Catchments as Observatories of the Hydrological and Biogeochemical Functioning of the Critical Zone

Dear Colleagues,

The catchments are geographic, geomorphologic and hydrologic unities, today recognized to be relevant natural infrastructures for supporting the development of new research on the Critical Zone and the management of water resources and soil protection at continental scale, as well as at regional or local scales. The long term survey of rivers allows to determine the impacts of climatic changes and anthropogenic activities on the hydrological and biogeochemical functioning of their drainage basin, but also on soil erosion, pollutant transfers, biogeochemical cycles, soil and water quality, living organisms and terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. They allow also to assess the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, ecosystem services and finally, the relationships between man, societies and their environments at different scales.

A better understanding of mechanisms and a better estimation of mass balances at the scale of catchments require to set up long term surveys, to take into account the recurrence of dry and humid periods. These surveys must be done with a high resolution or even continuously (using multi-parameter probes with different sensors) during the flood events (“hot moments”) which are the main periods of soil erosion and river transports. Inputs and outputs of water and sediment fluxes and of their chemical and isotopic composition must be evaluated in relation with changes in climate, hydrology, land cover and agricultural practices. These global surveys make these catchments real environmental Observatories of the continental surfaces and interfaces, and particularly, of what we call today, the Critical Zone.

This Special Issue brings together 8 innovative papers:

- to show the advances in the coupling of hydrological, biogeochemical and /or ecological approaches to better understand the processes that control the Critical Zone functioning at the scale of catchments (see Lilli et al.).

- to show how to survey the “catchment pulsation” using continuous or high-frequency measurements in order to assess new hydrological and bigeochemical processes and to better understand the transfers of particulate and solute river loads and of physical erosion and chemical weathering (see Ulloa-Cedamanos et al.; Belles et al.; Rivera, Cardenas et al.).

- to determine the contribution of climate changes on interannual fluctuations and long term trends of hydrological and biogeochemical parameters measured in the river systems (see Liu et al.).

- to show how to use integrative modelling approaches to better simulate the water and riverine fluxes of dissolved and particulate elements, originating from natural or anthropogenic sources (see Dwivedi et al.; Weill et al.; Rivera, Poduje et al.)

Dr. Jean-Luc PROBST
Dr. Anne PROBST
Guest Editors

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