Findings and Recommendations - New Research Opportunities in the Earth Sciences - page 93

INTERACTIONS AMONG CLIMATE, SURFACE PROCESSES,
TECTONICS, AND DEEP EARTH PROCESSES
The broad interactions among climate, Earth surface processes, and tectonics
are an area of growing interest and compelling research opportunities. The NRC
(2010a) report Landscapes on the Edge identified as particularly intriguing those
research questions that center on interactions among climate, topography, hydrology
and hydrogeology, physical and chemical denudation, sedimentary deposition, and
deformation in tectonically active mountain belts. Strong feedbacks among
precipitation and erosion induced by orogenic effects play an important role in the
distribution of deformation in mountain belts, whereas size and distribution of high-
elevation topography in turn influence global, regional, and local climates. The
recent recognition of close coupling among surficial processes of erosion and
sedimentation and deeper tectonic and structural deformation creates new
opportunities for interdisciplinary research questions that bridge climate science,
geomorphology, structural geology, and geophysics. New understanding of the
dynamic interactions among climate, Earth's surface, and the planet's tectonics over
geomorphic to geological timescales will require increased access to—and new
developments in—thermochronometry, methods for dating geomorphological
surfaces, LiDAR, satellite imagery, modeling capabilities, experimental methods,
and field instrumentation and studies.
Understanding the interplay among climatic, geomorphic, and
geological/tectonic processes in governing Earth surface processes and landscape
evolution requires integrating processes across a wide range of temporal and spatial
domains. Addressing the most compelling problems and Grand Challenges under this
theme will involve studies of the evolution and dynamics of particular physiographic
regions over orogenic timescales and studies to address how to scale-up mechanistic,
process-based understanding of short-term processes to quantitatively characterize
and constrain system behavior and interactions over longer timescales. Developing
theory for the interactions among climate, topography, land cover, and the deeper
Earth interior at global, regional, and local scales represents a major research
opportunity. Integrating surface processes and deep Earth studies, including
petrological and seismological studies, and the record of past surface environments
are needed to explore connections between deep Earth processes and Earth surface
dynamics. Developing geomorphic transport laws that account for climate and the
role of biota to describe and quantify river and glacial incision, landslides, and the
production, transport, and deposition of sediment are needed to address how to
integrate the effects of event-based processes into long-term system behavior.
Measuring and modeling landscape evolution under diverse and varying climatic
conditions, with an emphasis on identification of physiographic signatures of climate
and climate variability, will allow for the identification of thresholds of landscape
response and the limits of landscape resilience.
Finding 1: Significant opportunities exist to encourage coordination and
communication within the communities engaged in research on linkages between
climate, tectonics, surface processes, and deeper Earth processes such as workshops