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As the sole habitat for terrestrial life, the Earth's critical zone (CZ) refers to the upper, porous layer of the continental crust that is interacting with the circulating meteoric waters. Conceptually, water is central to the intriguing co‐evolution of both the hydrologic behaviour and the structure of the CZ. On one hand, the path and rate of water circulating through the CZ are shaped by the CZ physical structure itself, such as the distribution of material porosity and permeability. On the other hand, and at longer time scales, the circulating water shapes the CZ structure through physical and chemical alterations of porosity and permeability and through being an agent of denudation, thereby reshaping the surface of the CZ and shifting its hydraulic boundaries. It is possible to alternate between thinking of the CZ as a storage container for water or thinking of water as an agent shaping CZ architecture, in much the same way that it is possible either to see a vase or to see profiles of two faces in the classic Rubin's vase illusion (Figure 1). This perspective shifting duality of the water–CZ relationship is further modulated by biological forces such as plants and soil organisms, as well as anthropogenic actions that both alter the flow and chemistry of the water in the CZ. How the modern‐day CZ structure shapes current hydrologic processes, how vegetation and humans alter the hydrology and biogeochemistry of the CZ, and how the hydrology and CZ structure co‐evolve via feedbacks arising from this duality of the water–CZ relationship are the three broad categories of questions that motivated this collection of 20 papers comprising the Special Issue of Hydrological Processes on Water in the Critical Zone. A brief introduction to the contributions organized by these overarching questions follows.

The vast diversity of landscapes found on Earth results from interplay between processes that break rock down, produce mobile regolith, and transport materials away. Mechanical weathering is fundamental to shaping landscapes, yet it is perhaps less understood at a mechanistic level than chemical weathering. Ubiquitous microfractures in rock propagate and grow through a slow process known as subcritical cracking that operates at the low applied stresses common in the near-surface. Subcritical cracking is the most likely explanation for the mechanical processes associated with thermal stress, ice lens growth, mineral alteration, and root growth. The long timescales over which critical zone architectures develop require an understanding of slow processes, such as subcritical cracking.

Mapping bedrock outcrops is useful across disciplines, but is challenging in environments where ground surface visibility is obscured. The presence of soil or bedrock affects sediment production and transport, local ecology, and runoff generation. The distribution of bedrock outcrops in an area reflects the interplay between regolith production and sediment removal. Outcrop classification methods from Terrestrial-lidar produce millimeter or centimeter resolution DEMs that are highly successful because lidar penetrates through vegetation to the ground surface. However, data availability at such high resolution is limited, and the associated computational complexity required for identifying outcrop, or other surface features, is often impractical for landscape-scale analysis. Aerial lidar datasets at ~1-m resolution (e.g., moderate resolution) are more widely available and less computationally expensive than higher resolution datasets. With increasing accessibility of moderate resolution surface data, there is a need to develop outcrop classification methods and understand the efficacy of these methods across diverse environments. Our objectives are to present a simplified technique that builds on existing methods, and to examine the success of current outcrop identification methods in a variety of landscapes. At moderate resolution, the two most cited metrics to differentiate bedrock from soil-mantled surfaces are based on gradient (e.g., DiBiase et al., 2012) or on surface roughness (e.g., Milodowski et al., 2015). We developed a method that simplifies and combines both metrics, and that improves overall accuracy. We applied all three methods to six landscapes in the USA. For each site, we delineated ground truth from high-resolution orthoimagery for 7-10 test patches with visible ground surface, that evenly spanned 0-100% exposed outcrop. Overall accuracy, true positive rate, and false positive rate for each patch were calculated by comparing the ground truth grids to each lidar-derived outcrop grids on a cell-by-cell basis. Metric success was evaluated for each landscape by assessing the mean and distribution of performance measures across patches. Our combined metric had the highest overall accuracy in an arid, horst and graben landscape (Canyonlands National Park, Utah). It also performed well in a vegetated, high sediment load, active volcano (Mount Rainier, Washington), a canyon carved by channel incision (Boulder Canyon, Colorado), and a chaparral mixed bedrock canyon environment (Mission Trails, San Diego, California). All three methods systematically failed for portions of the landscape in glacially carved canyons (Southern Wind River Range, Wyoming) and on terraced sea cliffs (Santa Cruz County, California). These environments have significant outcrop that is both smooth and low gradient, and therefore cannot be identified using a slope or roughness-based algorithm. Our work highlights the importance of tailoring DEM-based bedrock mapping algorithms to its geomorphic context, and of the need for ground truth. Such data provides the basis for developing more robust methods for error evaluation. In addition, new methods are needed to identify bedrock outcrop from surface DEMs in smooth and low gradient, yet rocky landscapes.

