Characterizing dynamic processes in the Critical Zone: Crazy new tools provide crazy new insights

Abstract:

The dynamics of the critical zone are in many aspects poorly understood, resulting largely from the difficulty of observing key processes. Key stores and fluxes are invisible, from the energy budget in air and soil, to the fluxes of water in soils, air and plants. Fortunately we are poised to remove the blinkers, and reveal the spatial and temporal structure of these terms. This will be achieved by novel combinations of observation technologies and high-performance computing. Fiber optic technology allows 1 s measurement of temperature at 0.25 m resolution to 0.1 C. By injecting heat in the fiber, we can quantify stores of soil water, fluxes in soils and boreholes, and movement of the atmosphere. Air-born digital imagining is shown to facilitate cm-level observation of landscapes at the km-scale, as well as the potential to monitor the temporal dynamics of canopy interception. These data can be used to connect specific structures and plant assemblages to key fluxes. Many of these methods are being developed and provided at low cost to the community by the Center for Transformative Environmental Monitoring Programs (CTEMPs.org). A parallel effort, the Open-Source Published Environmental Sensing (OPENS.org) laboratory, provides a forum for the development and publication of user-producible instruments. In all cases the developments are characterized by combining low-cost per data point at hundreds to thousands of locations to provide a comprehensive view of the spacio-temporal dynamics of the crucial zone.