New Research Opportunities in the Earth Sciences (2012) / Chapter Skim
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, is the areas of greatest near-term research opportunity that only federal agency that maintains significant funding are highlighted in this report all involve integrative of both curiosity-driven and strategic research in all interdisciplinary efforts focused on specific dynamic core subdisciplines of the Earth sciences. The health geosystems of the past and present.
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plate tectonics, and Earth's core dynamo -- to regional and local -- mountain belts and sedimentary basins, Long-Term Investigator-Driven Science active fault networks, volcanoes, groundwater reser voirs, watersheds, and soil systems -- to micro-mineral In the next decade, and likely throughout the interactions, microbiology, and pore fluid interactions. entire century to come, the quest to quantify Earth's Research at all of these scales has been accelerated dynamic geosystems by establishing their history, by a combination of conceptual advances and across- current behavior, and future evolution will involve the-board improvements in observational capabili- integrative interdisciplinary approaches that build on ties and information technologies.
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Resolving the present-day configurathis essential need to sustain the basic Earth sciences by tion and processes of the mantle and core convective individual investigators, because this is the single most systems with high resolution is a key undertaking for important mechanism for maintaining and enhanc- developing models of the past and future evolution of ing disciplinary strength in the field. EAR is now the the system, the thermal evolution of Earth, and the almost exclusive basis for supporting the full spectrum volatile flux in Earth.
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integrative efforts built around active fault zone and subduction zone laboratories hold promise of greatly Recommendation: EAR should take appropriate steps to advancing our understanding of faulting and deforma- encourage work on interactions among climate, surface protion processes and associated roles of fluid, volatile, and cesses, tectonics, and deeper Earth processes either through material fluxes. a new interdisciplinary program or perhaps by expanding the focus of the EAR Continental Dynamics program to Recommendation: EAR should pursue integrated inter- accommodate the broader research agenda of these interdisdisciplinary quantification of the spectrum of fault slip ciplinary subthemes.
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to the dynamics of biotic communities, grams and initiatives focused on integrated studies of the including identification of hydrological and morpho- cycling of water, carbon, nutrients, and geological materials logical leading indicators of landscape and ecosystem in the terrestrial environment, including mechanisms state change. This will require integrated monitor- and reactions of soil formation; hydrological and nutrient ing of landscape processes and development of new cycling; perturbations related to human activities; and more instrumentation and data archives to support and test generally the cycling of carbon between surface environmodels -- work that could take advantage of large-scale ments and the atmosphere and its feedbacks with climate, restoration efforts and documented historical change as biogeochemical processes, and ecosystems.
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Department of Energy; the study several important ways that EAR might do so, includof Earth tectonics is enabled by measurements from ing establishing Advanced Placement Earth science NASA and U.S. Department of Defense–supported courses in high schools, promoting early awareness of satellites, and studies of surficial processes and coastal the Earth sciences on college campuses, developing dynamics address problems that are at the core of place-based research and education programs that the missions of the USGS, NOAA, and U.S.
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