Despite a multitude of small catchment studies, we lack a deep understanding of how variations in critical zone architecture lead to variations in hydrologic states and fluxes. This study characterizes hydrologic dynamics of 15 catchments of the U.S. Critical Zone Observatory (CZO) network where we hypothesized that our understanding of subsurface structure would illuminate patterns of hydrologic partitioning. The CZOs collect data sets that characterize the physical, chemical, and biological architecture of the subsurface, while also monitoring hydrologic fluxes such as streamflow, precipitation, and evapotranspiration. For the first time, we collate time series of hydrologic variables across the CZO network and begin the process of examining hydrologic signatures across sites. We find that catchments with low baseflow indices and high runoff sensitivity to storage receive most of their precipitation as rain and contain clay‐rich regolith profiles, prominent argillic horizons, and/or anthropogenic modifications. In contrast, sites with high baseflow indices and low runoff sensitivity to storage receive the majority of precipitation as snow and have more permeable regolith profiles. The seasonal variability of water balance components is a key control on the dynamic range of hydraulically connected water in the critical zone. These findings lead us to posit that water balance partitioning and streamflow hydraulics are linked through the coevolution of critical zone architecture but that much work remains to parse these controls out quantitatively.

The mantle convection accompanying plate motion causes vertical movements of up to a few hundred metres at Earth’s surface over wavelengths of 102–103 km. This dynamic topography appears to come and go at ~ 1–10 Myr timescales in areas that are often well away from plate margins, although its spatial and temporal characteristics are subject to ongoing debate. Since such motions are small and transient, discriminating convective signals from other drivers of relief generation and/or sediment dispersal remains tricky. An outstanding challenge is to detect these elusive, transient undulations from a tell-tale geomorphic imprint preserved in either drainage patterns or the stratigraphic record.In the intra-plate setting of central Australia, a 30 km long sinuous gorge is developed where the major regional drainage, Finke River, dissects a band of low hills. Remarkably, this gorge is intertwined with an abandoned and less deeply incised gorge that forms hanging junctions and shares similar width and sinuosity. This unusual overprinting of the two gorges remains unexplained.With an aim to investigate the history of the intertwined gorges, we measured cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al in fluvial gravels stored in the palaeovalley cutoffs. The gravels are remnants of major alluviation episodes that we surmise result from ongoing vertical motions associated with dynamic topography. We use a Markov chain Monte Carlo-based inversion model to test two hypotheses to explain the nuclide inventory contained within the stored fluvial gravels. In the first case, rapid alluviation and erosion since 1 Ma preserves the nuclide memory of the source area; in the second, the nuclide memory is erased during long-term fluvial storage (> 5 Myr) and is restored during exhumation of the palaeovalley gravel-pile. The two hypotheses are therefore limiting-case scenarios that constrain overall fast versus slow landscape evolution, respectively. Our model results suggest that long-term burial decouples the source-area signal from nuclide abundances measured in the palaeovalley gravels. This casts events into a Miocene timescale.

Considerable debate revolves around the relative importance of rock type, tectonics, and climate in creating the architecture of the critical zone. We demonstrate the importance of climate and in particular the rate of water recharge to the subsurface, using numerical models that incorporate hydrologic flowpaths, chemical weathering, and geomorphic rules for soil production and transport. We track alterations in both solid phase (plagioclase to clay) and water chemistry along hydrologic flowpaths that include lateral flow beneath the water table. To isolate the role of recharge, we simulate dry and wet cases and prescribe identical landscape evolution rules. The weathering patterns that develop differ dramatically beneath the resulting parabolic interfluves. In the dry case, incomplete weathering is shallow and surface parallel, whereas in the wet case, intense weathering occurs to depths approximating the base of the bounding channels, well below the water table. Exploration of intermediate cases reveals that the weathering state of the subsurface is strongly governed by the ratio of the rate of advance of the weathering front itself controlled by the water input rate, and the rate of erosion of the landscape. The system transitions between these end‐member behaviours rather abruptly at a weathering front speed ‐ erosion rate ratio of approximately 1. Although there are undoubtedly direct roles for tectonics and rock type in critical zone architecture, and yet more likely feedbacks between these and climate, we show here that differences in hillslope‐scale weathering patterns can be strongly controlled by climate.

Alpine areas are vulnerable to nitrogen (N) deposition because of low N-buffering capacity and limited ability to resist change. The objective of the study was to assess if >30 years of N deposition have resulted in a decline in exchangeable base cations (CB) coupled with an increase of exchangeable aluminum (Al). We used soil and stream data sampled between 1982 and 2015 at Green Lakes Valley, Colorado Front Range to evaluate the change in an alpine catena. The CB in the surface horizons of the summit position decreased significantly from 45 cmolc kg−1 in 1982 to 2.3 cmolc kg−1 in 2015, while the exchangeable Al increased from 0.09 cmolc kg−1 to 0.7 cmolc kg−1 in the summit and from 8.9 cmolc kg−1 to 10.5 cmolc kg−1 in the toeslope. Spatiotemporal distribution of soil moisture along the catena exhibited the lowest values during the winter months because the temperature was below freezing. The soil moisture increased in early spring as soil-temperature rose. A Seasonal Kendall test (SK) showed that the soil moisture decreased along the catena by −0.007 m3 m−3 yr−1(P

