Hydropedology: Synergistic integration of soil science and hydrology in the Critical Zone

Abstract

Soil and water are the two critical components of the Earth’s Critical Zone (Figure 1): Soil modulates the connection between bedrock and the atmospheric boundary layer and water is a major driving force and transport agent between these two zones. The interactions between soil andwater are so intimate and complex that they cannot be effectively studied in a piecemeal manner; they require a systems approach. In this spirit, hydropedology has emerged in recent years as a synergistic integration of soil science and hydrology that offers a renewed perspective and an integrated approach to understanding interactive pedologic and hydrologic processes and their properties in the Critical Zone. This special issue grew out of a special session at the 2013 AGU Fall Meeting sponsored by the technical committee on Soil Systems and Critical Zone Processes that is jointly associated with the Hydrology and Biogeosciences Sections, with co-sponsorship from Earth and Planetary Surface Processes, Global Environmental Change, Near Surface Geophysics, and Nonlinear Geophysics. It was an occasion to celebrate the 10years of progress since the concept of hydropedology was first proposed in 2003. This special session brought together many experts from multiple disciplines to exchange views and to discuss future outlooks. Six papers have been accepted into this special issue after peer-review. These papers highlight the field-based or model-based study of diverse topics such as preferential flow, hillslope hydrology, groundwater recharge, and the impacts soil structure, soil texture, and soil hydraulic parameters on hydrological modeling.