The effects of natural and anthropogenic environmental changes on ecosystem processes at the catchment scale

The catchment is the smallest natural unit of the landscape that combines linked terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The fluxes of water and elements through the catchment link the various components of the system; biotic and abiotic, terrestrial and aquatic, plants and soils, atmosphere and vegetation, soils and waters. A large amount of empirical evidence now demonstrates that the impacts of natural and anthropogenic changes on the various components of catchment ecosystems are tightly connected.