Foreword

Ecosystem services are the flow of materials and energy that provide the vital
constituents of all human well-being. These flows were classified into four
categories by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment as the supporting
processes such as soil formation and nutrient cycling; the services of the
provisioning of food, fiber, fuel, and fresh water; the regulating services
associated with climate, water, and the atmosphere; plus the cultural services
around esthetic appeal, recreational pursuits, and heritage preservation.
Ecosystem services flow from natural capital stocks of the materials and
energies that form the ecological infrastructures of our terrestrial landscapes.
Two of our most valuable natural capital stocks are those of our soils and
terrestrial waters.
Soils and waters are the sine qua non of our life on Earth. The benefits
that we receive from the ecosystem services flowing from our soils and
waters are invaluable and irreplaceable. The nexus of these teeming flows
occur in the Critical Zone of the first few meters above and below the
Earth’s surface.
To sustain the present value of these soil- and water-derived ecosystem
services and to enable adaptation to the exigencies that will be forced on us by
climate change, we need to understand better the interactive biophysical and
geochemical processes associated with water transport and storage in the
Critical Zone of the globe’s diverse soils.
How can we do this? By better understanding the hydropedology of our
landscapes – That is how.
Hydropedology seeks to link better the hard-won knowledge from our soil
scientists about our soil architecture, its functioning, and its distribution across
our landscapes, with the understanding gained by hydrologists over the last few
centuries of how the water cycle is linked to and modified by our diverse
landscapes. There is a natural synergy between pedology and hydrology that
this emerging discipline is exploiting.
This book shows us the way as to how this can be done. The book details the
measurement and modeling dualism of hydropedology. The generation of new
knowledge and understanding from the interactions between measurement and
modeling of the hydropedology of our landscapes will provide us with better
land-management practices to ensure the sustaining of the ecosystem services
that we rely on, plus it will guide us in the development of policies and
regulations that can protect and enhance the value of the ecological infra-
structures comprising the stocks of our waters and soils.

xiii
xiv Foreword

Part I of the book examines fundamental hydrological aspects of the soil’s

architecture, biophysical functioning, and geochemical processes. These
chapters have a strong emphasis on measurement-derived knowledge at the
pore and pedon scale. The chapters of Part II upscale this measurement
emphasis to the landscape through a series of case studies. A concluding
chapter in Part II details how this knowledge can be incorporated into envi-
ronmental policies and regulations. The chapters of the final Part III focus on
the spatiotemporal modeling of the link between pedology and hydrology and
show how these interactions may be mapped across the landscape so that we
can better understand and manage the natural capital stocks of our soils and
waters – for today and for our future generations.
Our soils and waters support human well-being. Hydropedology is an
emerging interdisciplinary science that seeks to understand better the processes
and services flowing from the nexus of soil and water interactions in the Critical
Zone of the Earth’s surface. This book provides great insight to the rapid
advances that are being made.
Brent Clothier
Science Group Leader,
Systems Modelling, Plant & Food Research,
Palmerston North, New Zealand