INSPIRE Track 1: Earthcasting fluvial systems: Physical, ecological, and biogeochemical dynamics

Most natural systems are structured by diverse processes that operate over a wide range of scales. However, current understanding of physical, chemical, and biological processes is derived primarily from controlled investigations of isolated subsystems with suppressed complexity. As a result, available models for landscape and ecosystem dynamics consider only a very limited range of processes and scales, and this incomplete understanding sharply limits our ability to predict future system trajectories. Achieving long-term sustainability of land, water, and ecosystems will require substantially improved predictive capability for coupled natural system dynamics. The collaborative team will develop a general trans-disciplinary basis for Earthcasting, focusing on the theory, models, and data needed to relate local dynamics of water, soils, sediments, cells, carbon, and nutrients to large-scale geomorphological, ecological, and biogeochemical outcomes. The PIs focus specifically on river and floodplain environments because such fluvial systems are particularly dynamic and heterogeneous, support extensive human populations, and are tremendously important to continental-scale storage, processing, and export of sediments, carbon, and nutrients.