Riparian Ecology and Conservation Editorial • DOI: 10.2478/remc-2013-0001 • REMC • 2013 • 1–2
Editorial Riparian Ecology and Conservation: The Home of Cutting-edge Research on Riparian Biophysical Processes, Biodiversity, Ecosystem Functions and Services Yixin Zhang*
Department of Biology, Texas State University at San Marcos, USA
© Versita Sp. z o.o.
Over the last two decades, knowledge about riparian ecology, biophysical processes, ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services, conservation and management has significantly increased, and at the present day the substantial numbers of such publications have been growing (Figure 1). Indeed, the numbers of publications per year in different topic terms such as riparian ecosystem, conservation, riparian ecology, and riparian ecosystem functioning, have been steadily increasing from 1990, or for the case of riparian ecosystem services, from
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N um ber of P ublications / Y ear
Riparian ecosystems are among the most dynamic and complex systems in nature, which are transitional areas between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems including perennial, intermittent and ephemeral streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, wetlands, and estuaries. Riparian areas are connected with water bodies not only through surface and subsurface geohydrology but also by reciprocal fluxes of energy, nutrients, matter, organisms, and provide many ecosystem functions, such as supporting natural biodiversity, enhancing biological production, water infiltration, nutrient transformation and contaminant removal, flood and erosion control. Riparian areas create ecological corridors to link different ecosystems and form a network across the landscape. Through these biophysical processes, healthy riparian areas provide a variety of ecosystem services to humans, including food, clean water, flood and erosion control, and natural areas for recreation and aesthetics. However, human-nature interactions in riparian areas are challenged by historical, current and upcoming environmental, economic and social problems caused by anthropogenic disturbances across scales from local land use change to global climate change. In past over 100 years, there is a substantial body of literature on riparian topics. Between 1900 and 2011, 11582 publications with the keyword of “riparian” were retrieved from the ISI Web of Knowledge - Web of Science through the topic search on “riparian”. The Citation Databases used for the search were SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI, CPCI-S, CPCI-SSH (all from 1900 to present), and A&HCI (from 1975 to present). Early literature related to riparian topic mainly focused on riparian law and water law (about 40 publications during 1900-1970). Since 1970, a large body of literature showed the explosion of information covering vegetation, animal, habitat, and hydrologic topics.
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Y ear Figure 1. S ummary of citation database (ISI Web of Knowledge - Web of Science) in terms of number of publications / year in a 30year timespan (1981 – 2011) with different topics. Topic terms that appeared in the titles, abstracts, and keywords include: (1) Riparian ecology (total paper number, n = 1048), (2) Riparian ecosystem (n = 2836), (3) Riparian ecosystem functioning (n = 590), (4) Riparian ecosystem services (n = 164), and (5) Riparian ecosystem conservation (n = 1335).
* E-mail:
[email protected]
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Y. Zhang
2008 (Figure 1). During recent years, increasing number of studies examined impacts of anthropogenic disturbance, such as land use change, climate change, and invasive species, on biodiversity, ecosystem processes and services in riparian areas. Thus, there is a need to launch a riparian ecological journal, such as Riparian Ecology and Conservation (REC), to serve as a hub for knowledge dissemination and exchange of knowledge among scientific community, stakeholders and managers working on riparian systems. Riparian Ecology and Conservation has an impressive international editorial advisory board from five continents with wide-range research expertise. The goal of the international journal is to provide the best platform for publishing outstanding research papers, including communications, letters, reviews, and commentaries in the field of riparian ecology and conservation. We are looking forward to grow
the journal by developing the scope of the REC and ensuring the breadth and depth of coverage of manuscripts we receive and publish. Along with the above mentioned topics including biodiversity and management, the scope areas that we hope to encourage in the REC are ecohydrology, geomorphology, sediment dynamics, biogeochmical processes, and those factors’ influence on riparian biota, riparian ecosystem functions and services, as well as social dimensions. Such publications in interdisciplinary research topics can be regarded as a repository of scientific knowledge on riparian environmental studies, conservation and management in a changing environment. Our team will do our best to make the journal of real value for the ecologists and environmental scientists who are seeking to cutting-edge knowledge on riparian sciences for a better and safer world.
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