Goldschmidt is the foremost annual, international conference on geochemistry and related subjects, organised by the European Association of Geochemistry and the Geochemical Society. This year's conference will be held on 18-23 August 2019 in Barcelona, Spain. 

Conference website: goldschmidt.info/2019/

Important Dates 

• November 1, 2018 Call for Sessions and Workshops Deadline
• January 15, 2019 Abstract Submission Opens
• March 29, 2019 Abstract submission deadline
• June 18, 2019 Early Registration Deadline
• July 18, 2019 Standard Registration Deadline
• August 18-23, 2019 Goldschmidt2019 Conference

CZ-related sessions, abstracts and events at Goldschmidt 2019

Session 04a: Energetics and Thermodynamics of Reactions in Earth's Critical Zone

Conveners: Nadine Kabengi, Omar Harvey
Summary: Energy exchange and the rate at which it occurs dictate reaction dynamics, and consequently reaction outcomes, at all spatial and temporal scales within Earth’s hydrosphere, biosphere, atmosphere and geosphere. In recent years, developments in instrumentation as well as techniques to measure, compute or quantitatively model energy exchange in Earth’s systems have seen energetics and energy dynamics being increasingly used (alone or in-tandem with other techniques) to describe material properties, processes/reaction mechanism, system dynamics and system function within environments of interests to Earth Scientists. We invite experiment and/or computation-based presentations that cover advances in instrumentation, novel stand-alone or integrative methodologies, unique data analysis approaches and applications of energetics to understanding the fundamentals of biotic or abiotic reactions and processes at the nano- to the landscape-scale. We are particularly interested in research in Earth’s critical zone with possible focus areas including (but not limited to) energetics in sorption/desorption, precipitation/dissolution, redox and photo- reactions; and contributions in understanding to nutrient/contaminant fate, biogeochemical cycles, weathering reactions, origin and maintenance of life, etc.

Session 09b: Understanding the Critical Zone Using the Composition of Particles, Solutes, and Gases Transported by Rivers

Conveners: Jotis Baronas, Mark Torres
Summary: Earth’s critical zone (CZ) is where water, minerals, and biota meet, resulting in interactions that shape and respond to the climate and structure of landscapes. The distribution of water, minerals, and biota is heterogeneous over space and time, posing challenges to the quantification and mechanistic understanding of the processes taking place within the CZ. Rivers, by transporting materials out of the CZ, capture the net results of these processes and can yield crucial insights integrated over landscape-scale areas of (potentially) variable morphology, lithology, and climate. This session welcomes contributions that make use of the chemical and isotopic composition of river transported materials over a range of spatial and temporal scales to better understand the inner workings of the CZ. Any studies utilizing elemental or molecular concentrations, as well as traditional and non-traditional isotope signatures of riverine sediments, solutes, and gases are welcome. In particular, we encourage contributions that employ novel approaches, such as the combination of geophysical and geochemical measurements, lab and field observations, multi-proxy studies, high temporal and/or spatial resolution datasets, new conceptual models, and others.

Session 09e: Using Big Data to Elucidate Bio-Geological Co-evolution of the Critical Zone—including Human Impacts

Conveners: Elisabeth Bui, Frank Reith
Summary: The ‘Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery from large Databases’ theoretical framework has provided analytical and modelling approaches that can give insights into the mechanisms and controls of weathering, erosion and other critical zone processes, as well as their roles in global biogeochemical cycles and the distribution of (micro)biota. For example, global data for selenium concentration in ~33,000 soil samples, grids for climate, lithology, and soil properties enabled the modelling and mapping of this element essential to human health while at the same time revealing the importance of climate–soil interactions to its distribution. This insight suggests that other trace elements with similar biogeochemical cycling mechanisms will be affected by climate change. Another example is the use of large next generation sequencing databases of soil (micro)biota and link those to geogenic factors, e.g., geological properties or element dispersion in the critical zone, e.g., in areas overlying gold and other deposits. This bioindicator approach can be used to an exploration tool to pinpoint new mineral deposits as well as in agriculture to assess the effect of element deficiencies on soil microbial communities. This session invites contributions from a broad range of topics, including but not limited to: 1) mineral prospectivity and hydrogeochemistry, e.g., studying the distribution, migration, transport, and cycle of geochemical substances in the critical zone and evaluating the impact from natural and anthropogenic factors; 2) studies integrating data from remote sensing (e.g., SRTM, lidar), unmanned airborne vehicles, and other environmental data to predict spatial patterns of landscape evolution; 3) cross-disciplinary studies, e.g., the evolution of life, co-evolution of landscapes and biosphere, adaptation to environmental change, landscape rehabilitation; 4) studies linking the distribution of biota, e.g., bacteria, plants or fungi, to the distribution of geogenic factors.

Session 09f: Predicting the Evolution of Critical Zone Architecture in the Anthropocene Through Data Model Synergy

Conveners: Nicole West, Pamela Sullivan
Summary: Development of critical zone architecture is a combination of short-term hydrological, biogeochemical, and physical processes acting at the land surface with long-term, large-scale tectonic processes. However, the relative dominance of these processes and their feedbacks over critical zone development remains an open-ended question, one that must be answered if we are to develop predictive capabilities to evaluate the evolution of the critical zone with global environmental change. Our session aims to bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers, and cover a number of topics, including, but not limited to 1) new and existing tools for observing or modeling critical zone thickness, 2) co-evolution of the land surface and the lower critical zone boundary 3) integrating microscopic processes in the critical zone that cause macroscopic change, and 4) predicting the response of critical zone architecture to global environmental change. We invite abstracts that explore the depths of critical zone architecture, and the boundaries and gradients in processes and parameters that may define it, using observations and models. In particular, we invite abstracts that seek to predict the evolution of critical zone architecture, and how it may respond to increasing pressures of the Anthropocene.

Session 13g: Engineered Nanoparticles in the Critical Zone: From Field to Detection to Model

Conveners: Yann Sivry, Gaëtane Lespes
Summary: Nanoparticles (ENPs) that are widely used in different industrial fields and the risk they pose for release to the environment has increased as never before. ENPs are expected to pass the waste-water-river-topsoil-groundwater pathway and, given their size, can interact with living organisms by crossing cell membranes. Metallic and metal oxide ENPs are of specific concern as they are composed of toxic elements that could potentially impact ecosystems. ENPs released in soils can be transported by advection and diffusion, and their reactivity will depend on the presence of organic ligands (i.e. humic substances) that can stabilize the particles, the existence of bacteria that can complex, take them up or break them down, and the abundance of sorption sites available on natural mineral surfaces. The measurement and characterization of ENPs has been revolutionized over the past decade and we now have tools at our disposal to fully characterize these materials (size, shape, number concentration, aggregation state, surface properties, etc.), often at environmentally relevant concentrations and in difficult biological and environmental matrices. In-depth understanding of the fate and transport of ENPs guides scientific communities and regulatory agencies to formulate legislative regulation and management schemes. The scope of this session is to gather researchers, scientists, experts and specialists from nanoparticle and colloid science, soil and environmental chemistry, ecotoxicology or neighbouring disciplines to discuss the latest results and findings in the field of release, aging, fate, transport and toxicological effects of nanoparticles in the environment. Contributions can address the following topics : i) stability reactivity, transformation and speciation ; ii) biological impact and interaction ; iii) transport in porous and aquatic media ; iv) analytics and metrology ; v) models ; vi) mesocosm and field experiments.

To add to this list, please e-mail criticalzoneorg@gmail.com.