Why this special issue?
On the insight of the cover of this journal is printed: “Biological Rhythm Research (formerly Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research).”
On 1 March 1970, Solco W. Tromp, as the editor-in-chief, wrote an introduction of a new journal named the Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research. The journal was founded after consulting several contacts with leading members of the International Society of Biological Rhythms as well as editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Biometeorology, in order to be certain that no overlapping or clash of interests would occur.
Who was Tromp? Solco W. Tromp was born on March 1909. He studied Geology and Geographic’s at Leyden University, The Netherlands. After he received his PhD, he worked as an exploration geologist for oil companies. During World War II, he became involved in de Dutch section of MacArthur’s headquarters. After the war, he studied physiology and meteorology; in 1947, he became Professor of Geology at the King Saud University in Cairo, Egypt. From 1950 to 1955, he was geological consultant at the UN Technical Assistance Programme for Central America and the Middle East.
In 1955, he switched to biometeorology and founded his Biometeorological Research Centre in Leyden. In the same year, he founded the International Society for Biometeorology.
After he died in 1983, part of his legacy was allocated to The Tromp Foundation (Foundation for Biometeorological Research). The aim of the foundation is to promote the role of biometeorology in the world of today.
In 1994, the Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research switched its name to Biological Rhythm Research. This was partly due to the fact that in the past 25 years most of the articles focussed on circadian and seasonal rhythms. But in recent years, environmental factors like climate change that affect these rhythms gained more and more attention.
This parallels a gradual rapprochement of the fields of biometeorology and chronobiology, which started in the 90s. Besides papers on fundamental research, results from practical applications of basic science were accepted.
Now we are facing a climate change with a major effect, for example, on food production. Within the broad field of biometeorology, the area of the agrometeorology evolved and became a forum of studies about what will threaten us in the near future.
In 2016, the Tromp Foundation decides to support a workshop in Ljubljana, “Agrometeorologists for farmers in hotter, drier, wetter future.”
In honour of S.W. Tromp, the founder of this journal, the editors decided to publish a special issue, containing the message of this meeting. The overview in the next article as well as a selection of the contributions will give a good impression of the kind of problems that we are facing due to the climate change and how various groups and countries try to deal with it.
So, what started in 1970, to demonstrate the impact of climate and weather on living organisms, can now be extended to a better understanding of the way the organisms with their inborn mechanisms are able to cope with the environmental changes.
Today we are not only facing a climate change, but also pollution. We face a loss of biodiversity. The question arises how science can contribute to possible solutions to the human-induced impacts. Scientific evidence often clashes with social and political resistance.
The contributions of this special issue are a mixed of full papers and reports from different countries on the state of the art of national agrometeorological services. They might evoke an awareness of the urgency to act and anticipate to the near future challenges.