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Sino-USA CZO scientists meet to discuss future collaborations

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Participants in the Sino-U.S. CZO Workshop, Oct. 2015 in Guiyang, China

09 Oct 2015

Image: Participants in the Sino-U.S. CZO Workshop, Oct. 2015 in Guiyang, China [Click image to enlarge]

National
Calhoun

About 60 Chinese and American critical zone scientists met in Guiyang, China for two days of discussions and presentations on the significance of critical zone observatories for science and society. National Science Foundation officials from China and the USA participated throughout, including Drs. Congqiang Liu of China, and Carol Frost, Enriqueta Barrera, and Nancy Sung of the USA. Discussions were lively and interest was high throughout the meetings. After exploring perspectives of the critical zone by a number of Chinese and American scientists, the workshop focused on big critical zone questions, potential breakthroughs for critical zone science, critical zone data and models, and Sino-USA collaboration. A summary document is to come from the group, which describes critical zone science and includes an outline of Sino-USA collaboration. Some of the workshop attendees attended science tours of the Puding and Red Soil Ecological Experiment Stations, two long-term ecological research sites that are being expanded to become CZOs. Critical zone scientists from the Red Soil Ecological Research Station near Yingtan and from the Calhoun CZO are establishing sister-site relations for exchanges of students, post-docs, and professors, and also for research. Other sister-sites pairings may develop in the coming months.