A new book presents a multidisciplinary perspective on soil, exploring it as a nexus for water flow, near surface (bio)geochemistry, erosion and deposition, and biologically coupled nutrient cycling.
Critical Zone
Posted inScience Updates
Linking Critical Zone Water Storage and Ecosystems
The geology and the structure of Earth’s critical zone control subsurface moisture storage potential and determine the resilience of forest and river ecosystems to drought.
Posted inScience Updates
Critical Agents of Change at Earth’s Surface
By way of agriculture and industry, humans have major influences on the critical zone. Our past and present effects on the landscape, soil, and water will echo for a long time to come.
Posted inScience Updates
Soil Signals Tell of Landscape Disturbances
The lasting influence humans have on Earth’s critical zone—and how geologic forces have mediated those influences—is revealed in studies of soil and carbon migration.
Posted inScience Updates
Life Teems Below the Surface
Scientists are resolving how plants, microbes, and lithology sculpt the structure of the critical zone.
Posted inAGU News
Next Steps for the Critical Zone
In October, Eos examines a pivotal point for a field of science that’s starting to make a name for itself.
Posted inOpinions
Demystifying Critical Zone Science to Make It More Inclusive
A new network that embraces scientists with wide-ranging experiences and expertise aims to solve the challenges of Earth’s critical zone.
Posted inFeatures
Critical Zone Science Comes of Age
The developing field, which unites Earth scientists to examine the planet’s surface as a single, unified entity, is unraveling the complex, interconnected processes that support life on Earth.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Tracing Water Through the Critical Zone
The authors of a recent paper in Reviews of Geophysics describe how isotope hydrology offers new insights into interactions at the interface between soil, vegetation, and the atmosphere.
Posted inOpinions
Taking the Pulse of the Earth's Surface Systems
As human activity alters the Earth's surface environment in unprecedented ways, a comprehensive survey campaign is necessary to predict future impacts.