UA awarded $4.35 million to study Earth’s critical zone

September 23, 2009

By hammersmith

[Source: Bio-Medicine.org] – The zone from the treetops to the bottom of the groundwater table has been dubbed the “Critical Zone” because of its key role in processing and cycling water, carbon and nutrients necessary for life.

Now an interdisciplinary team of researchers will establish a “Critical Zone Observatory” in the Southwest with the help of a five-year, $4.35 million grant to The University of Arizona from the National Science Foundation.

“We think of the critical zone as being a living filter for the hydrological cycle,” said principal investigator Jon Chorover, a UA professor of soil, water and environmental science.

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