Several decades of research in alpine ecosystems have demonstrated links among the critical zone, hydrologic response, and the fate of elevated atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition. Less research has occurred in mid-elevation forests, which may be important for retaining atmospheric N deposition. To explore the fate of N in the montane zone, we conducted plot-scale experimental rainfall events across a north–south transect within a catchment of the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory. Rainfall events mimicked relatively common storms (20–50% annual exceedance probability) and were labeled with 15N-nitrate ( $$ {\text{NO}}_{3}^{ - } $$ ) and lithium bromide tracers. For 4 weeks, we measured soil–water and leachate concentrations of Br−, $$ {}^{15}{\text{NO}}_{3}^{ - } , $$ and $$ {\text{NO}}_{3}^{ - } $$ daily, followed by recoveries of 15N species in bulk soils and microbial biomass. Tracers moved immediately into the subsurface of north-facing slope plots, exhibiting breakthrough at 10 and 30 cm over 22 days. Conversely, little transport of Br− or $$ {}^{15}{\text{NO}}_{3}^{ - } $$ occurred in south-facing slope plots; tracers remained in soil or were lost via pathways not measured. Hillslope position was a significant determinant of soil 15N- $$ {\text{NO}}_{3}^{ - } $$ recoveries, while soil depth and time were significant determinants of 15N recovery in microbial biomass. Overall, 15N recovery in microbial biomass and leachate was greater in upper north-facing slope plots than lower north-facing (toeslope) and both south-facing slope plots in August; by October, 15N recovery in microbial N biomass within south-facing slope plots had increased substantially. Our results point to the importance of soil properties in controlling the fate of N in mid-elevation forests during the summer season.

Developing accurate stream maps requires both an improved understanding of the drivers of streamflow spatial patterns and field verification. This study examined streamflow locations in three semiarid catchments across an elevation gradient in the Colorado Front Range, USA. The locations of surface flow throughout each channel network were mapped in the field and used to compute active drainage densities. Field surveys of active flow were compared to National Hydrography Dataset High Resolution (NHD HR) flowlines, digital topographic data, and geologic maps. The length of active flow declined with stream discharge in each of the catchments, with the greatest decline in the driest catchment. Of the tributaries that did not dry completely, 60% had stable flow heads and the remaining tributaries had flow heads that moved downstream with drying. The flow heads were initiated at mean contributing areas of 0.1 km2 at the lowest elevation catchment and 0.5 km2 at the highest elevation catchment, leading to active drainage densities that declined with elevation and snow persistence. The field mapped drainage densities were less than half the drainage densities that were represented using NHD HR. Geologic structures influenced the flow locations, with multiple flow heads initiated along faults and some tributaries following either fault lines or lithologic contacts.

Collaborations between biologists and geologists are key to understanding and projecting how landscapes function and change over time. Such collaborations are stimulated by on-going scientific developments, advances in instrumentation and technology, and the growing recognition that environmental problems necessitate interdisciplinary investigation. Here, we show how the biogeosciences are well placed to answer more completely the core questions that motivate the world's invaluable environmental research networks: specifically, the venerable Long Term Ecological Research networks (LTERs), the newer surveillance facilities of the Earth Observatory Networks (EONs including the USA's NEON), and the geosciences' interdisciplinary network of Critical Zone Observatories (CZOs). Because LTER and EON programs have been supported largely by ecological and biological communities and CZOs largely by the geological community, we assert that a concerted biogeoscience approach across these invaluable networks can benefit both their scientific productivity and usefulness to the wider public.

