OZCAR RI is a distributed RI system that networks long-term instrumented sites, that document the various compartments of the Critical Zone and continental surfaces: soil, subsoil, water, wetlands and ice.
The aim is to take continuous measurements, to model and manage the fluxes of water, carbon and associated elements within the critical zone. These observatories are real sentinels of global change, and they help to tackle the major scientific issues aimed at a better integrated understanding of energy and matter stocks and fluxes of energy and matter at the surface along climatic, topographical, geological or land-use gradient.
OZCAR RI is an essential IR for obtaining consolidated view of the environmental changes environmental changes taking place on continental surfaces, at the scale of territories ("environments").
It brings together elementary research observatories supported by the various research organisations that support them. It offers shared governance and a shared methodology for studying the functioning and evolution of the Critical Zone in the age of the Anthropocene, for research, public policy support and for the economic world.
Services include the provision of heavily instrumented sites, sharing of their data, sharing of instrumental equipment and technological innovation, and integrated modelling of the Critical Zone.