This session explores the linkages between human modifications to Earth surface dynamics (including hydrologic, soil, sedimentary, and landforms) and ecosystem services. The environmental science community recognizes that a wide array of landscape types has undergone a dramatic alteration to its fundamental physical processes, including soil degradation, runoff, littoral transport, mass wasting, in addition to changes in sediment supply, ground water, and morphology. These changes further represent fundamental controls to ecosystem services, such as the exchange of nutrients and particulates, biogeochemical cycling, as well as physical habitat for plants and animals.

The overarching goal of this session is to highlight the importance of human modifications of Earth surface processes to ecosystem services (ESS), in the broader context of sustainability. An additional goal of this session is to provide perspectives on how various ESS have benefitted or been compromised because of human modification of Earth surface processes, or how changes to ESS may differ across anthropogenic landscapes in the coming decades owing to climate change or because of the management of climate change.

We welcome contributions from all sectors of geomorphology (e.g., fluvial, coastal, soils, slope, etc...) and encourage approaches ranging from field based to theoretical modelling. In particular, we encourage contributions that draw attention to beneficial impacts of human modification of Earth surface processes to ecosystem services, such as the creation of new habitats and landscapes, improved soil water retention, groundwater recharge, carbon storage, food production, etc.

Authors will be invited to submit their manuscript for consideration of publication in a special issue of a leading peer-reviewed international journal.