Quantifying Trade-Offs and Synergies in Forest Hydrological Functions and Ecosystem Services

Forests play a key role in regulating hydrological processes and provide essential ecosystem services such as water yield, climate regulation, groundwater recharge, soil moisture retention, erosion control, sediment retention, and flood mitigation. These functions and services are shaped by complex interactions among climate, vegetation structure, soil properties, topography, disturbance regimes, and forest management practices. Forest hydrological functions and services are also influenced by changes in land use and climate, disturbances, and management, creating challenges for quantifying hydrological ecosystem services and how these services respond to environmental changes. Therefore, there is a growing need for spatially explicit and process-based research that quantifies hydrological patterns, identifies key drivers, and evaluates trade-offs and synergies among forest ecosystem functions and services.

The goal of this Research Topic is to bring together original research articles and reviews that advance the understanding and quantification of forest hydrological functions and ecosystem services. We aim to highlight studies that develop, test, compare, or apply geospatial tools, remote sensing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, hydrological models, and ecosystem models to assess spatial and temporal patterns, environmental and anthropogenic drivers, and trade-offs and synergy in forested landscapes and watersheds. By integrating field observations, modeling frameworks, and advanced spatial technologies, this collection will support improved forest management, restoration planning, watershed conservation, and climate adaptation strategies.

This Research Topic welcomes manuscript submission that address, but not limited to, the following themes:

- Quantification and mapping the impacts of forest management and climate change on spatial distributions of forest hydrological functions (e.g., evapotranspiration, groundwater recharge, soil moisture retention, and streamflow regulation) and ecosystem services (water yield, sediment retention, erosion control, flood mitigation, water quality protection, etc.).


-Quantifying the trade-offs and synergies among forest hydrological functions/services and other services such as carbon storage, biodiversity conservation, habitat quality, and timber production.


- Advances of technology of GIS, remote sensing, AI, machine learning, spatial statistics, and process-based models for quantifying trade-offs and synergy of forest hydrology and ecosystem services

- Integration of forest hydrological ecosystem services into landscape planning, watershed management, restoration prioritization, and nature-based solutions for climate and water resilience

Article types and fees

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

• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• 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:

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

Keywords: Hydrological ecosystem services, Water yield, Water Cycle, Evapotranspiration, Sediment retention, Water quality, Flood Mitigation, Forest management, Climate change, Spatial modeling, Tradeoffs and synergies

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.