This proposal requests support for six US scientists to travel to the upcoming "Frontiers in International Critical Zone Science" workshop in Beijing, China, May 21-23, 2014. Participants will continue development and implementation of a plan for an international program first conceived in a workshop at the University of Delaware in 2011, taking a significant step towards defining the international research agenda and establishing the evidence base to support a joint funding proposal to national funders.
The Critical Zone is the near-surface environment extending from the base of the groundwater to the top of the vegetative canopy. Scientific research of the critical zone is interdisciplinary using a system approach to understand the coupling of biological, chemical and physical processes in this zone. The establishment of a global networks of Critical Zone Observatories have the potential to integrate transformative basic science with innovation in the global human adaptation of Critical Zone management to ongoing rapid and intensive environmental and social change.
