Foreword to this special issue on climate change and the critical zone geophysics

Welcome to this special issue on the use of geophysics in climate change and critical zone (CZ) research.  The importance of these research areas cannot be overstated, and yet when we were selecting contributions for this special issue, we wrestled with the fundamental question: are climate change and the critical zone two separate research areas, or one?  In other words, would there be a clear distinction between critical-zone focused articles and those addressing climate change, or would there be significant overlap making that distinction irrelevant. As we worked through the excellent submissions, it became more and more clear that any geophysical study addressing one of these elements would almost certainly be impacted in some way by the other.