Notes from Dept Head 📝
Friend,
Welcome to the inaugural The Critical Zone, our monthly e-newsletter for the Department of Environmental Science. The name of this e-newsletter was selected by popular departmental vote.
Let’s start with the meaning of the Earth’s critical zone and why the name fits this departmental communication.
The critical zone is the portion of the Earth’s land surface that extends from the outer periphery of the vegetation canopy (or the top of the built environment) to the lower limits of freely circulating groundwater. As such, it contains everything that we study and teach about in our department—plants, soils, microbes, aquifers, water, people, and their infrastructures that are present in natural, managed, and built environments.
The term is used increasingly to recognize that the land surface environment functions as a life support system for the planet as a whole. And much like we investigate parts of the system to better understand the whole, this e-newsletter is a way to connect the disparate and diverse parts of our department.
Stay tuned.
