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Forests
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Water Use Efficiency of Forest Trees
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Water Use Efficiency of Forest Trees

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecophysiology and Biology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 373

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Sergio Espinoza Meza

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestales, Universidad Católica del Maule, Av. San Miguel, Talca 3605, Chile
Interests: forest physiology; drought stress; forest rehabilitation; tree breeding
Dr. Rafael A. Rubilar

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción 4030555, Chile
Interests: soil and forest nutrition; ecophysiology; forest productivity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Water use efficiency (WUE) indicates the water use strategy among different species or at different life stages of plants. WUE provides an integrated indicator for quantifying CO2 assimilation via photosynthesis to water use through transpiration. WUE varies greatly with forest type (e.g., plantations or natural forests), species (e.g., sclerophyllous, evergreen, or temperate), age (e.g., seedlings, saplings, or adults), and environmental conditions (e.g., drought and heatwaves), among others. However, our understanding of how WUE operates from ‘gene to landscape’ is still incomplete. This Special Issue aims to gather original manuscripts that explore the latest advancements in the WUE of trees in forests in the context of climate change. Manuscripts spanning various geographical regions, forest types, and species in the open field or under controlled conditions are welcome.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • The impacts of climate on WUE in forest trees;
  • The molecular, morphological, and physiological responses in the WUE of different species;
  • The molecular, morphological, and physiological responses in WUE at the leaf, plant, and forest level;
  • The adaptations and strategies of different species to face water scarcity in arid environments and those moving to aridization;
  • The improvement of WUE in fast-growing species;
  • The use remote sensing to assess WUE at the landscape level.

Dr. Sergio Espinoza Meza
Dr. Rafael A. Rubilar
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • water use efficiency
  • adaptations to drought
  • climate change
  • aridization
  • carbon isotope discrimination
  • plant water productivity
  • water balance
  • productivity

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 1019 KiB  
Article
Genotypic Variability in Growth and Leaf-Level Physiological Performance of Highly Improved Genotypes of Pinus radiata D. Don Across Different Sites in Central Chile
by Sergio Espinoza, Marco Yáñez, Carlos Magni, Eduardo Martínez-Herrera, Karen Peña-Rojas, Sergio Donoso, Marcos Carrasco-Benavides and Samuel Ortega-Farias
Forests 2025, 16(7), 1108; https://doi.org/10.3390/f16071108 - 4 Jul 2025
Viewed by 211
Abstract
Pinus radiata D. Don is planted in South Central Chile on a wide range of sites using genetically improved genotypes for timber production. As drought events are expected to increase with ongoing climatic change, the variability in gas exchange, which could impact growth [...] Read more.
Pinus radiata D. Don is planted in South Central Chile on a wide range of sites using genetically improved genotypes for timber production. As drought events are expected to increase with ongoing climatic change, the variability in gas exchange, which could impact growth and water use, needs to be evaluated. In this study, we assessed the genotypic variability of leaf-level light-saturated photosynthesis (Asat), stomatal conductance (gs), transpiration (E), intrinsic water use efficiency (iWUE), and Chlorophyll a fluorescence (OJIP-test parameters) among 30 P. radiata genotypes (i.e., full-sib families) from third-cycle parents at age 6 years on three sites in Central Chile. We also evaluated tree height (HT), diameter at breast height (DBH), and stem index volume (VOL). Families were ranked for HT as top-15 and bottom-15. In the OJIP-test parameters we observed differences at the family level for the maximum quantum yield of primary PSII photochemistry (Fv/Fm), the probability that a photon trapped by the PSII reaction center enters the electron transport chain (ψEo), and the potential for energy conservation from photons captured by PSII to the reduction in intersystem electron acceptors (PIABS). Fv/Fm, PIABS, and ψEo ranged from 0.82 to 0.87, 45 to 95, and 0.57 to 0.64, respectively. Differences among families for growth and not for leaf-level physiology were detected. DBT, H, and VOL were higher in the top-15 families (12.6 cm, 8.4 m, and 0.10 m3, respectively) whereas Asat, gs, E, and iWUE were similar in both the top-15 and bottom-15 families (4.0 μmol m−2 s−1, 0.023 mol m−2 s−1, 0.36 mmol m−2 s−1, and 185 μmol mol m−2 s−1, respectively). However, no family by site interaction was detected for growth and leaf-level physiology. The results of this study suggest that highly improved genotypes of P. radiata have uniformity in leaf-level physiological rates, which could imply uniform water use at the stand-level. The family variation found in PIABS suggests that this parameter could be incorporated to select genotypes tolerant to environmentally stressful conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Use Efficiency of Forest Trees)
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