Special Issue "Climate, Water, and Soil"

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Hydrology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2021).

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Vasileios Tzanakakis
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agriculture, School of Agricultural Sciences, Hellenic Mediterranean University, 71410 Heraklion, Greece
Interests: soil (bio) chemistry; soil fertility; nitrogen and carbon cycling; natural resource management; reuse in agriculture
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Stavros Alexandris
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Division of Water Resources, Department of Natural Resources & Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Interests: atmospheric enviroment; climate agricultural micrometeorology; crop water requirements
Dr. Maria Psychogiou
E-Mail
Guest Editor
Division of Water Resources, Department of Natural Resources & Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Interests: water quality; irrigation; environmental soil physics
Dr. Andreas N. Angelakis
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
HAO-Demeter, Agricultural Research Institution of Crete, 71300 Iraklion and Union of Water Supply and Sewerage Enterprises, 41222 Larissa, Greece
Interests: wastewater treatment and water reuse; small and decentralized wastewater management systems; water technologies in ancient civilizations
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The term “Climate” is more of a complex concept than a normative one. It could mean a recorded mean statistical noise of principal planetary heat exchanges, ranging from three decades or more to thousands of years and starting to obtain a distinguishable trend in a wide range of spatial and temporal scales in response to changes in temperature, precipitation, and solar radiation. Today, trying to disclose the mechanisms that drive the Earth’s climate and its variation, we are faced with an exceedingly complex system that includes five fundamental physical components and their interactions (i.e., atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere). It is a mistake to believe that we have reached the point where we can fully understand the complex relationships between all the processes of the Earth’s climate.

Global shifts in rainfall and temperature patterns due to climate fluctuation can alter the status and function of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in many areas of the world by causing changes in the natural hydrological cycle and the critical biochemical cycles of carbon and nutrients, related to the sustainability of ecosystems’ services. Areas with larger climate variability and water scarcity phenomena, such as the Mediterranean basin, are more vulnerable to these alterations and may display high risk for soil and water resources. Climate parameters (precipitation and temperature) strongly affect water availability and crop water requirements. Under water scarcity conditions, irrigation practices are carried out with water of marginal quality, causing soil salinization and reduced crop yields. Moreover, there are areas that face challenges from a growing population and economy that further stress natural resources. Despite the available knowledge gained so far, there are still considerable uncertainties around the future climate drivers and their potential effect on hydrological systems and ecosystems’ sustainability. Thus, further work is needed in the domains of technology and research focusing on climate and resource interactions, implications on the function and productivity of ecosystems, resource management, as well as on legislation and policy issues. 

This Special Issue “Climate Water and Soil” in the Water journal aims to identify, discuss, and address the above challenges by seeking research and review manuscripts dealing with climate monitoring and future climatic changes and interactions of climate with resources (water and soil), hydrological cycles, and the critical biochemical cycles of carbon and nitrogen. Additionally, links between climate and natural and agricultural (crops) ecosystem productivity, resource quality, soil and water resource management, adaptation measures in the agricultural sector, water management to mitigate water scarcity and the degradation of water and soil resources, and water use efficiency issues are included.

In this Special Issue, the goal is for authors to respond to developing solid research on climate, water, and soil in a context that is sometimes missing in mainstream literature on climate. Therefore, our intention in this context is to encourage scientists who promote realistic and innovative approaches to participate in the various issues of the potential thematology, taking the existing knowledge a step further.