Long-term environmental research networks are one approach to advancing local, regional, and global environmental science and education. A remarkable number and wide variety of environmental research networks operate around the world today. These are diverse in funding, infrastructure, motivating questions, scientific strengths, and the sciences that birthed and maintain the networks. Some networks have individual sites that were selected because they had produced invaluable long-term data, while other networks have new sites selected to span ecological gradients. However, all long-term environmental networks share two challenges. Networks must keep pace with scientific advances and interact with both the scientific community and society at large. If networks fall short of successfully addressing these challenges, they risk becoming irrelevant. The objective of this paper is to assert that the biogeosciences offer environmental research networks a number of opportunities to expand scientific impact and public engagement. We explore some of these opportunities with four networks: the International Long-Term Ecological Research Network programs (ILTERs), critical zone observatories (CZOs), Earth and ecological observatory networks (EONs), and the FLUXNET program of eddy flux sites. While these networks were founded and expanded by interdisciplinary scientists, the preponderance of expertise and funding has gravitated activities of ILTERs and EONs toward ecology and biology, CZOs toward the Earth sciences and geology, and FLUXNET toward ecophysiology and micrometeorology. Our point is not to homogenize networks, nor to diminish disciplinary science. Rather, we argue that by more fully incorporating the integration of biology and geology in long-term environmental research networks, scientists can better leverage network assets, keep pace with the ever-changing science of the environment, and engage with larger scientific and public audiences. Fil: Richter, Daniel D.. University of Duke; Estados Unidos Fil: Billings, Sharon A.. University of Kansas; Estados Unidos Fil: Groffman, Peter M.. Brooklyn College; Estados Unidos Fil: Kelly, Eugene F.. State University of Colorado - Fort Collins; Estados Unidos Fil: Lohse, Kathleen A.. Idaho State University; Estados Unidos Fil: McDowell, William H.. University Of New Hampshire; Estados Unidos Fil: White, Timothy S.. State University of Pennsylvania; Estados Unidos Fil: Anderson, Suzanne. State University of Colorado at Boulder; Estados Unidos Fil: Baldocchi, Dennis D.. University of California at Berkeley; Estados Unidos Fil: Banwart, Steve. University Of Leeds; Reino Unido Fil: Brantley, Susan. State University of Pennsylvania; Estados Unidos Fil: Braun, Jean J.. University of Yaounide; Camerún. Universite de Toulouse; Francia Fil: Brecheisen, Zachary S.. University of Duke; Estados Unidos Fil: Cook, Charles S.. University of Duke; Estados Unidos Fil: Hartnett, Hilairy E.. Arizona State University; Estados Unidos Fil: Hobbie, Sarah E.. University of Minnesota; Estados Unidos Fil: Gaillardet, Jerome. Institut Universitaire de France. Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris; Francia Fil: Jobbagy Gampel, Esteban Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Luis. Instituto de Matemática Aplicada de San Luis "Prof. Ezio Marchi". Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Ciencias Físico, Matemáticas y Naturales. Instituto de Matemática Aplicada de San Luis "Prof. Ezio Marchi"; Argentina Fil: Jungkunst, Hermann F.. Universitat Koblenz; Alemania Fil: Kazanski, Clare E.. University of Minnesota; Estados Unidos Fil: Krishnaswamy, Jagdish. Ashoka Trust For Research In Ecology And The Environment; India Fil: Markewitz, Daniel. University of Georgia; Estados Unidos Fil: O'Neill, Katherine. Roanoke College; Estados Unidos Fil: Riebe, Clifford S.. University Of Wyoming; Fil: Schroeder, Paul. University of Georgia; Estados Unidos Fil: Siebe, Christina. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; México Fil: Silver, Whendee L.. University of California at Berkeley; Estados Unidos Fil: Thompson, Aaron. University of Georgia; Estados Unidos Fil: Verhoef, Anne. University of Reading; Reino Unido Fil: Zhang, Ganlin. Chinese Academy of Sciences; República de China

Climate change and a related increase in temperature, particularly in alpine areas, force both flora and fauna to adapt to the new conditions. These changes should in turn affect soil formation processes. The aim of this study was to identify possible consequences for soils in a dry-alpine region with respect to weathering of primary minerals and leaching of elements under expected vegetation and climate changes. To achieve this, a field empirical approach investigating an altitudinal sequence was used in combination with laboratory weathering experiments simulating several scenarios. The study sites are located in Sinks Canyon and Stough Basin of the Wind River Range, Wyoming, USA. The following sites (from moist to dry with increasing temperature along the sequence) were investigated: 10 soil profiles (Typic Haplocryoll) in a tundra ecotone, 10 soil profiles (Ustic Haplocryoll) in a pine-fir forest and 20 soil profiles (Ustic Argicryoll) in sagebrush. All soils developed on granitoid moraines. Soil mineralogy was analysed using cathodoluminescence and X-ray diffraction. This revealed that biotite and plagioclase were both weathered to smectite while plagioclase also weathered to kaolinite. Cooler, wetter, altitude-dependent conditions promoted weathering of primary minerals. Furthermore, the soils of the tundra and forest zone exhibited a higher acidity and more organic carbon. In a series of wet laboratory batch experiments, materials from topsoils (A horizons) and subsoils (B horizons) in each ecotone were examined alone or in combination with other samples. In a first step, aqueous extracts of the topsoil samples were generated in batch reactors and analysed for the main ions. In a second and a third step the topsoil extracts were reacted with the subsoil samples of the same ecotone, and with the subsoil samples of the ecotones at higher altitude. The total duration of these batch experiments was 1800 h, and the solutes were measured using ICP-OES and ion chromatography. Dissolved Ca, Mg and K were mainly controlled by the chemical weathering of oligoclase, K-feldspar and biotite. With increasing altitude the total concentrations of Ca, Mg and K in the aqueous extracts decreased, the relative ionic contribution from K decreased, while the ionic contribution from Ca increased. Climate change (warming, changed precipitation) potentially will reduce weathering intensity, soil acidity and the content of organic carbon. An altitudinal shift in vegetation due to climate change seems to affect the ionic composition of the soil solution. In the case of a shift from forest to sagebrush and tundra to forest or sagebrush, the relative contribution from K would increase at the expense of Ca. We hypothesise that K will play an important role in future biogeochemical cycles under the assumptions of climate warming and subsequent vegetation shifts to higher altitudes.

The relative importance of extreme events in the long-term exhumation of landscapes is difficult to determine; the degree to which modern records capture long-term mean process rates is therefore commonly unknown. In September 2013, a massive precipitation event in the Front Range of Colorado (USA) triggered over 1100 landslides and debris flows in a historically sedate landscape. Here we employ topographic differencing, utilizing repeat aerial lidar, to quantify net sediment transport volumes in 120 of these mass movements within an area of 102 km 2 west of Boulder, Colorado. Comparing our results against published long-term erosion rates, we find that these mass movements evacuated the equivalent of hundreds to thousands of years of hillslope weathering products. We conclude that (1) rare debris flows perform the majority of sediment transport and channel erosion within steep channels along the eastern edge of the Front Range, potentially explaining discrepancies between modern sediment yields and long-term erosion rates in such settings, and (2) the high spatial density of debris flows along the corridors bounding steep canyons suggests that the landscape switches to debris-flow dominance as knickpoints pass headward along the canyons.

