Landscape Pleofunctionality: an integrated surface–subsurface perspective for advancing transformative change and climate-change adaptation

Climate change, with increasingly severe impacts such as droughts and floods, necessitates rapid efforts toward cross-sectoral adaptation strategies, while administrative and practical collaboration for integrated landscape management remains at an early stage. Obstacles that keep the climate change adaptation gap widely open – both at local and regional scales – include, for example, the insufficient implementation of geoscientific four-dimensional (4D) thinking in spatial planning, nature conservation, etc. With our concept of “Landscape Pleofunctionality” (from Greek pleōn: "more, beyond") that incorporates the functional and interactional diversity of above- and belowground landscape elements, we undertake a double paradigm shift. First, the two-dimensional “map view” of landscapes is replaced by a natural 4D perspective that explicitly accounts for subsurface geodiversity (Aehnelt and Totsche, 2025; Lehmann et al., 2025) and the contribution and interlinkage of the subsurface space to landscape element functions such as water retention and purification. One key aspect is the recognition of the role of the thick aeration zone (sensu Lehmann et al., 2026; Lehmann and Totsche, 2020) beneath topographic highs (groundwater recharge areas). This neglected yet pivotal subsurface domain is particularly exposed to climate change yet provides considerable functions that can be leveraged to support numerous adaptation goals, with a focus on nature-based solutions. Second, the strict land-use benefit-oriented perspective (“maximation approach”) in practical planning and theory is replaced by a requirement to optimize the services of the pleofunctional landscape elements (“optimization approach”) and their multi-sectoral demands. Utilizing our holistic approach, we enable a deeper, cross-sectoral, and transferable understanding of surface–subsurface landscape functioning, provide a framework for the effective deployment of nature-based solutions (NBS) through appropriate site selection and monitoring, and promote the integration of science, practice, and policy. We’ll present practical examples of how the concept enables addressing local and subregional issues and nature-based solutions, for example, for water suppliers in Hesse and Thuringia in promoting landscape water storage, groundwater recharge, and explaining contamination pathways.

 

References:

Aehnelt, M., Totsche, K.U. (2025). From rock to soil: Saprock genesis and its legacy for subsoil structure and micro-aggregate formation during pedogenesis. Geoderma 459, 117356, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117356

Lehmann, K., Arachchige, D. E., Lehmann, R., Overholt, W. A., Küsel, K., Totsche, K. U. (2026). Neglected but pivotal: Complex matter dynamics in the aeration zone contribute to groundwater quality evolution. Water Research: 125287. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2025.125287

Lehmann, R., Totsche, K. U. (2020). Multi-directional flow dynamics shape groundwater quality in sloping bedrock strata. Journal of Hydrology 580: 124291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.124291