Designing a network of critical zone observatories to explore the living skin of the terrestrial Earth

Brantley, Susan L.; McDowell, William H.; Dietrich, William E.; White, Timothy S.; Kumar, Praveen; Anderson, Suzanne P.; Chorover, Jon; Lohse, Kathleen Ann; Bales, Roger C.; Richter, Daniel D.; Grant, Gordon; Gaillardet, Jérôme

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-5-841-2017

Articles | Volume 5, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-5-841-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-5-841-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 5, issue 4

Research article

| Highlight paper

|

18 Dec 2017

Research article | Highlight paper |

| 18 Dec 2017

Designing a network of critical zone observatories to explore the living skin of the terrestrial Earth

Susan L. Brantley, William H. McDowell, William E. Dietrich, Timothy S. White, Praveen Kumar, Suzanne P. Anderson, Jon Chorover, Kathleen Ann Lohse, Roger C. Bales, Daniel D. Richter, Gordon Grant, and Jérôme Gaillardet

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Final revised paper (published on 18 Dec 2017)
Preprint (discussion started on 19 Jun 2017)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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SC1: 'Value of the CZOs', Kevin Bishop, 03 Jul 2017
SC2: 'Urban anthropogenic forcing on century to millennial time scales', Paul Schroeder, 13 Jul 2017
SC3: 'Comments on Brantley et al.', Elisabeth Bui, 14 Jul 2017
RC1: 'Review Comment: Designing a network of critical zone observatories to explore the living skin of the terrestrial Earth, by Brantley et al.', Jon Tunnicliffe, 16 Jul 2017
RC2: 'Review comment', Anonymous Referee #2, 25 Jul 2017
EC1: 'Editorial summary', Jens Turowski, 25 Jul 2017
- AC1: 'Authors Final Response', Susan Brantley, 08 Sep 2017

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Susan Brantley on behalf of the Authors (05 Oct 2017) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (06 Oct 2017) by Jens Turowski

ED: Publish as is (22 Oct 2017) by A. Joshua West (Editor)

AR by Susan Brantley on behalf of the Authors (01 Nov 2017) Author's response Manuscript

Short summary

The layer known as the critical zone extends from the tree tops to the groundwater. This zone varies globally as a function of land use, climate, and geology. Energy and materials input from the land surface downward impact the subsurface landscape of water, gas, weathered material, and biota – at the same time that differences at depth also impact the superficial landscape. Scientists are designing observatories to understand the critical zone and how it will evolve in the future.