TY - JOUR
T1 - Critical Zone Science in the Anthropocene
T2 - Opportunities for biogeographic and ecological theory and praxis to drive earth science integration
AU - Minor, Jesse
AU - Pearl, Jessie K.
AU - Barnes, Mallory L.
AU - Colella, Tony R.
AU - Murphy, Patrick C.
AU - Mann, Sarina
AU - Barron-Gafford, Greg A.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Dr. Tyson Swetnam and Dr. Rachel Gallery for comments during the development of this paper. This research was supported by the School of Geography and Development at the University of Arizona through a Biogeography course taught by Dr. Greg Barron-Gafford. The comments and suggestions from two anonymous reviewers and from Dr. Erle Ellis improved the manuscript considerably. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant Numbers 1417101 and 1331408).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2020/2/1
Y1 - 2020/2/1
N2 - Critical Zone Science (CZS) represents a powerful confluence of research agendas, tools, and techniques for examining the complex interactions between biotic and abiotic factors located at the interface of the Earth’s surface and shallow subsurface. Earth’s Critical Zone houses and sustains terrestrial life, and its interacting subsystems drive macroecological patterns and processes at a variety of spatial scales. Despite the analytical power of CZS to understand and characterize complicated rate-dependent processes, CZS has done less to capture the effects of disturbance and anthropogenic influences on Critical Zone processes, although some Critical Zone Observatories focus on disturbance and regeneration. Methodological approaches from biogeography and ecology show promise for providing Critical Zone researchers with tools for incorporating the effects of ecological and anthropogenic disturbance into fine-grained studies of important Earth processes. Similarly, mechanistic insights from CZS can inform biogeographical and ecological interpretations of pattern and process that operate over extensive spatial and temporal scales. In this paper, we illustrate the potential for productive nexus opportunities between CZS, biogeography, and ecology through use of an integrated model of energy and mass flow through various subsystems of the Earth’s Critical Zone. As human-induced effects on biotic and abiotic components of global ecosystems accelerate in the Anthropocene, we argue that the long temporal and broad spatial scales traditionally studied in biogeography can be constructively combined with the quantifiable processes of energy and mass transfer through the Critical Zone to answer pressing questions about future trajectories of land cover change, post-disturbance recovery, climate change impacts, and urban hydrology and ecology.
AB - Critical Zone Science (CZS) represents a powerful confluence of research agendas, tools, and techniques for examining the complex interactions between biotic and abiotic factors located at the interface of the Earth’s surface and shallow subsurface. Earth’s Critical Zone houses and sustains terrestrial life, and its interacting subsystems drive macroecological patterns and processes at a variety of spatial scales. Despite the analytical power of CZS to understand and characterize complicated rate-dependent processes, CZS has done less to capture the effects of disturbance and anthropogenic influences on Critical Zone processes, although some Critical Zone Observatories focus on disturbance and regeneration. Methodological approaches from biogeography and ecology show promise for providing Critical Zone researchers with tools for incorporating the effects of ecological and anthropogenic disturbance into fine-grained studies of important Earth processes. Similarly, mechanistic insights from CZS can inform biogeographical and ecological interpretations of pattern and process that operate over extensive spatial and temporal scales. In this paper, we illustrate the potential for productive nexus opportunities between CZS, biogeography, and ecology through use of an integrated model of energy and mass flow through various subsystems of the Earth’s Critical Zone. As human-induced effects on biotic and abiotic components of global ecosystems accelerate in the Anthropocene, we argue that the long temporal and broad spatial scales traditionally studied in biogeography can be constructively combined with the quantifiable processes of energy and mass transfer through the Critical Zone to answer pressing questions about future trajectories of land cover change, post-disturbance recovery, climate change impacts, and urban hydrology and ecology.
KW - Anthropogenic disturbance
KW - Critical Zone
KW - ecological disturbance
KW - effective energy and mass transfer
KW - interdisciplinary
KW - scale
KW - theory
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U2 - 10.1177/0309133319864268
DO - 10.1177/0309133319864268
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85070417013
SN - 0309-1333
VL - 44
SP - 50
EP - 69
JO - Progress in Physical Geography
JF - Progress in Physical Geography
IS - 1
ER -