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The Critical Zone Exploration Network (CZEN) is a network of people, sites, tools, and ideas to investigate processes within the Critical Zone. This Zone, defined to encompass all fluid, mineral, gaseous, and biotic components from the outer envelope of vegetation down to the lower limits of groundwater, supports all life on Earth. CZEN has been proposed by a consortium of researchers and educators drawn from the geosciences, microbiology, ecology, soil science, and engineering (originally this consortium was the Weathering System Science Consortium) to investigate the physical, chemical and biological processes shaping and transforming Earth’s outermost thin veneer. Without a targeted initiative to understand the feedbacks controlling mass and energy exchanges, individual research efforts lack the comprehensiveness and depth needed to develop a process-level understanding of Critical Zone processes, including the response of this Zone to climatic, tectonic, and anthropogenic forcings. CZEN will provide opportunities to develop interdisciplinary approaches to address these questions:
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How do processes in the Critical Zone control fluxes of carbon, particulates, and atmospherically reactive trace gases between the land surface and the atmosphere? |
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How do important biogeochemical processes and mechanisms at Critical Zone interfaces govern long-term sustainability of soil and water resources? |
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How do processes in the Critical Zone that nourish ecosystems change over geologic and human time scales? |
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How do weathering processes impact the establishment of the Critical Zone and how is this weathering engine perturbed by global environmental change? |
A draftscience plan for CZEN was prepared by members of the Weathering Systems Science Consortium with contributions from participants in NSF Workshops in Baltimore, MD (October 2003) and Arlington, VA (January 2005).
We are trying to grow the CZEN network of sites; view the 8 sites identified for the initial seed grants.
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