Human Tampering Threatens Planet's Life-Sustaining Surface
Pastor Dale Morgan
Human Tampering Threatens Planet's Life-Sustaining Surface*
by Staff Writers
Los Angeles (SPX) Aug 15, 2006
In a report released today, scientists call for a new systematic study
of the Earth's "critical zone"--the life-sustaining outermost surface of
the planet, from the vegetation canopy to groundwater and everything in
between.Understanding and predicting responses to global and regional
change is necessary, they say, to mitigate the impacts of humans on
complex ecosystems and ultimately sustain food production.
"Development is having a great effect on the critical zone," said soil
scientist Donald Sparks of the University of Delaware and co-chair of
the NSF workshop that led to the report, entitled Frontiers in
Exploration of the Critical Zone. "Converting some of the best land
around the world into buildings, roads and concrete has implications for
air and water quality and biodiversity, and over time could put pressure
on our ability to produce food.
Critical zone sites include an extraordinary diversity of soils and
ecosystems ranging from the tropics to the poles, from deserts to
wetlands, and from rock-bound uplands to delta sediments.
"Because the critical zone includes air, water and soil and is the focal
point of food production, it has a major effect on human life," Sparks
said. "It is imperative that we better understand the interactions that
occur there."
The report calls for an international Critical Zone Exploration Network,
as well as a systematic approach across a broad array of
sciences--including geology, soil science, biology, ecology, chemistry,
geochemistry, geomorphology and hydrology--to study critical-zone processes.
"We need to understand how living organisms interact with the solid
earth at the scale of a billionth-of-a-meter as well as the scale of
landscapes, how these effects have changed over geologic time, and how
they will change into the future as humans continue to drastically alter
the earth's surface," said Sue Brantley, a Penn State University
geoscientist who co-chaired the workshop.
Scientists need to determine "how the physical, chemical and biological
components of Earth's weathering transforms mineral and organic matter,
sculpts terrestrial landscapes, and controls the exchange of greenhouse
gases and dust with the global atmosphere," said Enriqueta Barrera,
program director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Earth
Sciences, which funded the workshop that led to the report.
Scientists believe four key questions surround activity of the
atmosphere, landforms, ecosystems and water.
+ What processes control fluxes of carbon, particulate and reactive
gases in the atmosphere?
+ How do variations in, and changes to, chemical and physical weathering
processes impact the critical zone?
+ How do weathering processes nourish ecosystems?
+ How do biogeochemical processes govern long-term sustainability of
water and soil resources?
Funding for the critical zone workshop and associated activities was
provided by grants from NSF's Division of Earth Sciences to the
University of Delaware and Penn State, and by the NSF Experimental
Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program in Delaware.