Soil, Water, and Biodiversity in River Floodplains

Dear Colleagues,

Floodplains, situated in extended areas of water–land interactions, offer numerous crucial ecosystem services while also regulating hydrological functions and contributing to socio-economic development. They have become some of the most vulnerable ecosystems due to intensified human utilization and the impacts of climate change, including alterations in land use, the anthropogenic modifications of natural hydrological conditions, and warming trends. The objective of sustainable floodplain management is to restore the inherent characteristics of river valleys and establish mechanisms for enhanced water retention and material preservation within the landscape, thereby facilitating the proper functioning of the river floodplain ecosystem. A sustainable management strategy can be based on a holistic approach encompassing integrated ecohydrology principles that address all biological and environmental elements requiring management attention. Prior to implementing such a program, collaborative analysis should be conducted as this approach integrates various scientific disciplines, such as soil science, plant science, microbiology, hydrology, ecology, ecohydrology, remote sensing, and GIs analysis, as well as social sciences such as politics, economics, and cultural heritage and engineering disciplines like hydraulics and hydraulic technology.This Special Issue focuses on soil  and sediment biodiversity, water quality, and vegetation dynamics in river floodplains by comprehending underlying mechanisms shaping biodiversity patterns and biogeochemical processes towards developing protection strategies.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• spatial and temporal patterns of biodiversity;
• greenhouse gas emission;
• heavy metal pollution and remediation;
• biogeomorphologic succession dynamics;
• carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycling;
• biological control of dust emission from bare sandbars;
• plant water-use responses to groundwater depth;
• linking plant traits to hydrologic processes in floodplains;
• biodegradation of water-extractable dissolved organic matter;
• machine learning techniques and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Prof. Dr. Junqiang Zheng
Guest Editor

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• floodplain
• biodiversity
• soil and sediment
• ecosystem function
• water quality
• biochemistry
• biogeomorphology