Water bodies and their boundaries such as rivers, estuaries, wet and drylands, shorelines and glacial environments represent delicate systems which exhibit a plethora of processes relevant to geomorphology, ecology, hydraulics, engineering and social sciences. Such systems support ecotones, that is the presence of two or more different communities (e.g., the terrestrial and aquatic ones), where biodiversity is maximized in the form of highly diverse species that coexist maintained by intermediate frequency and magnitude of disturbances.
This new Research Topic aims at broadening the scientific areas covered by Frontiers in Environmental sciences towards engineering aspects of the new and rapidly expanding subject of ecomorphodynamics, its links to the resilience to perturbations of water systems of both humid and arid regions, the type of mechanistic transitions between different equilibrium states, and the role of ecomorphodynamic activity in the river carbon cycle.
This Research Topic does not focus at the phenomenon per-se rather at the laws governing it. As such we welcome cutting-edge both engineering- and physically-based theoretical approaches addressing new line of research, process understanding as well as sustainable management guidelines concerning with the ecohydraulics, the morphodynamics and the resilience to perturbation of all water systems of the geosphere. Both surface- and groundwater processes involving interactions among flow, sediment, biological, chemical and anthropogenic components and how boundary morphogenesis may alter such dynamics at all space and time scales are the key focus of the Research Topic. Water-driven pattern formation and parametric transitions between different states that involve eco-morphologically active systems and/or aquatic-terrestrial connected environments are highly welcomed. Analytical or numerical studies adopting deterministic, stochastic or both methodologies to model linear and nonlinear aspects of the above processes are particularly sought as contributions. However, applied case studies as well as laboratory and field experiments that lead to quantitative mathematical relationships useful to promote fundamental research as well as guidelines towards sustainable water systems management or restorations will also be taken under consideration.
As a novelty, this Research Topic offers for the first time the possibility to publish quantitative research lying at the interface among several disciplines such as physics, engineering, aquatic sciences and ecology, thus potentially targeting a very broad scientific audience. The willingness of seeking and accepting scientific contributions recommending quantitative guidelines as conclusions makes this Research Topic also appealing to the audience of more applied scientists like water managers, engineers and stakeholders among others.
Water bodies and their boundaries such as rivers, estuaries, wet and drylands, shorelines and glacial environments represent delicate systems which exhibit a plethora of processes relevant to geomorphology, ecology, hydraulics, engineering and social sciences. Such systems support ecotones, that is the presence of two or more different communities (e.g., the terrestrial and aquatic ones), where biodiversity is maximized in the form of highly diverse species that coexist maintained by intermediate frequency and magnitude of disturbances.
This new Research Topic aims at broadening the scientific areas covered by Frontiers in Environmental sciences towards engineering aspects of the new and rapidly expanding subject of ecomorphodynamics, its links to the resilience to perturbations of water systems of both humid and arid regions, the type of mechanistic transitions between different equilibrium states, and the role of ecomorphodynamic activity in the river carbon cycle.
This Research Topic does not focus at the phenomenon per-se rather at the laws governing it. As such we welcome cutting-edge both engineering- and physically-based theoretical approaches addressing new line of research, process understanding as well as sustainable management guidelines concerning with the ecohydraulics, the morphodynamics and the resilience to perturbation of all water systems of the geosphere. Both surface- and groundwater processes involving interactions among flow, sediment, biological, chemical and anthropogenic components and how boundary morphogenesis may alter such dynamics at all space and time scales are the key focus of the Research Topic. Water-driven pattern formation and parametric transitions between different states that involve eco-morphologically active systems and/or aquatic-terrestrial connected environments are highly welcomed. Analytical or numerical studies adopting deterministic, stochastic or both methodologies to model linear and nonlinear aspects of the above processes are particularly sought as contributions. However, applied case studies as well as laboratory and field experiments that lead to quantitative mathematical relationships useful to promote fundamental research as well as guidelines towards sustainable water systems management or restorations will also be taken under consideration.
As a novelty, this Research Topic offers for the first time the possibility to publish quantitative research lying at the interface among several disciplines such as physics, engineering, aquatic sciences and ecology, thus potentially targeting a very broad scientific audience. The willingness of seeking and accepting scientific contributions recommending quantitative guidelines as conclusions makes this Research Topic also appealing to the audience of more applied scientists like water managers, engineers and stakeholders among others.