Through the delivery of water in snowmelt, climate should govern the rate and extent of saprolite formation in snow-dominated mountain watersheds, yet the mechanisms by which water flows deeply into regolith are largely unexplored. In this study we link rainfall, snow depth, and water content data from both soil and shallow saprolite to document vadose zone dynamics in two montane catchments over 2 years. Measurements of snow pack thickness and soil moisture reveal strong contrasts between north- and south-facing slopes in both the timing of meltwater delivery and the duration of significant soil wetting in the shallow vadose zone. Despite similar magnitudes of snowmelt recharge, north-facing slopes have higher sustained soil moisture compared to south-facing slopes. To help interpret these observations, we use a 2D numerical model of vadose zone dynamics to calculate the expected space–time moisture patterns on an idealized hillslope under two wetting scenarios: a single sustained recharge pulse versus a set of short pulses. The model predicts that the duration of the recharge event exerts a stronger control on the depth and residence time of water in the upper unsaturated zone than the magnitude of the recharge event. Model calculations also imply that water should move more slowly through the subsurface and downward water flux should be substantially reduced when water is applied in several pulses rather than in one sustained event. The results suggest that thicker soil and more deeply weathered rock on north-facing slopes may reflect greater water supply to the deep subsurface. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The critical zone (CZ), the dynamic living skin of the Earth, extends from the top of the vegetative canopy through the soil and down to fresh bedrock and the bottom of the groundwater. All humans live in and depend on the CZ. This zone has three co-evolving surfaces: the top of the vegetative canopy, the ground surface, and a deep subsurface below which Earth's materials are unweathered. The network of nine CZ observatories supported by the US National Science Foundation has made advances in three broad areas of CZ research relating to the co-evolving surfaces. First, monitoring has revealed how natural and anthropogenic inputs at the vegetation canopy and ground surface cause subsurface responses in water, regolith structure, minerals, and biotic activity to considerable depths. This response, in turn, impacts aboveground biota and climate. Second, drilling and geophysical imaging now reveal how the deep subsurface of the CZ varies across landscapes, which in turn influences aboveground ecosystems. Third, several new mechanistic models now provide quantitative predictions of the spatial structure of the subsurface of the CZ.Many countries fund critical zone observatories (CZOs) to measure the fluxes of solutes, water, energy, gases, and sediments in the CZ and some relate these observations to the histories of those fluxes recorded in landforms, biota, soils, sediments, and rocks. Each US observatory has succeeded in (i) synthesizing research across disciplines into convergent approaches; (ii) providing long-term measurements to compare across sites; (iii) testing and developing models; (iv) collecting and measuring baseline data for comparison to catastrophic events; (v) stimulating new process-based hypotheses; (vi) catalyzing development of new techniques and instrumentation; (vii) informing the public about the CZ; (viii) mentoring students and teaching about emerging multidisciplinary CZ science; and (ix) discovering new insights about the CZ. Many of these activities can only be accomplished with observatories. Here we review the CZO enterprise in the United States and identify how such observatories could operate in the future as a network designed to generate critical scientific insights. Specifically, we recognize the need for the network to study network-level questions, expand the environments under investigation, accommodate both hypothesis testing and monitoring, and involve more stakeholders. We propose a driving question for future CZ science and a hubs-and-campaigns model to address that question and target the CZ as one unit. Only with such integrative efforts will we learn to steward the life-sustaining critical zone now and into the future.

Colloids can be important vectors for the transport of contaminants in the environment, but little is known about colloid mobilization at the watershed scale. We present colloid concentration, composition, and flux data over a large range of hydrologic conditions from a small watershed (Gordon Gulch) in the foothills of the Colorado Front Range. Colloids, consisting predominantly of Si, Fe, and Al, were present in most stream samples but were not detected in groundwater samples. Mineralogical and morphological analysis indicated that the colloids were composed of kaolinite and illite clays with lesser amounts of amorphous Fe-hydroxides. Although colloid composition remained relatively constant over the sampled flow conditions, colloid concentrations varied considerably and increased as ionic strength of stream water decreased. The highest concentrations occurred during precipitation events after extended dry periods. These observations are consistent with laboratory studies that have shown colloids can be mobilized by decreases in pore-water ionic strength, which likely occurs during precipitation events. Colloidal particles constituted 30 to 35% of the Si mass flux and 93 to 97% of the Fe and Al mass fluxes in the

