Introduction to Coupling Soil Science and Hydrology with Ecology: Toward Integrating Landscape Processes

Ecosystem structure and its dynamic response to human-induced climate and land use changes are complex by themselves and further complicated by the feedback mechanisms that interrelate soil processes, canopy dynamics, and climate. The scientific community needs to gain a fundamental understanding of these interactions and processes to avoid a loss of biodiversity and irreversible shifts in vegetation. In particular, the soil profile itself plays a vital role in moderating energy and mass fluxes; partitioning energy into ground conduction, latent (evaporative), and sensible heat fluxes; and providing the medium into which roots grow and nutrients and water are stored and transported. In turn, plants have profound effects on the dynamics of water and soil chemical and physical processes. We seek, in this special section, to focus on soil processes and their interactions with ecological services. The main objective of this special section is to improve synergies among soil science, hydrology, and ecology, thereby facilitating and fostering interdisciplinary approaches toward understanding emergent ecosystem behavior.