Understanding the soil-water interactions for sustainable ecosystem services in aquatic environments

Abstract

Healthy soils are of the utmost importance to society for the variety of ecosystem services they provide in both terrestrial and aquatic systems. Within aquatic systems, soils play an active role in carbon cycling and interactions between soils and water, and additional components of aquatic ecosystems can control the balance of carbon, whether the system becomes a net carbon source or sink. Understanding the interactions between soils and overlying water is crucial to developing adaptive strategies to mitigate climate change. An enhanced, holistic understanding of primary ecosystem drivers in mixed aquatic and soil systems is paramount for guiding their future construction and management to maximize their beneficial use while minimizing negative environmental impacts. Aeration and water circulation devices can be used to improve dissolved oxygen content of the wastewater pond system. Raking may be practiced to improve the ecological conditions of pond soils for encouraging healthy conditions and animal associations of the pond bottom particularly in wastewater-fed systems. The present chapter provides a review of different aspects of soil-water interactions and strategies to maintain ecosystem health for sustainable development.