Over a decade of research in the alpine zone of the Colorado Front Range has shown that atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition originating from source areas in low elevation, developed areas, has changed ecosystem stoichiometry, nutrient transformations, and aquatic community structure. Less research has occurred in the montane zone, which sits at the current rain-snow transition and is vulnerable to climate change, land cover disturbances, and increased N loading. We conducted lithium bromide and 15N-nitrate (15NO3−) tracer studies during spring snowmelt to determine the immediate fate of N in a forested catchment. Measurements of N species and applied tracers in ecosystem pools and soil solution on north and south facing slopes provided a means of determining export pathways and uptake of deposited N. Our results indicate that NO3− residence time is longer within north than south facing slope soils, due to longer contact with the soil matrix, greater microbial biomass N, and a larger soil organic matter pool. On the north facing slope, >50% of the 1 kg ha−1 of 15NO3− applied was retained in soil and vegetation pools. On the south facing slope, rapid transport during sporadic snowmelt events reduced total recovery of the 15N label in ecosystem pools to 16–34%. Our results suggest that snowmelt events quickly transport N through south facing slope soils, potentially contributing more N to aquatic systems than north facing slopes. Thus, it is important to consider how the fate of N differs by hillslope aspect when predicting catchment-scale N export and determining ecosystem N status across the Colorado Front Range.

Organic matter content and chemistry is vital to the structure and function of soil systems, but while organic matter is recognized as biogeochemically important, its chemical interaction with soil processes is not well understood. In this study we used fluorescence spectroscopy, which has been used extensively for understanding the role of organic matter in aquatic systems, to identify chemical changes in organic matter with depth in a soil system. Soil was collected from nine different pits in a first-order montane catchment in the Colorado Front Range. The water-soluble soil organic matter was extracted from each sample and fluorescence and UV–vis spectroscopy was used to analyze its chemical character. While organic matter chemistry had little correlation with landscape location and local vegetation, there were noticeable consistent trends between soil horizon and organic matter chemistry in each pit. Total organic matter decreased with depth and became less aromatic with increasing depth. This less aromatic material in the saprolite also had a greater microbial signature. The redox character of the organic matter accompanied this change in source and molecular structure, with more oxidized character corresponding with organic matter with more microbial input and more reduced character corresponding to organic matter with more plant input. A concurrent investigation of the microbial population of the same soil samples also showed microbial population composition varying more with soil depth than landscape position, and depth changes in microbial diversity occurred concomitantly with depth changes in organic matter chemistry.

The character of the critical zone reflects the effects of weathering and erosion over time. Weathering processes push a weathering front into fresh rock and continually modify material within the critical zone, generating saprolite and soils, while erosion processes mobilize regolith and remove mass. These processes respond to climate, but also to boundary conditions that may be set by processes occurring elsewhere. We use the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory (BcCZO) to illustrate landscape scale linkages driving critical zone evolution through feedbacks that work both upstream and downstream. We focus on: (1) downstream transfer of sediment and water; and (2) changes in river base-level. The essential point is that regions are linked by transfers of mass and by boundary conditions set by external processes. These linkages result in lags in evolution of critical zone profiles in distant parts of watersheds to drivers such as climate and erosion. Thus, history influences the character of the critical zone.

In this article we craft process-specific algorithms that capture climate control of hillslope evolution in order to elucidate the legacy of past climate on present critical zone architecture and topography. Models of hillslope evolution traditionally comprise rock detachment into the mobile layer, mobile regolith transport, and a channel incision or aggradation boundary condition. We extend this system into the deep critical zone by considering a weathering damage zone below the mobile regolith in which rock strength is diminished; the degree of damage conditions the rate of mobile regolith production. We first discuss generic damage profiles in which appropriate length and damage scales govern profile shapes, and examine their dependence upon exhumation rate. We then introduce climate control through the example of rock damage by frost-generated crack growth. We augment existing frost cracking models by incorporating damage rate limitations for long transport distances for water to the freezing front. Finally we link the frost cracking damage model, a mobile regolith production rule in which rock entrainment is conditioned by the damage state of the rock, and a frost creep transport model, to examine the evolution of an interfluve under oscillating climate. Aspect-related differences in mean annual surface temperatures result in differences in bedrock damage rate and mobile regolith transport efficiency, which in turn lead to asymmetries in critical zone architecture and hillslope form (divide migration). In a quasi-steady state hillslope, the lowering rate is uniform, and the damage profile is better developed on north-facing slopes where the frost damage process is most intense. Because the residence times of mobile regolith and weathered bedrock in such landscapes are on the order of 10 to 100 ka, climate cycles over similar timescales result in modulation of transport and damage efficiencies. These lead to temporal variation in mobile regolith thickness, and to corresponding changes in sediment delivery to bounding streams. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In the Colorado Front Range, forested catchments near the rain–snow transition are likely to experience changes in snowmelt delivery and subsurface water transport with climate warming and associated shifts in precipitation patterns. Snowpack dynamics are strongly affected by aspect: Lodgepole pine forested north-facing slopes develop a seasonal snowpack, whereas Ponderosa pine-dotted south-facing slopes experience intermittent snow accumulation throughout winter and spring. We tested the degree to which these contrasting water input patterns cause different near-surface hydrologic response on north-facing and south-facing hillslopes during the snowmelt period. During spring snowmelt, we applied lithium bromide (LiBr) tracer to instrumented plots along a north–south catchment transect. Bromide broke through immediately at 10- and 30-cm depths on the north-facing slope and was transported out of soil waters within 40 days. On the south-facing slope, Br− was transported to significant depths only during spring storms and remained above the detection limit throughout the study. Modelling of unsaturated zone hydrologic response using Hydrus-1D corroborated these aspect-driven differences in subsurface transport. Our multiple lines of evidence suggest that north-facing slopes are dominated by connected flow through the soil matrix, whereas south-facing slope soils experience brief periods of rapid vertical transport following snowmelt events and are drier overall than north-facing slopes. These differences in hydrologic response were largely a function of energy-driven differences in water supply, emphasizing the importance of aspect and climate forcing when considering contributions of water and solutes to streamflow in catchments near the snow line. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Microorganisms exist throughout the soil profile and those microorganisms living in sub-surface horizons likely play key roles in nutrient cycling and soil formation. However, the distributions of microbes through the soil profile remain poorly understood, as most studies focus only on those communities found in near-surface horizons. Here we examined how microbial community structure changes within soil profiles, whether these changes are similar across soils from different landscape positions, and how the community-level variation within individual soil depth profiles compares to the variation across surface soils from a wide range of biomes. We characterized changes in bacterial and archaeal community composition and diversity with depth through nine soil profiles located in a forested montane watershed in Colorado, USA. Microbial community composition was determined by barcoded pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene employing a primer set that captures both bacteria and archaea. Relative microbial biomass and soil carbon concentrations decreased exponentially with depth while soil pH increased in nearly all of the profiles examined. Bacterial diversity was typically highest in the top 10 cm of the profile; diversity typically dropped by 20–40% from the surface horizons to the deepest horizons sampled. Community composition was significantly affected by soil depth in all profiles, driven primarily by a decline in the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes with depth and the peak in the relative abundance of Verrucomicrobia between 10 and 50 cm. Microbial community composition across the nine pits was most variable in the surface horizons; communities at deeper soil depths were relatively similar regardless of landscape position. When compared to the microbial communities from 54 previously-analyzed surface soils collected across a wide range of biome types, we found that there was as much variation within individual soil pits as across surface soils from different biomes, emphasizing the importance of soil depth as an environmental gradient structuring soil microbial communities.

