Luquillo

The Luquillo Critical Zone Observatory (LCZO) will be located in Northeastern Puerto Rico in the USFS Luquillo Experimental Forest and at the USGS WEBB site. The multi-disciplinary team of geoscientists will address a set of specific hypotheses that are related to the following overarching questions: How do critical zone processes and the flow and transformations of materialdiffer in landscapes with contrasting bedrock but similar climates, land use, and geologic histories? What are the implications of these differences for the long term sustainability of water and soil resources? Specifically, the observatory will quantify and compare critical zone (CZ) processes in landforms and watersheds underlain by granodiorites and volcaniclastics. Previous research has demonstrated that these are some of the most rapidly eroding watersheds in the world. There are also dramatic, but poorly quantified, contrasts in CZ processes between areas underlain by these bedrocks. For more information visit our website at http://www.sas.upenn.edu/lczo/