Abstract

In this dissertation, human-critical zone (CZ) dynamics are explored at the Calhoun Critical Zone Observatory (CCZO). The 190km² CCZO is part of a broader landscape in the southeastern US which was subjected to extensive agricultural degradation for approximately two hundred years before cultivation was abandoned sixty or more years ago. The physical and functional dynamics of land abandonment were explored at three spatial scales herein: 1) landscape geomorphology and spatial patterns of CZ processes, 2) microtopographic roughness of hillslopes being diagnostic of landuse history and, 3) plot-based soil investigations of three chronosequence landuse histories approximating the temporal successional progression from pre-disturbance forested landcover into deforested agricultural management and finally into secondary old-field mixed pine forests which typify the post-agricultural landscape of the Southeastern US.

Citation

Brecheisen, Zachary S. (2018): Macro to Micro Legacies of Landuse at the Calhoun Critical Zone Observatory. PhD Dissertation, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.