 479 McCone Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-3114
AU: Chorover, J
EM: Chorover@cals.arizona.edu
AF: University of Arizona, Soil, Water, and Environmental Sciences P O Bx 210038, Tucson, AR 85721-0038 United States
AU: April, R
EM: rapril@mail.colgate.edu
AF: Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, NY 13346 United States
AU: White, T S
EM: tswhite@eesi.psu.edu
AF: Penn State University, Earth & Environmental Systems Institute, 2217 EES Building, University Park, PA 16802 United States
AB: At Earth's surface, a complex suite of chemical, biological, and physical processes combines to produce soil from bedrock within the zone that extends from the outer limits of vegetation to the lower limits of groundwater (the Critical Zone). This weathering engine transforms primary minerals, provides nutrients to nourish ecosystems and human society, mediates the transport of toxic components within the biosphere, creates water flow paths that shape and weaken bedrock, and contributes to the evolution of landscapes at all temporal and spatial scales. At the longest time scales, the weathering engine sequesters carbon, thereby influencing the global carbon cycle and long-term climate change. No initiative has promoted a systems approach to investigate how Earth's weathering engine disaggregates and solubilizes rock to nourish ecosystems, sculpt terrestrial landscapes, and influence global atmospheric processes. Only with such an effort will it be possible to predict long-term sustainability of the Critical Zone. We have proposed the construction of a network of sites called the Critical Zone Exploration Network (CZEN), where each state factor can be well defined to dominate a specific point in a multi-dimensional matrix of driving factors (climate, time, biota, topography, lithology, disturbance). However, CZEN must be more than a set of sites along parameter gradients: the network must be defined by partnerships across disciplines. We seek to investigate this essential coupling through integration of new tools in the physical, chemical, and biological sciences. The CZEN will be a network of sites, people, ideas, and tools to promote Critical Zone Science.
DE: 0400 BIOGEOSCIENCES
DE: 1600 GLOBAL CHANGE
DE: 1705 Biogeosciences
DE: 1800 HYDROLOGY
DE: 1865 Soils (0486)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005