Welcome to Adventures in the Critical Zone! The goal of this blog is to share what researchers at the Critical Zone Observatories (CZO) and beyond have learned, from the solid bedrock to the tree tops. Scientists have conducted thousands of studies and we are here to bring their findings to you! From this ever-growing list of studies, we shall be synthesizing and presenting fundamental and new research about the critical zone.

You may be wondering: How could we choose which parts of the critical zone to cover? We will start by addressing some of the questions about the critical zone that have been swirling in our minds. But, if you have any questions about rocks, soil, trees, or any other part of the critical zone, send them our way at Askcriticalzone@gmail.com.

In between answering science questions, we will introduce some of the intelligent and quirky investigators working at the critical zone observatories. Researchers are people too!

This blog is overseen by the CZO National Office’s new Post-doctoral fellow Dr. Justin Richardson. Justin is a recent Earth Science PhD recipient from Dartmouth College with an undergraduate degree in soil science from the University of California, Riverside. His research experience is primarily in the biogeochemistry of elements, primarily metals in forest soils, but he has worked in other terrestrial ecosystems. If you have any specific questions about soils or metals, shoot him an email.

For more updates from the CZOs, check out the Critical Zone National Office twitter feed and #criticalzone. 

Science on!

This material is supported by the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation