1. Susquehanna/Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory
The Susquehanna/Shale Hills CZO is a 5 year research effort to create an environmental observatory for the study of the pathways and rates of water, solutes, and sediments in the Shale Hills Watershed within the Penn State Experimental Forest. The Shale Hills CZO brings together 6 transect sites and multiple disciplines engaged in research on bedrock to atmospheric boundary layer processes in the “critical zone”. The focus of this multidisciplinary NSF-funded research effort is to quantitatively predict the creation, evolution, and structure of regolith as a function of geochemical, hydrologic, pedologic, biologic, and geomorphologic processes.
Ecology: Root Characterization & Sap Flow
Geomorphology: Treethrow and Regolith Morphogenesis A1 B
Soils and Weathering
Regolith Chemistry
Stream Chemistry
CJ1
Weir
Toe
Back
Crest
Head
JB1
JT1
Mid
BA1
Stream sample location
Soil Core location
Lysimeter nest location
BS1
MS1
RT1 N
DC1
Nested lysimeters along
the hillslope transect
Geophysics: Time Lapse GPR
ASA: Adaptive Sensor Array
Modeling: Embedded Mesh
Before Infiltration
After Infiltration
integrated model for all seasons water/energy dynamics
“age” modeling with environmental isotopes
sediment transport/landscape evolution
solute/geochemical modeling
dynamic data assimilation
Iris 2.4 GHz
eKo 2.4 GHz
Gateway
Base Station
2-scale mesh for embedded sensor network in model grid
Earth Science Division
Geoscience Directorate
eKo 2.4 GHz
Iris 2.4 GHz
contact: Christopher J. Duffy