This webinar is part of the Virginia Master Naturalist Continuing Education series.

Description: Human well-being depends upon the health of the land. From clean drinking water and food production, to the soil, timber, and fuel resources needed to sustain growing populations - all of these depend upon interactions between soil, water, and living organisms (including humans). Yet, despite the deep connections between human communities and the lands on which they depend, knowledge about the functioning of the Earth's surface is still surprisingly limited. In response to this urgent need for integrated, systemic information about the functioning of the Earth's surface, in 2007, the National Science Foundation launched the Critical Zone Observatory program with the goal of focusing interdisciplinary research towards improved understanding of the "critical zone" (defined here as the thin upper layer of the Earth from the top of the vegetation canopy to the base of the freely flowing groundwater that is critical for human well-being and ecosystem function).