Advances in Earth Science ›› 2012, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (5): 557-562. doi: 10.11867/j.issn.1001-8166.2012.05.0557

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Opportunity and Challenges for Hydropedology

Li Xiaoyan   

  1. 1.State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing100875, China;
    2. College of Resources Sciences and Technology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing100875, China
  • Received:2011-10-31 Revised:2012-04-02 Online:2012-05-10 Published:2012-05-10

Li Xiaoyan. Opportunity and Challenges for Hydropedology[J]. Advances in Earth Science, 2012, 27(5): 557-562.

Hydropedology is a new interdisciplinary science between pedology, soil physics and hydrology, which studies the interface between the pedosphere and the hydrosphere, with an emphasis on interactive pedologic and hydrologic processes across scales. Hydropedology plays a prominent and important role in the integrated studies of the near-surface terrestrial system science. This paper reviewed background, disciplinary and theoretical basis, recent advance and key scientific issues of hydropedology, and discussed opportunity and challenges for hydropedology in the near future. Hydropedology aims to holistically address the following two basic questions: ①How do soil architecture and the distribution of soils over the landscape exert a first-order control on hydrologic processes and associated biogeochemical and ecological dynamics across spatio-temporal scales? ②How do landscape hydrologic processes and the associated transport of energy, sediment, chemicals, and biomaterials by flowing water influence soil genesis, evolution, variability, and functions? Future challenges for hydropedology include innovation of method and theory, observatory networks across scales and researcher training.

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