Hydrological Controls on Carbon, Nutrient, and Salt Cycling in Agroecosystems: Implications for Soil Health, Water Quality, and Management Practices

Hydrological processes fundamentally regulate the transport and transformation of carbon, nutrients, and salts within plant-soil-water systems. Variations in precipitation, irrigation, evapotranspiration, and soil moisture status strongly influence soil conditions e.g., soil structure, microbial activity, and solute transport. These processes control the fate of organic matter, nutrients, and salts, ultimately determining the timing and magnitude of their fluxes to surface and groundwater systems. Due to its impact on nutrient and geochemical cycling, hydrology plays a critical role in controlling both soil health and water quality in agricultural production systems.

In recent decades, growing hydrological variability driven by climate change, land use change, and irrigation expansion has altered soil structural stability, moisture regimes, and water pathways, which often exacerbate carbon loss, nutrient leaching, and salt accumulation. Such changes threaten agricultural productivity, accelerate soil degradation, and contribute to widespread water quality impairments such as eutrophication, hypoxia, sedimentation, salinization, acidification, and pollution by metals and trace elements. Understanding the linkages between hydrology and biogeochemical cycling is therefore critical for developing effective management practices and policies that enhance soil resilience and protect water resources.

This Research Topic seeks to advance our understanding of how hydrological processes shape the cycling of carbon, nutrients, and salts, and to evaluate how Best Management Practices (BMPs) can mitigate negative impacts on soil and water systems in agricultural landscapes. We welcome studies that integrate lab analysis, field experiments, long-term observations, and biogeochemical or hydrological models to reveal mechanisms, quantify fluxes, and assess the effectiveness of management practices across different spatial and temporal scales.

Submissions may include, but are not limited to, the following themes:
• Effects of soil moisture dynamics, irrigation strategies, groundwater–surface water interactions, and climate variability on carbon, nutrient, and salt cycling
• Hydrologic influences on soil processes, including soil carbon sequestration, physical structure, erosion, salinity, and microbial processes
• Hydrological controls on nutrient and sediment transport, eutrophication, and hypoxia in downstream ecosystems
• Hydrological impacts of best management practices (e.g. tile drainage, irrigation, conservation tillage, cover crops, crop rotation)
• Development and application of coupled hydrological-biogeochemical models, data-driven tools, and scenario analyses for predicting management and climate impacts.

By linking hydrological processes to carbon, nutrient, and salt dynamics, this Research Topic aims to foster interdisciplinary collaboration among hydrologists, soil scientists, and agronomists. The ultimate goal of this Research Topic is to disseminate recent science-based strategies that improve soil health, sustain agricultural productivity, reduce nutrient losses, and protect water quality under changing conditions.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: hydrological, hydrology, biogeochemistry, water transport, nutrients, soil carbon, sediment transport, moisture, agriculture, salinity

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.