Scientific questions: 1. What controls regolith thickness across landscapes? 2. How and why do subsurface weathering and porosity vary spatially? 3. How do subsurface properties affect landscape evolution, hydrologic processes, and ecosystem vulnerability? 4. How are processes in the near-surface and deep CZ connected, and which bidirectional couplings between the surface and deep CZ emerge as key controls on CZ structure?

The processes that govern the responses to disturbances are very complex and many traditional research methods are not adapted to disentangling the processes and ecosystem characteristics that make our environment resilient. We use a group of statistical tools that can find patterns in a lot of noise and deal with this complexity (aptly called “complex systems tools"). Our project is called the "Big Data Cluster” because we use these tools on “Big Data”, i.e. existing and newly collected data that have either high volume (a lot of data), high velocity (almost real-time data), variety (very different data types), veracity (data of varying quality) and/or value (data ready for use).

This group will consolidate CINet data for the critical zone network CINET thematic cluster

The Coastal Thematic Cluster will quantify the coupled processes and feedbacks that govern the transformations in the coastal critical zone to understand how shifts in the transition zone translate to changes in cycling, fluxes, and storage of critical elements at the land-sea margin.

We will explore these questions using a comprehensive set of tools including eddy covariance towers, deep CZ drilling, hydrogeophysical surveys, soil and hydrologic sensors, isotopic analysis, synchrotron, geochemical proxies, and genetic sequencing. These efforts build on, and will contribute to, the rich collection of historical data, knowledge, and models at our four primary field sites: the Jornada LTER, the Reynolds Creek CZO, a USDA-ARS site in Kimberly, ID, and irrigated agricultural sites along the Rio Grande valley in Texas.

Dust^2 The emission, transport, and deposition of mineral dust plays a key role in functioning of the critical zone. This is especially true in mountain environments where dust deposition has been shown to alter the pH and chemistry of surface water, contribute to soil formation, deliver important plant available nutrients, and decrease the albedo of snow, causing earlier snowpack melt.

Dynamic Storage Project Goals Advance understanding of the interactions among dynamic water storage, CZ processes, and water provisioning in the complex physiology of western U.S. montane ecosystems Explore how dynamic water storage and CZ processes will change under global drivers Create educational opportunities and resources that are accessible to a diverse student population, including K-12 to postgraduates

We will build on existing capabilities within several former CZOs to investigate the linkages between depth-dependent microbial structure, function, and biotic and abiotic features of the soil environment to better understand the interactions between geomicrobiology and biogeochemistry throughout CZ weathering profiles.

Materials related to the CZnet coordinating hub, from CUAHSI and other CZnet collaborators, may be shared here.