Dear Ecolog, What do we know about how the Earths near surface responds to Global Climate Change? Does this Critical Zone respond more measurably to gradual shifts in climatic conditions or do extreme events dominate? What temporal and spatial scale of observation best allows us to separate the Climate Chance signal from the noise so inherent to natural systems? Do these scales vary depending on the field of study? The integrative nature of Critical Zone Science has the great potential to ask and answer questions related to Global Climate Change that moves beyond disciplinary findings; however, despite this potential, weve hardly begun the necessary cross-discipline communication.
Our Invited Speakers, which span Soil and Microbial science, Surface Water and Snow Hydrology, Ecohydrology, and Integrated modeling, will certainly stimulate discussions about this very important topic. Come represent your field or cross-disciplinary science, regardless of whether or not you work within a Critical Zone Observatory site. Please consider joining us at the AGU fall meeting session EP13: How is the Critical Zone driven by and responding to Global Climate Change? to add your piece to the puzzle. See you at AGU! Official session description: EP13: How is the Critical Zone driven by and responding to Global Climate Change? Conveners: Greg Barron-Gafford, Julia Perdrial, Craig Rasmussen Invited Speakers: Peter Groffmann, Noah Molotch, Virginia Rich and Christina Tague. The Critical Zone (CZ) is the Earths near-surface environment, spanning from the vegetative canopy down do the zone of the actively cycled groundwater. Interconnected physical, chemical, and biological processes and feedbacks determine CZ structure, function, and evolution. This complexity makes it difficult to assess the CZs vulnerability to gradual shifts in local and regional climatic. Nevertheless, the nexus of CZ and climate science represents a most pressing issue and requires an interdisciplinary approach. We invite contributions that explore this question across disciplinary boundaries. Various approaches, including modeling, experimental / field observations, on short to geological timescales are welcome. All the best, Greg ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Greg Barron-Gafford Assistant Professor/ Associate Research Scientist School of Geography & Development / B2 Earthscience; Biosphere 2 University of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85721, USA website: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~gregbg/
