Special issue on novel discovery in diverse watershed ecosystems

Watershed ecosystems are extremely universal and valuable. Alongside providing a variety of services to local and global livelihoods, watersheds often connect various ecosystems including grassland, freshwater wetlands, forests, urban, agricultural and coastal wetlands. In response to disturbances and/or environmental changes caused by local human activities, novel ecological or environmental phenomena occur within these diverse watershed ecosystems. By observing these, ecologists, biologists and environmentalists can better understand how human and environmental changes are impacting watershed ecology. Importantly, these natural discoveries can provide a great starting point for further theoretical and/or empirical studies. This special issue will focus on these observation-based descriptive discoveries.

Topics covered:

Any novel, natural discoveries that occur in diverse watershed ecosystems, including:

• Organisms’ novel behaviour and morphology
• Interesting life histories
• Novel ecosystems/organisms arising in response to global/regional environmental changes

We are particularly interested in papers based on long-term ecological or environmental observations in the field. Submissions should take the form of a ‘Natural Discovery’ paper, i.e., feature a short essay/description that presents a novel idea or main findings, accompanied by high-resolution pictures and photos. The paper should also include the following sections found in a research article: title, abstract, keywords, subheading, conclusions, acknowledgements and references.

The writing should be of a high enough quality to attract both scientific and non-scientific readership. Submissions will be reviewed based on their contribution to our understanding of the watershed ecosystems, with equal consideration assigned to the scientific interest and quality of writing in the accompanying essay, and the artistic quality and ecological significance of the photos.

Only original pictures and photos taken by the co-authors, accompanied by novel ideas and opinions, are acceptable.

Important deadlines:

• Submission deadline: 30 October 2022

Submission instructions:

Please read the Guide for Authors before submitting. All submissions should be made via the online editorial system.

Guest Editors:

• Managing Guest Editor: Prof. Junhong Bai, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, China. Email: junhongbai@163.com
• Hui Zhu, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. Email: zhuhui@iga.ac.cn
• A/Prof. Wenwen Liu, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, China. Email: lww@xmu.edu.cn
• A/Prof. Zhenchang Zhu, Institute of Environmental & Ecological Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, China. Email: zhu@gdut.edu.cn
• A/Prof. Youzheng Zhang, Second Institute of Oceanography (SIO), Ministry of Natural Resources, China. Email: zhangyz@sio.org.cn
• A/Prof. Cong Chen, Advanced Institute of Natural Sciences, Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai, China. Email: congchen@bnu.edu.cn
• Zhonghua Ning, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, China. Email: joehua.ning@gmail.com