Ecohydrological Interfaces as Hotspots of Ecosystem Processes

In this chapter, the authors aim to uncover the organizational principles – the main drivers and controls, and their interactions and feedbacks – that determine the development and capacity of ecohydrological interfaces to transform the flow of energy, water, and matter between adjacent ecosystems. They compare the characteristics of transformation processes at different ecohydrological interfaces in freshwater ecosystems, including groundwater–surface water, groundwater–vadose zone, and benthic–pelagic interfaces, to determine common or unique features of their non-linear process dynamics. Based on a comparison of the organizational principles of different ecohydrological interfaces, the authors propose a roadmap for the development of multi-scale conceptual models of ecohydrological interface processes and their interactions that can be expanded to other types of ecohydrological interfaces.