Plant Phenology and Climate Change: Patterns, Responses, and Variability

A Special Issue of Biology (ISSN 2079-7737) belonging to the section "Plant Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2027 | Viewed by 470

Editors

Chongqing Jinfo Mountain Karst Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, School of Geographical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Interests: land use/land cover change; ecological restoration projects (ERPs); karst ecosystem and ecologically fragile regions; remote sensing of terrestrial ecosystems; vegetation phenology and climate change; ecosystem carbon and water cycles; ecosystem quality and ecosystem services; extreme climate events and ecosystem responses; coastal zone and wetland environments
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Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Interests: remote sensing; ecology; land use/land cover; adaptive coastal management; future development modeling and planning; intelligent geography
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Institute of Estuarine and Coastal Zone Research, School of Surveying and Geo-Informatics, Shandong Jianzhu University, Jinan 250101, China
Interests: ecological environment remote sensing; vegetation biodiversity; multimodal remote sensing intelligent interpretation; landscape ecological security; carbon emission assessment; ecosystem services; coastal zone; land use/land cover change; ecosystem health
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Plant phenology—the timing of seasonal events such as leaf emergence, flowering, and senescence—has become an increasingly critical indicator of ecosystem responses to climate and environmental change, yet current monitoring still relies heavily on field recordings and limited remote sensing data, leading to inefficiencies, inconsistent models, and reduced reliability across diverse environments ranging from karst and coastal zones to inland wetlands. Remote sensing big data has emerged as a transformative tool, enabling more scientific and quantitative phenological analysis from landscape to crown scales through database platforms, information services, and reanalysis modeling. This Special Issue will bridge the gap between remote sensing big data and field observations by leveraging satellite imagery, airborne remote sensing, and advanced analytics to enable robust phenology detection and construct modeling frameworks. We welcome contributions that explore vegetation phenology change, remote sensing-based monitoring, responses to climate change and human activities, and effects on ecosystem functioning, including carbon and water cycles, ecosystem quality, and services, across forests, grasslands, coastal wetlands, and ecologically fragile regions. By integrating multi-source data and cutting-edge techniques, we hope to furnish decision-making tools for scientists and managers addressing vegetation ecosystem challenges under conditions of ongoing environmental change.

Dr. Zhi Ding
Dr. Fengqin Yan
Dr. Qi Wang
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • plant phenology
  • climate change
  • remote sensing
  • big data
  • extreme climate events
  • ecosystem services
  • coastal wetlands
  • ecologically fragile regions

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

35 pages, 6601 KB  
Article
Conservation and Targeted Wild Tending of Schisandra chinensis Under Global Change: Informed by SDMs and Fingerprint Analysis of Climate–Land–Composition Responses
by Detai Duan, Mengsha You, Mengjiao Li, Xinyi Li, Hengjun Xu, Boyan Zhang and Xinxin Zhang
Biology 2026, 15(17), 1501; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology15171501 - 2 Sep 2026
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Abstract
Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill. is a valuable medicinal plant species, and the demand for its wild resources is increasing continuously. However, the response mechanisms of its future habitat suitability and medicinal quality to global change remain poorly understood. This study integrated future climate [...] Read more.
Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill. is a valuable medicinal plant species, and the demand for its wild resources is increasing continuously. However, the response mechanisms of its future habitat suitability and medicinal quality to global change remain poorly understood. This study integrated future climate projections under multiple Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) scenarios, land use dynamics, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprint data, and an ensemble species distribution model to assess the habitat suitability, medicinal quality and conservation priorities of S. chinensis. Model performance evaluation indicated that the Biomod2 ensemble model achieves high prediction accuracy, with a True Skill Statistic (TSS) value of 0.882. Under the combined threat of climate change and land use change, the area of suitable habitat for S. chinensis in Heilongjiang Province will only account for 20.471% of the current suitable habitat area under the SSP5-8.5 scenario in the 2090s, and most suitable habitats will shift to the Greater Khingan Range region. The responses of different medicinal components of S. chinensis to future climate change vary considerably: for instance, the area of high-quality distribution for Schisandrol A and Gomisin A shows an overall expanding trend compared with the current status under future climate scenarios, while the area of high-quality distribution for Schizandrin B shows an overall shrinking trend. Within the planned conservation area for S. chinensis in Heilongjiang Province, the coverage of existing nature reserves is only 4.281%, and obvious conservation gaps exist in the Greater Khingan Range and Laoye Mountains regions. In response to the spatial distribution characteristics of the medicinal component content of S. chinensis under future climate change, we recommend implementing wild tending of S. chinensis in Tahe County and Huma County of the Greater Khingan Range region. The above findings provide a theoretical basis for the conservation and wild tending of S. chinensis. Full article
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