This NSF grant is for establishing a networked set of Critical Zone Observatories (CZOs) to advance understanding of the Earth’s critical zone—the thin veneer from vegetation top to bedrock base where fresh water, soil formation, and terrestrial life occur. This zone provides essential ecosystem services, and understanding its resilience and fate under human and climatic pressures is crucial. The initiative seeks proposals to address interdisciplinary scientific questions concerning the geological, physical, chemical, and biological processes governing critical zone dynamics. Expected outcomes include measuring key processes, developing unifying theoretical frameworks, and creating system-level models to predict responses to external forces. The network will strengthen the scientific basis for decision-making regarding health, safety, and environmental impacts, offering scalable and transferable knowledge for broader societal benefit.
Opportunity ID: 180953
General Information
| Document Type: | Grants Notice |
| Funding Opportunity Number: | 12-575 |
| Funding Opportunity Title: | Critical Zone Observatories |
| Opportunity Category: | Discretionary |
| Opportunity Category Explanation: | – |
| Funding Instrument Type: | Cooperative Agreement |
| Category of Funding Activity: | Science and Technology and other Research and Development |
| Category Explanation: | – |
| Expected Number of Awards: | 8 |
| Assistance Listings: | 47.050 — Geosciences |
| Cost Sharing or Matching Requirement: | No |
| Version: | Synopsis 1 |
| Posted Date: | Jun 29, 2012 |
| Last Updated Date: | – |
| Original Closing Date for Applications: | Feb 05, 2013 Full Proposal Deadline(s): February 05, 2013 |
| Current Closing Date for Applications: | Feb 05, 2013 Full Proposal Deadline(s): February 05, 2013 |
| Archive Date: | Mar 05, 2013 |
| Estimated Total Program Funding: | $8,000,000 |
| Award Ceiling: | – |
| Award Floor: | $5,000,000 |
Eligibility
| Eligible Applicants: | Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled “Additional Information on Eligibility” |
| Additional Information on Eligibility: | – |
Additional Information
| Agency Name: | U.S. National Science Foundation |
| Description: | Observations have always informed critical decisions and knowledge building throughout human history. Earth observations are a critical ingredient for understanding and predicting the sustainability or disruption of natural services that support basic human needs including water, food, energy, mineral resources, and safe habitation. Such observations are collected by seismic networks, atmospheric and ocean-based sensors (detecting, e.g., ozone, greenhouse gases, ocean currents, sea ice extent), river and tide gauges, and satellites that observe changing terrestrial features including receding glaciers, growth of deserts and urban centers, and evolving vegetative covers. One pressing challenge is to develop terrestrial observatories that could document and inform prediction of the multi-scale and less visible transport of energy and material, and evolution of the Earth’s critical zone. This zone -the thin veneer of Earth that extends from the top of the vegetation to the base of weathered bedrock- is critical because it is where fresh water flows, soils are formed from rocks, and terrestrial life flourishes. This zone provides most of the ecosystem services on which societies depend. Its intrinsic resilience, natural evolution, and fate in the face of human land use and climate change needs to be understood and predicted in order to inform our strategies for sustaining a wide range of human activities. Unprecedented pressures are being placed on the critical zone, and understanding the interrelated processes, system dynamics, sensitivities, and thresholds in this zone is of vital importance for informing human decisions. NSF seeks proposals to establish a networked set of Critical Zone Observatories (CZOs) that will address pressing interdisciplinary scientific questions concerning geological, physical, chemical, and biological processes and their couplings that govern critical zone system dynamics. The CZOs are expected, collectively, to 1) measure and quantify the significant processes of the critical zone on appropriate time and space scales; 2) develop a unifying theoretical framework that integrates new understanding of coupled hydrological, geochemical, geomorphological, sedimentological and biological processes; and 3) develop, couple and validate system-level models to predict how the critical zone responds to external forces such as anthropogenic, climatic, and/or tectonic processes. Each observatory must contribute to strengthening the scientific basis for decision-making, particularly with regards to impacts on health, safety, and environment due to observed and predicted changes in the critical zone.An overarching goal of the critical zone observatory network, which will be comprised of US-based sites (50 states plus territories), is to offer scalable and transferable information that could enhance the scale and scope of the knowledge building and societal benefits that will accrue beyond where the specific CZOs are located. Amongst the strategies contemplated in this program are diversifying the coverage of observatories in terms of geography, geology, and types of environments; leveraging existing infrastructure and legacy data; coordinating observations, data management, modeling, and educational activities among CZOs; and coordinating activities that address common questions at multiple observatories. All CZOs will be expected to collect a common set of measurements in addition to site-specific measurements describing the geological, physical, chemical, hydrological, and biological characteristics of the site. In addition, it is anticipated that the CZOs will adhere to common data management policy and use common data management tools. The network of CZOs will additionally serve as a community resource to engage investigators beyond the CZO awardees in critical zone research. |
| Link to Additional Information: | NSF Publication 12-575 |
| Grantor Contact Information: | If you have difficulty accessing the full announcement electronically, please contact:
NSF grants.gov support
grantsgovsupport@nsf.gov Email:grantsgovsupport@nsf.gov |
Version History
| Version | Modification Description | Updated Date |
|---|---|---|
Related Documents
There are no related documents on this grant.
Packages
| Agency Contact Information: | NSF grants.gov support grantsgovsupport@nsf.gov Email: grantsgovsupport@nsf.gov |
| Who Can Apply: | Organization Applicants |
| Assistance Listing Number | Competition ID | Competition Title | Opportunity Package ID | Opening Date | Closing Date | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 47.050 | PKG00157971 | Jun 29, 2012 | Feb 05, 2013 | View |
Package 1
Mandatory forms
180953 RR_SF424_1_2-1.2.pdf
180953 PerformanceSite_1_4-1.4.pdf
180953 RR_OtherProjectInfo_1_3-1.3.pdf
180953 RR_KeyPersonExpanded_1_2-1.2.pdf
180953 RR_PersonalData_1_2-1.2.pdf
180953 RR_Budget-1.1.pdf
180953 NSF_CoverPage_1_3-1.3.pdf
Optional forms
180953 RR_SubawardBudget-1.2.pdf
180953 NSF_DeviationAuthorization-1.1.pdf
180953 NSF_SuggestedReviewers-1.1.pdf
180953 NSF_Registration_1_3-1.3.pdf
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