Understanding and valuing sustainability in the critical zone
Abstract
Critical-zone natural and social scientists have an important role in promoting understanding and sustainable management of the critical zone. Acting on this societal need, and engaging with both decision makers and the public, is central to integrating our research and its outcomes with local and regional challenges. Critical-zone scientists have an opportunity to become local thought leaders in pressing issues facing society, such as restoring degraded habitats, enhancing carbon storage, providing water security, and achieving sustainable food production. Critical-zone observatories provide excellent lessons for how integrating decision making with research supported by long-term measurements advances these and other challenges of the Anthropocene. The disciplinary integration that is foundational for critical-zone science naturally supports the multi-benefit valuation and financing approaches needed to achieve these societal solutions. Examples extend from iconic mountain forests to productive croplands to expansive grasslands to semi-arid woodlands to densely populated areas. In each case, communicating and blending the metrics of science with those of other stakeholders in a particular part of the Earth's critical zone were central for defining outcomes. For example, knowledge of regolith attributes affects projections of sustainable forest densities, as well as sediment yield, which translates to frequency of management actions. Understanding the cumulative impacts that grazing or farming has on soil properties, erosion, and nutrient cycles informs sustainable agricultural practices, and has implications for water and food security. Integrating deep time and subsurface perspectives - which are inherent in holistic critical-zone thinking - into ecosystem-service valuation, points to the need for horizons much longer than human lifespans for valuation of Earth resources (e.g. topsoil) and processes (e.g., soil evolution) that are essential for sustaining those services. A shared vision integrating science and applications also helps promote a deeper, common understanding that is necessary for sustainable management, balancing the human and non-human attributes that are intricately intertwined in the critical zone.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMPA43A..10B
- Keywords:
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- 0485 Science policy;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 1632 Land cover change;
- GLOBAL CHANGE;
- 1865 Soils;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 6309 Decision making under uncertainty;
- POLICY SCIENCES & PUBLIC ISSUES