In collaboration with Frontiers in Earth Science, section Biogeoscience, a Research Topic "Critical Zone (CZ) Export to Streams as Indicator for CZ Structure and Function" has been organized and is hosted by Julia Perdrial, Ashlee Dere, Nikki West, and Pam Sullivan.

The goal of this special topic on streams as indicators for CZ structure and function is to explore linkages between biotic and abiotic weathering, soil biogeochemical processes, chemical and physical denudation and hydrology within the CZ. The CZ spans from the top of the vegetative canopy to the actively cycled groundwater providing life sustaining ecosystem services. However, rapid population growth and global climate change during the Anthropocene poses challenges to the Earth’s CZ which is pushed to balance increased demand (e.g. crop yield) while maintaining the CZ’s natural structure and other important ecosystem functions. Streams represent an integrator of many processes within the CZ and can thus carry the first signals of changing CZ health. As an important component of the CZ system, streams provide important information on hydrological, biogeochemical, and denudation fluxes, allowing a glimpse into the past, present and potential future of CZ function. The foci of recent stream water investigations include the role of catchment processes, riparian zone dynamics, hyporheic zone contributions and instream cycling to investigate nutrient dynamics, weathering and denudation, and hydrological partitioning. We now would like to expand this view conceptually to include the CZ.

Hosts invite contributions that explore streams as an integrated window into CZ processes at different scales and from various perspectives. Also invited are field observations and /or models linked to biogeochemical, hydrological, ecological, biological and pedological processes in traditional and novel ways that relate results on stream water dynamics back to CZ function in a time of accelerated global change.

Important dates:

• Abstract submission deadline is October 6, 2017
• Full manuscript deadline is June 29, 2018.

The special issue is in Frontiers because hosts believe that publications should be accessible to everybody. Frontiers is a journal with rigorous peer review that seeks to empower research and the people doing research (http://home.frontiersin.org/about/about-frontiers). Because of this, the publication comes with a fee ($600-1600 max, depending on the type of article). Please let us know if this represents an impediment for you, Frontiers has many ways of making it work for you. 

If interested, please email one of the host editors for more details:

• Julia Perdrial, jperdria@uvm.edu
• Pam Sullivan, plsullivan@ku.edu
• Ashlee Dere, adere@unomaha.edu
• Nikki West, nikki.west@gmail.com

Learn more about this opportunity at http://journal.frontiersin.org/researchtopic/6217/critical-zone-cz-export-to-streams-as-indicator-for-cz-structure-and-function.

About Frontiers Research Topics

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