Bacterioplankton in freshwater streams play a critical role in stream nutrient cycling. Despite their ecological importance, the temporal variability in the structure of stream bacterioplankton communities remains understudied. We investigated the composition and temporal variability of stream bacterial communities and the influence of physicochemical parameters on these communities. We used barcoded pyrosequencing to survey bacterial communities in 107 streamwater samples collected from four locations in the Colorado Rocky Mountains from September 2008 to November 2009. The four sampled locations harboured distinct communities yet, at each sampling location, there was pronounced temporal variability in both community composition and alpha diversity levels. These temporal shifts in bacterioplankton community structure were not seasonal; rather, their diversity and composition appeared to be driven by intermittent changes in various streamwater biogeochemical conditions. Bacterial communities varied independently of time, as indicated by the observation that communities in samples collected close together in time were no more similar than those collected months apart. The temporal turnover in community composition was higher than observed in most previously studied microbial, plant or animal communities, highlighting the importance of stochastic processes and disturbance events in structuring these communities over time. Detailed temporal sampling is important if the objective is to monitor microbial community dynamics in pulsed ecosystems like streams.

Annual export of 11 major and trace solutes for the Yukon River is found to be accurately determined based on summing 42 tributary contributions. These findings provide the first published estimates of tributary specific distribution of solutes within the Yukon River basin. First, we show that annual discharge of the Yukon River can be computed by summing calculated annual discharges from 42 tributaries. Annual discharge for the tributaries is calculated from the basin area and average annual precipitation over that area using a previously published regional regression equation. Based on tributary inputs, we estimate an average annual discharge for the Yukon River of 210 km3 year–1. This value is within 1% of the average measured annual discharge at the U.S. Geological Survey gaging station near the river terminus at Pilot Station, AK, for water years 2001 through 2005. Next, annual loads for 11 solutes are determined by combining annual discharge with point measurements of solute concentrations in tributary river water. Based on the sum of solutes in tributary water, we find that the Yukon River discharges approximately 33 million metric tons of dissolved solids each year at Pilot Station. Discharged solutes are dominated by cations calcium and magnesium (5.65 A— 109 and 1.42 A— 109 g year–1) and anions bicarbonate and sulphate (17.3 A— 109 and 5.40 A— 109 g year–1). These loads compare well with loads calculated independently at the three continuous gaging stations along the Yukon River. These findings show how annual solute yields vary throughout a major subarctic river basin and that accurate estimates of total river export can be determined from calculated tributary contributions. Copyright © 2011. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

The common wisdom is that steady-state hilltops should display convex shape with both uniform soil thickness and uniform rates of lowering of the soil–bedrock interface. A 120 m hilltop transect on Bodmin Moor, southwest UK, displays a parabolic hilltop form, which implies it is in geomorphic steady state, yet the measured depths to bedrock range almost 6-fold from 14 to 80 cm, and the soil production rates derived from 10Be concentrations in rock at the soil interface range by 2-fold from 10 to 20 m/My. We address this conundrum by developing a theory to explain the scatter in soil depths that would result from block-by-block lowering of the soil–bedrock boundary, and support our theory with a simple model involving block release and diffusive transport. We show that over long timescales a hilltop can indeed be in geomorphic steady state while at any point in time exhibiting a broad range of depths to bedrock. Variable depth to bedrock results in variable 10Be concentrations in the rock sampled at the base of regolith, which yields calculated soil production rates that vary about the long-term average. Hence, scatter in plots of soil production as a function of soil depth are to be expected in many landscapes, and if the landscape is in geomorphic steady state, this scatter reflects the stochastic nature of the block release mechanism by which the bedrock interface is lowering. We find in our models that the commonly observed humped and exponentially declining soil production functions are only preserved during the transient approach toward geomorphic steady state.

