Are you conducting research in sub-snow and cold regions’ subsurface environments?
If so, please consider submitting your manuscripts to the new Frontiers special issue exploring the topic “The Cold Regions in Transition: Impacts on Soil and Groundwater Biogeochemistry” co-edited by professors and Water Institute members Fereidoun Rezanezhad, and Philippe Van Cappellen from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the Ecohydrology Research Group.
About this topic
This research topic will focus on cross-disciplinary research that advances our mechanistic understanding of soil biogeochemical processes and microbial-plant interactions in cold regions. The topic aims to bring together hydrologists, biologists, ecologists, soil scientists, biochemists, and geochemists working on the cold regions science to share cutting-edge research on subsurface hydro(bio)geochemical processes, with an emphasis on the fate and transport of carbon, nutrients, metals, and micro-pollutants in response to climate change in cold region ecosystems.
Particularly welcome are submissions of new, novel methodologies, and coupled experimental and modeling approaches that address the role of dynamic climatic and hydrological conditions on modulating (bio)geochemical processes of nutrients and contaminants, carbon fluxes, as well as the coupling/decoupling of microbial and plant interactions in sub-snow and cold region environments.
Climate
uncertainties
Global
climate
warming
disproportionately
affects
the
ecosystems
of
the
high-latitude
cold
regions,
which
can
facilitate
agricultural
expansion,
urban
growth,
and
natural
resource
development,
adding
growing
anthropogenic
pressures
to
cold
regions’
landscapes,
soil
health,
and
biodiversity.
These
changes
are
accompanied
by
changes
in
vegetation
cover,
the
thermal
regime
of
soils,
fluxes,
and
timing
of
nutrient
export
to
aquatic
ecosystems,
emissions
of
greenhouse
gases
(GHGs),
and
the
mobilization
of
organic
carbon
and
geogenic
contaminants
among
others.
Climate
warming
therefore
generates
a
set
of
interrelated
changes
in
(hydro)geophysical
properties,
hydro(geo)logical
flows,
biogeochemical
processes,
and
ecosystem
functions
in
the
world’s
cold
regions.
Future
climate
uncertainties
highlight
the
need
to
identify
and
predict
the
major
controls
on
soil
biogeochemical
functioning
in
cold
regions
under
variations
in
the
magnitude
and
timing
of
snow
processes,
ice
cover,
permafrost
thaw,
and
freeze-thaw
cycles.
However,
significant
uncertainties
prevail
in
quantifying
and
predicting
the
hydro(bio)geochemical
processes
of
terrestrial
ecosystems
in
cold
regions.
Further
advances
in
the
predictive
understanding
of
how
cold
regions’
processes,
functions,
and
ecosystem
services
respond
to
climate
warming
and
land-use
changes
require
multiscale
monitoring
technologies
coupled
with
integrated
observational
and
modeling
tools.
Editorial team:
Fereidoun
Rezanezhad,
University
of
Waterloo
Philippe
Van
Cappellen,
University
of
Waterloo
Magdalena
Bieroza,
Swedish
University
of
Agricultural
Sciences
Alexandra
Contosta,
University
of
New
Hampshire
Abstract Deadline: December 15, 2021
For more information on submissions, visit frontiersin.org.