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1. Animating the critical zone: beavers as critical zone engineers

   https://doi.org/10.3389/frwa.2025.1547094  

   Adamchak, Clifford; Lininger, Katherine B; Hinckley, Eve-Lyn S (February 2025, Frontiers in Water)

   Beavers (Castor canadensis) have not been adequately included in critical zone research, yet they can affect multiple critical zone processes across the terrestrial-aquatic interface of river corridors. River corridors (RC) provide a disproportionate amount of ecosystem services. Over time, beaver activity, including submersion of woody vegetation, burrowing, dam building, and abandonment, can impact critical zone processes in the river corridor by influencing landscape evolution, biodiversity, geomorphology, hydrology, primary productivity, and biogeochemical cycling. In particular, they can effectively restore degraded riparian areas and improve water quality and quantity, causing implications for many important ecosystem services. Beaver-mediated river corridor processes in the context of a changing climate require investigation to determine how both river corridor function and critical zone processes will shift in the future. Recent calls to advance river corridor research by leveraging a critical zone perspective can be strengthened through the explicit incorporation of animals, such as beavers, into research projects over space and time. This article illustrates how beavers modify the critical zone across different spatiotemporal scales, presents research opportunities to elucidate the role of beavers in influencing Western U.S. ecosystems, and, more broadly, demonstrates the importance of integrating animals into critical zone science. 

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2. Earthcasting the future Critical Zone

   https://doi.org/10.12952/journal.elementa.000019  

   Goddéris, Yves; Brantley, Susan L (December 2013, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene)
3. Carbonates in the Critical Zone

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2022EF002765  

   Covington, M. D.; Martin, J. B.; Toran, L. E.; Macalady, J. L.; Sekhon, N.; Sullivan, P. L.; García, Jr., Á. A.; Heffernan, J. B.; Graham, W. D. (January 2023, Earth's Future)

   Abstract Earth's Critical Zone (CZ), the near‐surface layer where rock is weathered and landscapes co‐evolve with life, is profoundly influenced by the type of underlying bedrock. Previous studies employing the CZ framework have focused primarily on landscapes dominated by silicate rocks. However, carbonate rocks crop out on approximately 15% of Earth's ice‐free continental surface and provide important water resources and ecosystem services to ∼1.2 billion people. Unlike silicates, carbonate minerals weather congruently and have high solubilities and rapid dissolution kinetics, enabling the development of large, interconnected pore spaces and preferential flow paths that restructure the CZ. Here we review the state of knowledge of the carbonate CZ, exploring parameters that produce contrasts in the CZ in different carbonate settings and identifying important open questions about carbonate CZ processes. We introduce the concept of a carbonate‐silicate CZ spectrum and examine whether current conceptual models of the CZ, such as the conveyor model, can be applied to carbonate landscapes. We argue that, to advance beyond site‐specific understanding and develop a more general conceptual framework for the role of carbonates in the CZ, we need integrative studies spanning both the carbonate‐silicate spectrum and a range of carbonate settings. 

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4. Critical transition in critical zone of intensively managed landscapes

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2018.04.002  

   Kumar, Praveen; Le, Phong V.V.; Papanicolaou, A.N. Thanos; Rhoads, Bruce L.; Anders, Alison M.; Stumpf, Andrew; Wilson, Christopher G.; Bettis, E. Arthur; Blair, Neal; Ward, Adam S.; et al (June 2018, Anthropocene)
5. The meanings of the Critical Zone

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2023.100377  

   Lee, Raymond M.; Shoshitaishvili, Boris; Wood, Rachel L.; Bekker, Jeremy; Abbott, Benjamin W. (June 2023, Anthropocene)