With the recent declaration of the Hydrology Renaissance era, the perspectives on river networks and watersheds in hydrological sciences have remarkably broadened, moving from channels merely draining water fluxes to complex ecological corridors transporting energy and materials and connecting terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. This new viewpoint requires a comprehensive understanding of the coupled hydrological, biogeochemical and ecological processes occurring in river networks and across watersheds. Hydrological drivers shape the spatial structure and connectivity of riverine ecosystems (e.g., transport of nutrient and organic resources, organism dispersal), while ecological communities affect regional hydrology (e.g., through transpiration, ecosystem engineering) and release in the water biological substances (e.g., organic matter, environmental DNA) which provide information on hydrological pathways.
This session aims at fostering the exchange of novel interdisciplinary research findings on the interplay of hydrological, biogeochemical and ecological processes in riverine systems and watersheds. We welcome studies on ecohydrological dynamics, riverine metacommunities and food webs, stream metabolism, eutrophication, carbon and/or nutrient cycling, as well as research considering the impacts of anthropogenic interventions on interactions between these processes. We are particularly interested in contributions where tools and methods from one discipline are used to gain insights in another. Contributions employing a range of theoretical methods, monitoring techniques (e.g., in-situ, remote sensing) and/or modelling approaches (e.g., statistical, process-based, machine/deep-learning-based) at diverse spatial scales – from individual watersheds or streams to entire river networks – are highly encouraged.