► Overview

NCED (the National Center for Earth-surface Dynamics) is a National Science Foundation (NSF) Science and Technology Center (STC). We began operation in August, 2002, and we are headquartered at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory (SAFL) at the University of Minnesota. Learn more about NSF STCs.

Purpose

NCED’s purpose is to predict the coupled dynamics and evolution of landscapes and their ecosystems, in order to transform management and restoration of the Earth-surface environment.

Mission

NCED is a partnership of research and educational institutions, government agencies, and industry that pursues its goal of predictive Earth-surface science by integrating physical, biological, and social sciences. We achieve research synthesis by focusing on a fundamental component of the Earth-surface system – channel networks and their surroundings – that recurs in varying but fundamentally related forms across a wide range of environments and scales. We collaborate with applied partners to identify knowledge gaps and develop tools to forecast landscape evolution and guide landscape management, restore river systems, find and develop subsurface resources, and promote environmental awareness. NCED shares the excitement of landscape science with a diverse community, exchanging perspectives through partnering, nurturing, and interacting in formal and informal education settings.

Participating Institutions

The following institutions are home to NCED principal investigators who participate directly with NCED: Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, The Johns Hopkins University, the Science Museum of Minnesota, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Louisiana State University, the University of Texas at Austin, the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, and the University of Minnesota. 

► Genesis

NCED was created to catalyze development of an integrated, predictive science of the skin of the Earth–the so-called “critical zone” where interwoven physical, biological, geochemical, and anthropogenic processes shape the Earth’s surface. Historically, critical-zone science has been stymied by the inherent complexity of the Earth’s surface and by a tendency toward descriptive, piecemeal research bounded by discipline and geographic location. As a result, we do not have the tools we need to provide useful predictions of surface evolution to guide decision making and management. Important, and often costly, decisions concerning land management, restoration, and subsurface resources rely on outdated science and reasoning by analogy rather than process-based analysis. The necessary science comprises elements of geomorphology, ecology, hydrology, sedimentary geology, engineering, social sciences, and geochemistry but is not any one of these alone. The foundation of a useful science of Earth-surface dynamics must include synthesis across disciplines and scales and quantitative prediction.

► Grand Challenges
"How will the coupled system of physical, biological, geochemical, and human processes that shape the surface of the Earth respond to changes in climate, land use, environmental management, and other forcings?"

In addressing the above overarching question that drives NCED research, we tackle three grand challenges:

(1) developing a mechanistic understanding of the erosional and depositional processes that shape landscapes;
(2) discovering the linkages between physical, chemical, and biological processes; and
(3) using the understanding of landscape and ecosystem dynamics to guide management decisions.

► Research Organization

 NCED research is organized into three Integrated Programs, or IPs, with each IP focusing on a major landscape component: Desktop Watersheds IP (watersheds), Stream Restoration IP (individual stream reaches), and Subsurface Architecture IP (deltas). All three IPs address important issues of human impact, management, and restoration such that progress requires two-way collaboration between those developing new knowledge and those applying it.  In this spirit, the three research IPs work together with the Knowledge Transfer, Education, and Diversity programs to generate and disseminate NCED knowledge, research, and activities.