NSF Sponsored Workshop

"Frontiers in Exploration of the Critical Zone"

University of Delaware – Newark, Delaware, October 24-26, 2005

 

PLEASE NOTE: REGISTRATION FOR THE ENTIRE CONFERENCE IS NOW CLOSED.

 

 

Accommodations Workshop Schedule Workshop Program Venue Information Visa Information Speaker Information Workshop Travel Information Contacts

NRC (2001)

A National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored workshop dealing with frontiers in critical zone research will be held at the University of Delaware, October 24-26, 2005. The critical zone is the “heterogeneous, near surface environment in which complex interactions involving rock, soil, water, air, and living organisms regulate the natural habitat and determine the availability of life-sustaining resources” (NRC, 2001). The critical zone includes the land surface, vegetation, and water bodies, and extends through the pedosphere, unsaturated vadose zone, and saturated groundwater zone. The critical zone is the most heterogeneous portion of the Earth. An array of important physical, chemical, and biological interfacial processes and reactions occur in the critical zone over a range of spatial and temporal scales. These processes impact mass and energy exchange necessary for biomass productivity, chemical recycling, and water storage. They also control transport and cycling of contaminants including organics, metals, and radionuclides.

The workshop will explore research needs and opportunities involving four major questions: what processes in the Critical Zone control fluxes of carbon, particulates, and atmospherically reactive trace gases between the land surface and the atmosphere and how do these processes change over different timescales?; how do important biogeochemical processes and mechanisms at Critical Zone interfaces govern long-term sustainability of soil and water resources?; how do chemical and physical weathering processes impact the establishment of the Critical Zone and how is this weathering engine perturbed by global environmental change?; and, how do processes in the Critical Zone that nourish ecosystems change over geologic and human time scales?

Invited speakers from a range of disciplines including soil, geological, environmental and biological sciences and engineering will address the grand research challenges and opportunities related to the above questions. These presentations will be followed by panel discussions and breakout sessions to provide cross-disciplinary discussion and brainstorming. A workshop report will result that will be widely disseminated to funding agencies and policymakers.

There will be an opportunity for participants to present posters during the workshop. If you would like to present a poster, please indicate your title and interest on the registration form.

All interested conferees will also be invited to discuss development of a consortium of scientists to study the Critical Zone (http://www.czen.org/).

 

Request for Proposals:

The CZEN will include field sites arrayed along environmental gradients that take advantage of variations in one external forcing factor such as soil age while holding other variables such as climate constant. Researchers are invited to propose site(s) that can form the initial framework of the CZEN. Proposals should describe how the component helps to initiate CZEN, and should include an interdisciplinary team of scientists; outreach and education components will be especially welcomed. Each proposing group should plan a poster for the Delaware workshop and also a short oral presentation for Oct 26th. Some of the proposals may be chosen for combined submission to NSF for support through WSSC (c. $5-10,000) to conduct pilot studies leading to a larger, community proposal for full development of CZEN.
For more information, please click here or visit http://www.czen.org. All researchers proposing sites should send a 1 page abstract to Tim White (tsw113@psu.edu) by Oct 1, 2005.