Session Title: Crop-water-soil relations for sustainable agroecosystems

Session Moderators: Payton Davis, MSc, Dara Park, PhD

Session description: Understanding crops-water-soil relations is crucial to building sustainable agricultural practices and protecting the environment. Changes in climatic patterns, including more frequent extreme events, are becoming commonplace. Changes in air temperature, rainfall, wind, and humidity affect soil temperature, soil water content and status, subsequently impacting agriculture production and management. In the recent past, conservation till and no-tillage, integrating cover crops into rotations, managing soil water repellency, and other management practices have become of significant interest in sustainable agriculture due to their impact on the crop-growing environment. This session intends to bring together scientists working on topics related to soil health, water management, and crop production. Presentations at local, regional, continental, and global scales are welcome.

DARA PARK, PHD CLEMSON UNIVERSITY

Professor

Soil and Water Extension Specialist

Department of Plant & Environmental Sciences

263 Poole Agricultural Center

50 Cherry Rd

Clemson SC 29634

843.319.4957

Organizers:

Hongyan Liu, Peking University, China

Pengtao Yu, Chinese Academy of Forestry, China

Jose Gruenzweig, Jerusalem Hebrew University, Israel

Chongyang Xu, Jerusalem Hebrew University, Israel

Session description:

Forest carbon sequestration has been strongly affected by climate change. While the fertilization of the increasing CO₂ concentration has been observed, enhanced ecosystem respiration and reduced carbon assimilation caused by warming-induced drought have also been emphasized in different parts of the world. With more frequent drought, soil water is being lost in such regions as inner East Asia, threatening the productivity of forests and plantations. Climate-driven tree mortality has been widely reported around the world, challenging efforts of towards greening. Drylands cover more than 40% of Earth's land surface and occur at the margin of forest distributions due to the limited availability of water for tree growth. Increasing hotter drought have driven greater forest declines and tree mortality on dryland sites compared to humid sites. Afforestation of dryland areas has been widely implemented and is expected to increase in many drylands globally to enhance carbon sequestration and benefits to the human environment, however, the conflicts between tree/forest and water has drawn increasing attentions from both scientists and policy-makers. This session intends to bring together researchers working on physiological, ecological, and hydrological processes of dryland trees and forests from different parts of the world, aiming at figuring out research hotspots in the near future. Presentations about forest-water relations at local, regional, continental and global scales are all welcome. Both tree individual level and forest community level studies are preferred.

Planned speakers

Hongyan Liu: Synthesis on forest-water relations in global drylands

Pengtao Yu: The divergent responses of forest transpiration to droughts in Northwest China

Chongyang Xu: Effects of seasonal precipitation legacy on tree growth in semiarid areas

Yanhui Wang: Forest hydrological processes in Liupan Mts in the semiarid region of China

Yanfang Wan: The responses of tree growth to droughts in Northwest China

Organisers: Artemi Cerdà, Saskia Keesstra

Session description:

Forest fires induce changes in vegetation and soil properties that finally triggers changes in soil infiltration, soil water retention, sediment transport, and runoff generation. The impact of fire on soil and watershed hydrology is highly affected by the scale of measurement. Measurements and experiments carried out at different scales show that fire induces a sudden increase in runoff (less interception, lack of soil litter, water repellency..) and an increase in sediment transport, soil crust development, and finally a more degraded soil. There is a need to better understand the impact of fire on the connectivity of flows and sediments, the role of water repellency, and the strategies to achieve the recovery of the ecosystems after the forest fire. The session welcomes pure and applied scientific research to discuss the best strategies to manage fire and avoid the impact on soil and watershed as a consequence of the fire. Experimental and theoretical research with site demonstration and literature review are welcome.

organisers: Saskia Visser and Saskia Keesstra

organiser: Saskia Keesstra

Understanding how well critical source areas of water or sediment are connected to receiving surface waters, is an essential step towards improvement of land management to mitigate flooding, soil erosion and water quality problems.

For this session we invite studies aiming for sustainable land and water management on landscape scale. The key management tool in on landscape scale is connectivity. Managing connectivity includes aspects of human-landscape relationships, and natural hazards, resilience and sustainability science.

organisers: EJP SOIL partners 

Thia session invites research on adaptation to climate change-related studies, where soils are the pivotal element in the solutions in agricultural systems. Climate change adaptation in the agricultural sector means rehabilitation of degraded pastures providing climate adaptation benefits, including reduced local temperatures, increased air humidity, better resistance against heatwaves and drought and more resilience against natural disasters. It also has a positive effect on soil erosion and water availability.

Examples of adaptation strategies used by farmers can be the use of drought-resistant varieties of crops, crop diversification, changes in cropping pattern and calendar of planting, conserving soil moisture through appropriate tillage methods, and improving irrigation efficiency. 

Organisers: Jesús Barrena González, Mohamed Amine Abdennour and Javier Lozano Parra

Recognizing the intricate connections among water resources, livestock requirements, and agro-silvopastoral environments is essential for the development of sustainable agricultural methods and the assurance of environmental resilience. As shifts in climate persist, marked by increasingly frequent extreme events as the new normal, the fragile equilibrium of air temperature, precipitation, and soil conditions significantly impacts livestock handling and productivity. The importance of optimizing water availability and quality within these contexts cannot be overstated. This session aims to cultivate a cooperative platform for researchers and practitioners committed to tackling the challenges and opportunities presented by these intricate systems. We eagerly embrace contributions ranging from local to global scales, emphasizing innovative solutions, best practices, and comprehensive approaches to attain sustainable water management for livestock in agro-silvopastoral settings. Come join us in exploring the latest insights and advancements that will shape the future of this pivotal field.

Organisers: 

Artemi Cerda and Francisco Escrivà

Topics related to hydrology, biohydrology, biology, ecohydrology, ecology, geography and engineering in natural, agricultural, forestry and anthropogenic areas