The National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics (NCED) is an NSF Science and Technology Center (STC) focused on predicting the evolution of the coupled geomorphic-ecological systems of the Earth?s surface. NCED created the first national center anywhere focused on the integrated Earth-surface environment, and sunset as an STC in July 2012. This grant is to continue a small core of the most successful and community-centric programs developed under NCED in a new format. Its goal is to perpetuate the legacy of NCED in an innovative form that will engage the broader research community by focusing activity around an annual research theme that will bring together experimental, theoretical, and field researchers. The funding will be used mainly to support young scientists, especially pre-tenure faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students. Beyond its direct research contributions, among NCED?s most important community benefits have been (1) its ?extended family? model for mentoring students and postdocs; (2) hosting community activities such as workshops and shared field and experimental facilities; (3) serving as a focal point to help catalyze and launch new programs ? for example, the new AGU focus group, the new journal JGR-ES, and the IYD, all launched during NCED?s tenure with leadership from NCED participants; (4) hosting focused, ambitious research activities that afforded opportunities for community participation through extended visits; (5) close integration of research with informal education and Native American education, by development of a long-term working partnership with key institutions and people; and (6) hosting workshops and summer institutes, both strongly focused on young scientists. With this grant, NCED2 is a set of linked programs; the central theme will be a program of research theme years focused on key emerging areas in Earth-surface Dynamics (ESD). The theme years will include workshops, experiments, postdoc opportunities, visitor programs from undergraduate through faculty level, and informal education and Native American activities. These linked program components will allow a broad range of ESD scientists to collaborate in new ways, enhancing and accelerating their individual efforts to advance ESD. The focus of NCED2 is embodied in the proposal title: the past and future Earth. Building on the legacy of the NCED STC, PIs work will be centered on predicting the Earth-surface environment, combining observations of modern and past surface systems, experiments, and a full spectrum of theoretical approaches. The proposed NCED2 would provide the ESD research community with a set of new ways to collaborate, through theme-year research with many points of entry: shared synthesis postdocs; visits by graduate and undergraduate students, and faculty, to take part in collaborative research and interact with new people, methods, and ideas; workshops; summer institutes; and a virtual research commons for informal exchange among the broad ESD community. It would provide access to experimental and other facilities not available at most institutions, and to the extensive network of researchers created in the ten years of the NCED STC. The research results will accelerate development of predictive Earth-surface dynamics, forming the basis for evaluating the future of the surface environment ? the arena for most life and human activity ? in a world of changing climate and growing human influence. The results will support decision-making on topics ranging from river restoration and management to rebuilding deltaic wetlands. By continuing the strong program NCED has built for informal education with the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM), NCED2 will continue to provide a venue for energetic, multi-faceted, two-way communication about our planet?s dynamic surface with the public ? a program that has now reached international dimensions with the SMM-led Water Exhibition. Finally, NCED2 will continue its commitment to building bridges and partnerships with the Native American community through our Native American Water Resources, Manoomin, Climate Change Partnership, giiwed?anang Minnesota Undergraduate AISES Alliance, and Geoscience Alliance programs. The last of these in particular has now evolved to a national-scale program to foster Native American environmental education.
