Dere, Ashlee

Perdrial, Julia

Sullivan, Pamela L.

West, Nicole

English

ScholarWorks @ UVM

University of Vermont ScholarWorks @ UVM College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications College of Arts and Sciences 2-25-2020 Editorial: Critical Zone (CZ) Export to Streams as Indicator for CZ Structure and Function Julia Perdrial University of Vermont Pamela L. Sullivan Oregon State University Ashlee Dere University of Nebraska at Omaha Nicole West Central Michigan University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/casfac  Part of the Climate Commons Recommended Citation Perdrial J, Sullivan PL, Dere A, West N. Critical Zone (CZ) Export to Streams as Indicator for CZ Structure and Function. Frontiers in Earth Science. 2020 Feb 25;8:37. This Editorial is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Arts and Sciences at ScholarWorks @ UVM. It has been accepted for inclusion in College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ UVM. For more information, please contact donna.omalley@uvm.edu. EDITORIALpublished: 25 February 2020doi: 10.3389/feart.2020.00037Frontiers in Earth Science | www.frontiersin.org 1 February 2020 | Volume 8 | Article 37Edited and reviewed by:Alexandra V. Turchyn,University of Cambridge,United Kingdom*Correspondence:Julia PerdrialJulia.Perdrial@uvm.eduSpecialty section:This article was submitted toBiogeoscience,a section of the journalFrontiers in Earth ScienceReceived: 03 December 2019Accepted: 04 February 2020Published: 25 February 2020Citation:Perdrial J, Sullivan PL, Dere A andWest N (2020) Editorial: Critical Zone(CZ) Export to Streams as Indicator forCZ Structure and Function.Front. Earth Sci. 8:37.doi: 10.3389/feart.2020.00037Editorial: Critical Zone (CZ) Export toStreams as Indicator for CZStructure and FunctionJulia Perdrial 1*, Pamela L. Sullivan 2, Ashlee Dere 3 and Nicole West 41Department of Geology, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, United States, 2College of Earth, Ocean, and AtmosphericScience, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, United States, 3Department of Geography/Geology, University of Nebraskaat Omaha, Omaha, NE, United States, 4Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Central Michigan University,Mt. Pleasant, MI, United StatesKeywords: critical zone, stream, system, interdisciplinary, catchmentEditorial on the Research TopicCritical Zone (CZ) Export to Streams as Indicator for CZ Structure and FunctionThe critical zone (CZ) is commonly defined as the zone of life, spanning from the tops of thetree canopy down to the actively cycled ground water (Brantley et al., 2007; Chorover et al., 2007;Richter and Mobley, 2009). Considering the CZ as an open thermodynamic system, where energyand matter can exchange freely, precipitation is one of many important CZ inputs, while streamexports dissipate energy and matter (Chorover et al., 2011).Traditionally, investigations of the Earth’s surface are limited to separate parts of the CZ (e.g., thebiosphere, lithosphere or hydrosphere) that are analyzed outside of their context. However, streamsare integrators of the physical structure and connected nature of subsurface pore space in the CZas well as the biogeochemical reactions that play out along the multitude of flow paths. In order todecipher such pathways and related CZ processes, we need to investigate CZ processes within thecatchment context.For example, we know that relief and soil thickness play a large role in determining hydrologicflowpaths, fluid residence time, and soil drainage class (Maher, 2011). These processes can resultin changes in soil dynamics, including biogeochemistry, that cascade through the system andultimately control stream water composition (Perdrial et al., 2015).To probe stream water dynamics, high-frequency datasets are now increasingly generated andlong-term datasets are used to identify changes in CZ processes (Crowther et al., 2016; Robinsonet al., 2016; Hirmas et al., 2018). For example, many streams show long-term changes in fluxesof dissolved organic carbon (Raymond and Saiers, 2010; Perdrial et al., 2014; Zarnetske et al.,2018), weathering solutes (McIntosh et al., 2017), and nutrients (Björnerås et al., 2017; Jarvie et al.,2018), which have been related to changes in climate drivers, land use, and overall soil conditions.In particular, investigations of the relationships between solutes and their discharge regimes haveshown strong potential to understand the impacts of extreme perturbations (Chorover et al., 2017;McIntosh et al., 2017) and the sensitivity of CZ processes to these changes (Abbott et al., 2018;Sullivan et al., 2018). The goal of this special topic issue is to highlight opportunities as well aslimitations of streams as indicator of CZ structure and processes.Several contributions highlight how relief, topography, and soil thickness affect CZ evolutionand are reflected in stream composition. Cincotta et al. and Armfield et al. found that CZPerdrial et al. Critical Zone Export to Streamscomposition varies drastically with landscape position in anortheastern United States forested headwater catchment, andthat near stream environments disproportionally affect streamwater response. Bailey et al. found that, along stream segments,the connectivity to shallow and deep upslope soils stronglyimpacted stream water geochemistry. Resulting elluvial soilprocesses were found to control stream chemistry in shallowsoil environments while illuvial soil processes persisted in deepsoils. Using a refined model and two contrasting forested sites,Billings et al. explored linkages between upland and depositionalenvironments and the impact of soil organic carbon (SOC)erosion and burial on carbon budgets within watersheds ondecadal to centennial time scales. They noted that the reactivityand distribution of SOC across watersheds is necessary to predictcarbon storage across the landscape.Several Critical Zone Observatory (CZO) studies reveal theimportance of biotic processes and storm event magnitudein controlling elemental behavior. Olshansky et al. foundthat concentration-discharge patterns during snowmelt in theJemez River Basin CZO in New Mexico indicate biologicallymediated silicate weathering that propagates from the shallowCZ down through groundwater and strongly impacts streamwater composition. A logical extension of this work is thatprocesses impacting root/microbial respiration and biologicallygenerated acids will alter both silicate weathering and streamwater composition. Using sensor data from the Luquillo CZO inPuerto Rico, Wymore et al. found transport vs. supply limitationusing concentration-discharge patterns of specific conductanceand turbidity. The authors note that these relationships areespecially influenced by the magnitude of events (including thecategory 5 Hurricane Maria) and CZ lithology.Variations in bedrock lithology are also a theme in a cross sitecomparison of oxyanion dynamics at several CZOs (includingBoulder Creek, Calhoun, Luquillo, and Southern Sierra). Thestudy by Richardson et al. emphasizes the importance of deepbedrock and transport processes within the CZ as controls forstream water dynamics. The role of land use (agricultural andrestored prairie) is investigated in the contribution by Dere et al.,where solute fluxes through soils and to streams in Nebraska andIowa are quantified. Their results indicate that changes in landuse propagate to streams and drive weathering product exportless than 50 years after land use change.AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONSAll authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectualcontribution to the work, and approved it for publication.FUNDINGThis research was supported by the National Science Foundation,grant no. EAR-1724171.REFERENCESAbbott, B. W., Moatar, F., Gauthier, O., Fovet, O., Antoine, V., and Ragueneau,O. (2018). Trends and seasonality of river nutrients in agricultural catchments:18 years of weekly citizen science in France. Sci. Total Environ. 624, 845–858.doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.12.176Björnerås, C., Weyhenmeyer, G. A., Evans, C. D., Gessner, M. O.,Grossart, H.-P., Kangur, K., et al. (2017). Widespread increases iniron concentration in European and North American freshwaters.Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 31, 1488–1500. doi: 10.1002/2017GB005749Brantley, S. L., Goldhaber, M. B., and Ragnarsdottir, K. V. (2007). Crossingdisciplines and scales to understand the critical zone. Elements 3, 307–314.doi: 10.2113/gselements.3.5.307Chorover, J., Derry, L. A., and McDowell, W. H. (2017). Concentration-discharge relations in the critical zone: implications for resolving criticalzone structure, function, and evolution. Water Resour. Res. 53, 8654–8659.doi: 10.1002/2017WR021111Chorover, J., Kretzschmar, R., Garcia-Pichel, F., and Sparks, D. L. (2007).Soil biogeochemical processes within the critical zone. Elements 3, 321–326.doi: 