The LCZO infrastructure, sampling strategy, and integrated data management system are designed to provide a platform whereby collaborators can put geochemical and biogeochemical studies into a geomorphic and hydrologic perspective. The basic infrastructure of the LCZO is an integrated set of sampling sites that are built upon existing study sites that have long-term and ongoing records of rainfall, throughfall, litterfall, and streamflow (Schellekens et al 2004, Peters et al 2006, Heartsill et al 2007, Wei et al 2007). The atmospheric sampling nodes consist of 8 weather stations and an additional 8 rain gages that monitor climatic and geochemical inputs to the different lithologies and forest types across a precipitation gradient that ranges from 1000 mm/yr to 5000 mm/yr. Soil and deep weathering nodes consist of a sampled network of soils on the various lithologies and forest types and monitored hillslope catena’s that are underlain by VC and GD lithologies (Table 2). Soil and regolith water and gas samples are sampled using suction samplers installed according to our previous studies and CZEN standards. Aquatic nodes of the observatory focus on quantifying the fluxes of water, sediment, and solutes from the basin and how they are transformed as they move from pore spaces in the lithologic matrix to the coastal zone. These nodes include 8 stream gages and numerous georeferenced cross-sections and riparian sampling sites. A major limitation to previous studies has been the ability to monitor storm events and temporal variations in exports. To overcome this limitation, the LCZO is adding sensors to the existing stream gages to obtain continuous records of conductivity, and temperature.

Water chemistry is sampled weekly and on a campaign basis and will be processed at the USGS WEBB laboratories and at the University of New Hampshire. While the water chemistry at most of the proposed aquatic sampling nodes has been sampled before, sampling frequency has been erratic and the actual data is stored in different ways and at different institutions. The LCZO is ameliorating this situation by developing a centralized data management archive where researchers can access existing data and share the new data they collect.