Integrating hydrological, biogeochemical, and ecological processes within river basins and freshwater systems is crucial to understand spatial and temporal dynamics of environmental processes, emergent system responses, and their sensitivity to a rapidly changing climate.
Hydrological drivers dictate the spatial structure and connectivity of catchment areas, with cascading effects on riverine ecosystems (e.g., transport of nutrients and organic resources, organism dispersal), whereas ecological communities affect regional hydrology (e.g., through transpiration, ecosystem engineering) and regulate the biological and geochemical cycling of elements in water (e.g., carbon, nutrients, metals, pollutants).
This session aims to foster exchange of novel findings from interdisciplinary research on the interplay of hydrological, biogeochemical and ecological processes in watersheds and riverine systems. We welcome studies on (but are not limited to):
● Ecohydrological dynamics, riverine metacommunities, and food webs;
● Carbon and nutrient cycling, elemental fluxes across rivers, soils, and lakes, eutrophication, and stream metabolism;
● Biogeochemical processes in high-mountain catchments examined through integrated terrestrial-aquatic-atmosphere perspectives;
● Effects of anthropogenic interventions, land use and climate change on interactions among these processes;
● Representation of anthropogenic forcing alongside hydrological, biogeochemical, and ecological processes in ecohydrological models, including translation of experimental knowledge into watershed-scale frameworks, advances in model structures and parametrization schemes, coupling across modelling systems, and robust model evaluation strategies.
We seek contributions that employ a range of theoretical methods, monitoring techniques (e.g., in-situ, remote sensing), and/or modelling approaches (e.g., statistical, process-based, machine/deep-learning-based) at diverse spatial scales from reach and plot scale, to single watersheds and streams, and entire river networks.
We are particularly interested in contributions where tools and methods from one discipline are used to generate insights in another. By bringing together scientists from diverse disciplines, this session seeks to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration on hydrological, biogeochemical and ecological research.