THE GEOMORPHIC CONTEXT FOR GLOBAL CHANGE RESEARCH

John Reid kindled a great deal of interest in landscape processes, and the influence and interactions of geological processes with the rest of the environment. He and his fellow professors also conveyed a passion for blending first-rate research and education. We will describe two integrative projects on the interaction of geomorphology and carbon dynamics. The first project addressed the role of hillslope erosion on carbon storage in soils, the second, mountain landscapes as an integrative framework for quantifying coupled water and carbon fluxes. Both projects had the common element of requiring the development of new and challenging techniques and technology. In both projects, the strategy for technology development focused on engaging students as the developers and partnering them with a broad range of technical and disciplinary specialists. In any field, the number of practitioners who can identify a key question, recognize that the technology (instruments or models) does not exist to answer the question and then develop the needed technology to proceed is usually quite small. The project's impacts have been in both scientific results and the nurturing of technically innovative young scientists.