10.2113/gselements.3.5.321Chorover, J., Troch, P., Rasmussen, C., Brooks, P. D., Pelletier, J. D., Breshears,D. D., et al. (2011). Probing how water, carbon, and energy drive landscapeevolution and surface water dynamics: the Jemez River Basin – SantaCatalina Mountains Critical Zone Observatory. Vadose Zone J. 10, 884–899.doi: 10.2136/vzj2010.0132Crowther, T. W., Todd-Brown, K. E. O., Rowe, C. W., Wieder, W. R., Carey,J. C., Machmuller, M. B., et al. (2016). Quantifying global soil carbonlosses in response to warming. Nature 540, 104–108. doi: 10.1038/nature20150Hirmas, D. R., Giménez, D., Nemes, A., Kerry, R., Brunsell, N. A., and Wilson,C. J. (2018). Climate-induced changes in continental-scale soil macroporositymay intensify water cycle. Nature 561, 100–103. doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0463-xJarvie, H. P., Edwards, F. K., Bowes, M. J., Scarlett, P., Bachiller-Jareno,N., Smith, D. R., et al. (2018). Phosphorus and nitrogen limitation andimpairment of headwater streams relative to rivers in Great Britain: a nationalperspective on eutrophication. Sci. Total Environ. 621, 849–862. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.11.128Maher, K. (2011). The role of fluid residence time and topographic scales indetermining chemical fluxes from landscapes. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 312,48–58. doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2011.09.040McIntosh, J. C., Schaumberg, C., Perdrial, J., Harpold, A., Vázquez-Ortega, A.,Rasmussen, C., et al. (2017). Geochemical evolution of the critical zone acrossvariable time scales informs concentration-discharge relationships: JemezRiver Basin Critical Zone Observatory. Water Resour. Res. 53, 4169–4196.doi: 10.1002/2016WR019712Perdrial, J. N., McIntosh, J. C., Harpold, A., Brooks, P. D., Zapata-Rios, X.,Ray, J., et al. (2014). Stream water carbon controls in seasonally snow-covered mountain catchments: impact of inter annual variability of waterfluxes, catchment aspect and seasonal processes. Biogeochemistry 118, 273–290.doi: 10.1007/s10533-013-9929-yPerdrial, J. N., Thompson, A. A., and Chorover, J. (2015). “Soil geochemistryin the critical zone: influence on atmosphere, surface- and groundwatercomposition,” in Principles and Dynamics of the Critical Zone, eds J. R.Giardino and C. Houser (Elsevier), 173–201. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-444-63369-9.00006-9Raymond, P. A., and Saiers, J. E. (2010). Event controlled DOC export fromforested watersheds. Biogeochemistry 100, 197–209. doi: 10.1007/s10533-010-9416-7Richter, D. d., and Mobley, M. L. (2009). Monitoring Earth’s critical zone. Science326, 1067–1068. doi: 10.1126/science.1179117Robinson, D. A., Jones, S. B., Lebron, I., Reinsch, S., Domínguez, M. T.,Smith, A. R., et al. (2016). Experimental evidence for drought inducedFrontiers in Earth Science | www.frontiersin.org 2 February 2020 | Volume 8 | Article 37Perdrial et al. Critical Zone Export to Streamsalternative stable states of soil moisture. Sci. Rep. 6:20018. doi: 10.1038/srep20018Sullivan, P. L., Stops, M. W., Macpherson, G. L., Li, L., Hirmas, D.R., and Dodds, W. K. (2018). How landscape heterogeneity governsstream water concentration-discharge behavior in carbonate terrains (KonzaPrairie, KS: USA). Chem. Geol. 527:118989. doi: 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2018.12.002Zarnetske, J. P., Bouda, M., Abbott, B. W., Saiers, J., and Raymond, P. A. (2018).Generality of hydrologic transport limitation of watershed organic carbon fluxacross ecoregions of the united states. Geophys. Res. Lett. 45, 11702–11711.doi: 10.1029/2018GL080005Conflict of Interest: The authors declare that the research was conducted in theabsence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as apotential conflict of interest.Copyright © 2020 Perdrial, Sullivan, Dere and West. This is an open-access articledistributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided theoriginal author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the originalpublication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice.No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with theseterms.Frontiers in Earth Science | www.frontiersin.org 3 February 2020 | Volume 8 | Article 37

Editorial: Critical Zone (CZ) Export to Streams as Indicator for CZ Structure and Function

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Editorial: Critical Zone (CZ) Export to Streams as Indicator for CZ Structure and Function

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