CAREER: Taking the hydrochemical pulse of the critical zone in small catchments of the Andes-Amazon

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项目编号	1455352
	CAREER: Taking the hydrochemical pulse of the critical zone in small catchments of the Andes-Amazon
	A Joshua West
主持机构	University of Southern California
项目开始年	2015
	2015-05-01
项目结束日期	2020-04-30
资助机构	US-NSF
项目类别	Standard Grant
项目经费	498906(USD)
国家	美国
语种	英语
英文摘要	Water's journey -- from precipitation through soils and groundwater to streams and rivers -- determines the quantity and quality of this economically and environmentally essential resource. Along its path, water mediates chemical reactions that transform rock into soil and that release nutrients, providing the sustenance for ecosystems. Basic scientific questions remain about how quickly water travels and what route it takes through watersheds. Answering these questions is vital for understanding the generation and maintenance of natural resources in Earth's critical zone. Recently developed analytical techniques and theoretical advances promise new insight from the chemical signatures carried by water. This project will develop an integrated research and education program to contribute such insight through detailed hydrochemical study in five small catchments in the Andes-Amazon of Peru. This study site provides a rare opportunity to gain widely applicable mechanistic understanding because of existing infrastructure, complementary ongoing research, and unique natural topographic gradients. Building on prior work in the Madre de Dios river basin, this project will focus on the transition from the steep, mountainous Andes to the lowland Amazon. Mountain-to-floodplain transitions are common hydrologic features but are poorly represented in existing observatories. The research will identify how hydrochemical processes vary over this transition and will explore mechanisms for observed variations. The project will center around three themes: (i) water residence times; (ii) concentration-discharge relationships of rock-derived solutes; and (iii) relationships between water sources for plants, catchment hydrology, and the availability of rock-derived nutrients. These themes will be explored using new hydrometric and high-frequency hydrochemical measurements. Samples will be collected from precipitation, streamwater, soilwater, and groundwater and analyzed for solute concentrations and water isotope ratios. The hydrochemical studies will be complemented by investigations of mineral distributions in soil, saprolite, and bedrock. New data will be interpreted in the context of topographic, denudation rate, plant root, and ecosystem nutrient datasets from other studies in the region. Water and soil sample collection, chemical analyses, and data interpretation will form part of a "Critical Zone Summer School" that comprises the core of the integrated research and education plan and will train upper-level undergraduate and beginning graduate students who will lead the next generation in this cross-disciplinary research area. This project will further broaden the reach of the "critical zone" conceptual framework through collaboration with landscape architects and through additional outreach and educational activities both in the US and in Peru.
来源学科分类	Geosciences - Earth Sciences
文献类型	项目
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.173/C666/handle/2XK7JSWQ/67908
专题	环境与发展全球科技态势
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	A Joshua West.CAREER: Taking the hydrochemical pulse of the critical zone in small catchments of the Andes-Amazon.2015.