On Oct 20-24 Purdue is hosting a conference, short course, and workshop bringing together scientists from the U.S. and China to address global challenges involving the Earth's Critical Zone.  This meeting is co-organized by Purdue’s U.S.-China EcoPartnership for Environmental Sustainability, the NSF Critical Zone Observatory Network, and the Consortium for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science Instrumentation (CUAHSI) - see attached flyer. Funding for the event comes from both public and private partners. President Daniels and Zhao Weiping, the Consul General of China from the Chicago Consulate will kick-off the conference with an introduction related to the role of U.S.-China collaborative programs in solving our linked economic and environmental challenges.

The overall conference theme is Critical Zone (CZ) Science, Sustainability, and Services in a Changing World (see conference website here for details about specific conference topics, workshops, and the CUAHSI shortcourse: http://www.conf.purdue.edu/landing_pages/czc/).   We seek oral and poster contributions on topics that include: Near surface flux of solid, dissolved, and gaseous C and N from soil and sediment in catchments;  CZ services and functions regulating fate of anthropogenic-sourced contaminants;  Mechanisms of stabilization/destabilization of organic matter in soils; The role of hydrology and mineralogy in the deep connectivity of dissolved components in the CZ profile; Climate and land use regulation of C, N, and water cycles in terrestrial ecosystems.  Registration and abstract submission is now open. The final conference dinner will be a riverboat cruise in Chicago. 

Purdue Ag News: http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2015/Q3/u.s.-china-conference,-short-course-to-focus-on-critical-zone-science,-soil-carbon.html