Summer Course on Critical Zone and Ecosystem Dynamics
Ceresole Reale, Gran Paradiso National Park, Piedmont, Italy
8-17 July 2019
Deadline for applications: 15 May 2019

Find out how to apply at www.to.isac.cnr.it/gpss. 

The Critical Zone (CZ) is the support system for all terrestrial ecosystems, extending from unweathered rock to the top of any vegetation canopy. In the CZ, physical, biological, geological and hydrological processes interact at multiple temporal and spatial scales, creating complex ecosystem dynamics and providing essential services such as soil water retention, weathering and erosion control, carbon sequestration, and regulation of water, energy and biogeochemical cycles, to name a few. In 2007, the U.S. National Science Foundation funded a set of now nine Critical Zone Observatories (CZOs). In Europe, a small ensemble of CZOs has been established, with strong links to the European Long-Term Ecological Research Network.

This 9-day- long summer course intends to provide basic knowledge about the functioning of the Critical Zone and its relationships with ecosystem dynamics, focusing on aspects related to hydrology, soil geochemistry and weathering, vegetation dynamics and distribution, microbiota, biodiversity, ecosystem processes, CZ-relevant geological processes and the role of the CZ for achieving sustainable development goals. The course will consider in-situ data, long-term ecosystem research, chemical and isotopic laboratory analyses, remote sensing observations and numerical modeling, and it will include three days of field lectures, experimentation and excursions to study sites and CZ observatories in the Italian Alps.

The course is intended for Doctoral students, post-docs and researchers who are working or intend to work on Critical Zone processes and ecosystem dynamics. All applications from students based at U.S. universities will be forwarded to the U.S. CZO Science Across Virtual Institutes (SAVI) project for consideration of funding support for all costs including travel.

Lectures will be held in the main lecture hall of the Grand Hotel of Ceresole Reale in the Gran Paradiso National Park. Find a list of lectures, seminars, and tutorials among more information at http://www.to.isac.cnr.it/gpss/. 

The international Gran Paradiso Summer School on "Fundamental Processes in Earth System Dynamics" is organized by the Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources and by the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate of the Italian National Research Council, in collaboration with the Gran Paradiso National Park.