Abstract. Trees, the most successful biological power plants on earth, build and plumb the critical zone (CZ) in ways that we do not yet understand. To encourage exploration of the character and implications of interactions between trees and soil in the CZ, we propose nine hypotheses that can be tested at diverse settings. The hypotheses are roughly divided into those about the architecture (building) and those about the water (plumbing) in the CZ, but the two functions are intertwined. Depending upon one's disciplinary background, many of the nine hypotheses listed below may appear obviously true or obviously false. (1) Tree roots can only physically penetrate and biogeochemically comminute the immobile substrate underlying mobile soil where that underlying substrate is fractured or pre-weathered. (2) In settings where the thickness of weathered material, H , is large, trees primarily shape the CZ through biogeochemical reactions within the rooting zone. (3) In forested uplands, the thickness of mobile soil, h, can evolve toward a steady state because of feedbacks related to root disruption and tree throw. (4) In settings where h H and the rates of uplift and erosion are low, the uptake of phosphorus into trees is buffered by the fine-grained fraction of the soil, and the ultimate source of this phosphorus is dust. (5) In settings of limited water availability, trees maintain the highest length density of functional roots at depths where water can be extracted over most of the growing season with the least amount of energy expenditure. (6) Trees grow the majority of their roots in the zone where the most growth-limiting resource is abundant, but they also grow roots at other depths to forage for other resources and to hydraulically redistribute those resources to depths where they can be taken up more efficiently. (7) Trees rely on matrix water in the unsaturated zone that at times may have anPublished by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 5116 S. L. Brantley et al.: Reviews and syntheses: on the roles trees play in building and plumbing the critical zone isotopic composition distinct from the gravity-drained water that transits from the hillslope to groundwater and streamflow. (8) Mycorrhizal fungi can use matrix water directly, but trees can only use this water by accessing it indirectly through the fungi. (9) Even trees growing well above the valley floor of a catchment can directly affect stream chemistry where changes in permeability near the rooting zone promote intermittent zones of water saturation and downslope flow of water to the stream. By testing these nine hypotheses, we will generate important new cross-disciplinary insights that advance CZ science.

Frost damage is a powerful agent of geomorphic change. Cracks can grow when the ice pressure in pores reaches a threshold that depends on matrix properties and crack geometry. Mineral surfaces that are preferentially wetted by liquid water rather than ice are coated by premelted liquid at a pressure that is lower than the ice pressure. Because this pressure difference increases as the * Corresponding author increased for seasonal thermal cycles with larger amplitudes, with a broad maximum centered on a mean annual temperature near the threshold required for crack growth. Warmer mean annual temperatures lead to less damage because of the reduction in time during which it is cold enough for cracking, whereas colder mean annual temperatures are accompanied by reduced water supply due to the temperature dependence of permeability. All of the controlling parameters in our model are tied explicitly to physical properties that can in principle be measured independently, which suggests promise for informing geomorphic interpretations of the role of frost weathering in evolving landforms and determining erosion rates.

Largely unknown mechanisms restrain motion of clay‐rich, slow‐moving landslides that are widespread worldwide and rarely accelerate catastrophically. We studied a clayey, slow‐moving landslide typical of thousands in Northern California, USA, to decipher hydrologic‐mechanical interactions that modulate landslide dynamics. Similar to some other studies, observed pore‐water pressures correlated poorly with landslide reactivation and speed. In situ and laboratory measurements strongly suggested that variable pressure along the landslide's lateral shear boundaries resulting from seasonal soil expansion and contraction modulated its reactivation and speed. Slope‐stability modeling suggested that the landslide's observed behavior could be predicted by including transient swell pressure as a resistance term, whereas modeling considering only transient hydrologic conditions predicted movement five to six months prior to when it was observed. All clayey soils swell to some degree; hence, our findings suggest that swell pressure likely modulates motion of many landslides and should be considered to improve forecasts of clayey landslide initiation and mobility.

Abstract. We describe the probabilistic physics of rarefied particle motions and deposition on rough hillslope surfaces. The particle energy balance involves gravitational heating with conversion of potential to kinetic energy, frictional cooling associated with particle–surface collisions, and an apparent heating associated with preferential deposition of low-energy particles. Deposition probabilistically occurs with frictional cooling in relation to the distribution of particle energy states whose spatial evolution is described by a Fokker–Planck equation. The Kirkby number Ki – defined as the ratio of gravitational heating to frictional cooling – sets the basic deposition behavior and the form of the probability distribution fr(r) of particle travel distances r, a generalized Pareto distribution. The shape and scale parameters of the distribution are well-defined mechanically. For isothermal conditions where frictional cooling matches gravitational heating plus the apparent heating due to deposition, the distribution fr(r) is exponential. With non-isothermal conditions and small Ki this distribution is bounded and represents rapid thermal collapse. With increasing Ki the distribution fr(r) becomes heavy-tailed and represents net particle heating. It may possess a finite mean and finite variance, or the mean and variance may be undefined with sufficiently large Ki. The formulation provides key elements of the entrainment forms of the particle flux and the Exner equation, and it clarifies the mechanisms of particle-size sorting on large talus and scree slopes. Namely, with conversion of translational to rotational kinetic energy, large spinning particles are less likely to be stopped by collisional friction than are small or angular particles for the same surface roughness.

The coastal Pacific Northwest USA hosts thousands of deep-seated landslides. Historic landslides have primarily been triggered by rainfall, but the region is also prone to large earthquakes on the 1100-km-long Cascadia Subduction Zone megathrust. Little is known about the number of landslides triggered by these earthquakes because the last magnitude 9 rupture occurred in 1700 CE. Here, we map 9938 deep-seated bedrock landslides in the Oregon Coast Range and use surface roughness dating to estimate that past earthquakes triggered fewer than half of the landslides in the past 1000 years. We find landslide frequency increases with mean annual precipitation but not with modeled peak ground acceleration or proximity to the megathrust. Our results agree with findings about other recent subduction zone earthquakes where relatively few deep-seated landslides were mapped and suggest that despite proximity to the megathrust, most deep-seated landslides in the Oregon Coast Range were triggered by rainfall.