We live at the dynamic interface between the solid Earth and its outer fluid envelopes. This interface, extending from the outer vegetation canopy to the base of active groundwater, was recently named the Critical Zone because it supports life and is increasingly impacted by human actions. Understanding the complex interactions between processes that operate in and shape the Critical Zone requires interdisciplinary approaches that span wide spatial and temporal scales. Tectonic processes, weathering, fluid transport, and biological processes control the function and structure of the Critical Zone. Three Critical Zone Observatories recently established by the U.S. National Science Foundation are designed to integrate studies of process interactions up to the watershed scale. A goal of the program is to build the three independently conceived observatories into a network from which broader understanding — larger spatial scales but also deeper insight — can emerge.

The spatial and temporal changes in element and mineral concentrations in regolith profiles in a chronosequence developed on marine terraces along coastal California are interpreted in terms of chemical weathering rates and processes. In regoliths up to 15 m deep and 226 kyrs old, quartz-normalized mass transfer coefficients indicate non-stoichiometric preferential release of Sr > Ca > Na from plagioclase along with lesser amounts of K, Rb and Ba derived from K-feldspar. Smectite weathering results in the loss of Mg and concurrent incorporation of Al and Fe into secondary kaolinite and Fe-oxides in shallow argillic horizons. Elemental losses from weathering of the Santa Cruz terraces fall within the range of those for other marine terraces along the Pacific Coast of North America. Residual amounts of plagioclase and K-feldspar decrease with terrace depth and increasing age. The gradient of the weathering profile bs is defined by the ratio of the weathering rate, R to the velocity at which the profile penetrates into the protolith. A spreadsheet calculator further refines profile geometries, demonstrating that the non-linear regions at low residual feldspar concentrations at shallow depth are dominated by exponential changes in mineral surface-to-volume ratios and at high residual feldspar concentrations, at greater depth, by the approach to thermodynamic saturation. These parameters are of secondary importance to the fluid flux qh, which in thermodynamically saturated pore water, controls the weathering velocity and mineral losses from the profiles. Long-term fluid fluxes required to reproduce the feldspar weathering profiles are in agreement with contemporary values based on solute Cl balances (qh = 0.025–0.17 m yr−1). During saturation-controlled and solute-limited weathering, the greater loss of plagioclase relative to K-feldspar is dependent on the large difference in their respective solubilities instead of the small difference between their respective reaction kinetics. The steady-state weathering rate under such conditions is defined as R = q h · m sol M total · 1 S v · b s · The product of qh and the ratio of solubilized to solid state feldspar (msat/Mtotal) define the weathering velocity. The weathering gradient bs reflects the kinetic rate of reaction where Sv is the volumetric surface area of the residual feldspar. Both this rate expression and the spreadsheet calculations produce similar plagioclase weathering rates (R = 5–14 × 10−16 mol m−2 s−1) which agree with those reported for other environments of comparable climate and age. Weathering-dependent concentration profiles are commonly described in literature. The present paper provides methods by which these data can yield a more fundamental understanding of the weathering processes involved.

The speed of a glacier is affected most by sudden jumps in the water supply to the glacier, but it goes back to previous levels if high water inputs are sustained because the glacier's plumbing system adjusts. Basal motion of glaciers is responsible for short-term variations in glacier velocity1,2,3,4,5,6. At the calving fronts of marine-terminating outlet glaciers, accelerated basal motion has led to increased ice discharge and thus is tightly connected to sea level rise1,7. Subglacial water passes through dynamic conduits that are fed by distributed linked cavities at the bed, and plays a critical role in setting basal motion8. However, neither measured subglacial water pressure nor the volume of water in storage can fully explain basal motion2,3,4,5,6,8,9. Here, we use global positioning system observations to document basal motion during highly variable inputs of water from diurnal and seasonal melt, and from an outburst flood at Kennicott Glacier, Alaska. We find that glacier velocity increases when englacial and subglacial water storage is increasing. We suggest that whenever water inputs exceed the ability of the existing conduits to transmit water, the conduits pressurize and drive water back into the areally extensive linked cavity system. This in turn promotes basal motion. Sustained high melt rates do not imply continued rapid basal motion, however, because the subglacial conduit system evolves to greater efficiency. Large pulses of water to the bed can overwhelm the subglacial hydrologic network and incite basal motion, potentially explaining recent accelerations of the Greenland Ice Sheet3, where rapid drainage of large surficial melt ponds delivers water through cold ice10.