OZCAR: the French network of Critical Zone Observatories: principlesand scientific objectives

• Main Authors: Braud, Isabelle, Gaillardet, Jerome, Hankard, Fatim, Le Borgne, Tanguy, Nord, Guillaume, Six, Delphine, Galy, Catherine, Laggoun-Défarge, Fatima, Tallec, Tiphaine, Pauwels, Hélène
• Other Authors: Hydrologie-Hydraulique (UR HHLY), Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA), Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-IPG PARIS-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Université de La Réunion (UR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Géosciences Rennes (GR), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Rennes (OSUR)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Rennes 1 (UR1), Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES), Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement (IGE), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Grenoble Alpes 2016-2019 (UGA 2016-2019 ), Agence Nationale pour la Gestion des Déchets Radioactifs (ANDRA), Institut des Sciences de la Terre d'Orléans - UMR7327 (ISTO), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers en région Centre (OSUC), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM) (BRGM), Centre d'études spatiales de la biosphère (CESBIO), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Météo France-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Météo France-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM) (BRGM), European Geosciences Union
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2017
• Subjects: [SDU.STU.HY]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Hydrology; permafrost
• Online Access: https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01534220

International audience This contribution aims at presenting the principles that underlined the creation of the OZCAR research infras-tructure, gathering various Critical Zone Observatories in France, and the scientific questions that drives theobservation settings.The Critical Zone includes the fine zone between the lower atmosphere at the top of the canopy down to thebedrock-soil interface. This lithosphere-atmosphere boundary is critical for the availability of life-sustainingresources and critical for humanity because this is the zone where we live, where we build our cities, from whichwe extract our food and our water and where we release most of our wastes. This is the fragile zone on which thenatural ecosystem relies because this is where nutrients are being released from the rocks.OZCAR is a distributed research infrastructure gathering instrumented sites and catchments on continentalsurfaces all dedicated to the observation and monitoring of the different compartments of the Critical Zone atthe national scale. All these observatories (more that 40) were all built up on specific questions (acid deposition,flood prediction, urban hydrology. . . ), some of them more than 50 years ago, but they have all in common tobe highly instrumented, permanently funded as infrastructures. They all share the same overarching goal ofunderstanding and predicting the Critical Zone in a changing world. OZCAR gathers instrumented catchments,hydrogeological sites, peatlands, glacier and permafrost regions and a spatial observatory under the commonumbrella of understanding water and biogeochemical cycles and the associated fluxes of energy by using naturalgradients and experimentation. Based on the collaboration with Southern Countries, OZCAR’s sites have a globalcoverage including tropical areas and high mountainous regions in the Andes and the Himalaya.OZCAR benefits from a French investments project called CRITEX (Innovative equipment for the critical zone,https://www.critex.fr/critex-3/observatories/ ) that is centered on ...