Potential thematology

  • Anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic impacts on climate (the role of natural and anthropogenic influence on climate)
  • History of hydrological cycle (changes over time of Hydrological cycle)
  • History of CO2 emission (historical atmospheric CO2 over the last two centuries)
  • Climatic changes vs. climatic variability and/or fluctuations
  • Climate variations in the last millennium
  • Predictability of meteorological variables in the short-term vs. unpredictability in the long run
  • Climate impacts on hydrological cycles and the status of water resources (quality and availability)
  • Effects of climate change on water use efficiency across different users (agricultural, urban, and industrial sectors)
  • Scenarios (and/or models) of projected hydroclimatological regime vs. measurements
  • Water management and adaptations under climate challenges
  • Irrigation under scarcity water conditions
  • Irrigation with poor water quality from conventional and non-conventional sources (effects on soil quality and crop productivity)
  • Climatic parameters and irrigation
  • Water supply of the future megacities
  • Links between climate and the status of soil resources
  • Interactions between climate and C and N cycling in terrestrial (natural and agricultural) ecosystems
  • Interactions between the climate and the critical soil physical and (bio) chemical processes (e.g., mineralization, nitrification and denitrification).
  • Implications by climate change in soil moisture, soil biodiversity and microbial activities, soil organic matter, greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions (e.g., CO2 and N2O), soil productivity and health, and overall ecosystem services
  • Scenarios (and/or models) of projected soil biodiversity, soil quality, and health and GHGs emission regimes vs. measurements
  • Land use and soil management and adaptations to tackle the climate change challenges, e.g., strategies and practices enhancing CO2 capturing by plants and C sequestration into soil and reducing nutrients’ losses as GHGs emissions and nitrates and phosphorus leaching
  • Identification of indicators for land use, soil health, water, and ecosystems that have strong links to climate change
  • Climate, water, and soil impacts on human life quality and life-expectancy
  • The present and the future of climate, water, and soil

Dr. Vasileios Tzanakakis
Dr. Stavros Alexandris
Dr. Maria Psychogiou
Dr. Andreas N. Angelakis
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • climate change
  • climate variability
  • hydrological cycle
  • carbon and nitrogen cycles
  • GHG emissions
  • climate water and soil interactions
  • climate vs. ecosystem functioning and services
  • irrigation water quality
  • crop water requirements

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Article
Soil-Related Predictors for Distribution Modelling of Four European Crayfish Species
Water 2021, 13(16), 2280; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13162280 - 20 Aug 2021
Viewed by 466
Abstract
One of the most critical challenges in species distribution modelling is testing and validating various digitally derived environmental predictors (e.g., remote-sensing variables, topographic variables) by field data. Therefore, here we aimed to explore the value of soil properties in the spatial distribution of [...] Read more.
One of the most critical challenges in species distribution modelling is testing and validating various digitally derived environmental predictors (e.g., remote-sensing variables, topographic variables) by field data. Therefore, here we aimed to explore the value of soil properties in the spatial distribution of four European indigenous crayfish species. A database with 473 presence and absence locations in Romania for Austropotamobius bihariensis, A. torrentium, Astacus astacus and Pontastacus leptodactylus was used in relation to eight digitalised soil properties. Using random forest modelling, we found a preference for dense soils with lower coarse fragments content together with deeper sediment cover and higher clay values for A. astacus and P. leptodactylus. These descriptors trigger the need for cohesive soil river banks as the microenvironment for building their burrows. Conversely, species that can use banks with higher coarse fragments content, the highland species A. bihariensis and A. torrentium, prefer soils with slightly thinner sediment cover and lower density while not influenced by clay/sand content. Of all species, A. astacus was found related with higher erosive soils. The value of these soil-related digital descriptors may reside in the improvement of approaches in crayfish species distribution modelling to gain adequate conservation measures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate, Water, and Soil)
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Article
Rethinking Climate, Climate Change, and Their Relationship with Water
Water 2021, 13(6), 849; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13060849 - 19 Mar 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2850
Abstract
We revisit the notion of climate, along with its historical evolution, tracing the origin of the modern concerns about climate. The notion (and the scientific term) of climate was established during the Greek antiquity in a geographical context and it acquired its statistical [...] Read more.
We revisit the notion of climate, along with its historical evolution, tracing the origin of the modern concerns about climate. The notion (and the scientific term) of climate was established during the Greek antiquity in a geographical context and it acquired its statistical content (average weather) in modern times after meteorological measurements had become common. Yet the modern definitions of climate are seriously affected by the wrong perception of the previous two centuries that climate should regularly be constant, unless an external agent acts upon it. Therefore, we attempt to give a more rigorous definition of climate, consistent with the modern body of stochastics. We illustrate the definition by real-world data, which also exemplify the large climatic variability. Given this variability, the term “climate change” turns out to be scientifically unjustified. Specifically, it is a pleonasm as climate, like weather, has been ever-changing. Indeed, a historical investigation reveals that the aim in using that term is not scientific but political. Within the political aims, water issues have been greatly promoted by projecting future catastrophes while reversing true roles and causality directions. For this reason, we provide arguments that water is the main element that drives climate, and not the opposite. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate, Water, and Soil)
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