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Forests
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Carbon Dynamics of Forest Soils Under Climate Change
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Carbon Dynamics of Forest Soils Under Climate Change

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 1340

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Xiang Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Ecology, Hainan University, Haikou, China
Interests: soil organic carbon; tropical ecosystems; climate change; temperature sensitivity; forest restoration
Prof. Dr. Zheng Hong Tan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming, China
Interests: carbon cycle; micrometeorology; ecosystem ecology; long-term ecological research; climate change
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Forest soils store vast amounts of organic carbon, potentially more than above-ground biomasses in many ecosystems. Understanding the mechanisms governing soil carbon storage and the threats posed by climate change is fundamental to predicting future carbon dynamics and developing sustainable land management practices.

We now have a relatively comprehensive understanding of the process of soil carbon dynamics. The size of a soil C pool depends on the balance between the input of plant material (litter, roots, and woody debris) and SOC mineralization. The stability of carbon in forest soils depends on various factors such as temperature, moisture levels, microbial activity, and soil type. However, climate change increases the uncertainty of this complex process. Therefore, this Special Issue aims to collect recent findings from different geographic locations to improve our ability to understand and predict the evolution of forest soil C accumulation and SOC stability under a changing climate. 

You are welcome to submit your research to this issue. All topics related to forest soil carbon are encouraged, including the following:

  • New technologies in forest soil carbon research;
  • Climatic effects on soil C storage and stability;
  • Soil carbon fractions and formation;
  • Temperature sensitivity of C mineralization;
  • Forest management and climatic changes.

Dr. Xiang Zhang
Prof. Dr. Zheng Hong Tan
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

  • soil organic carbon
  • soil respiration
  • climate change
  • forest management
  • drought
  • warming
  • temperature sensitivity

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 13413 KiB  
Article
Three-Dimensional Modeling of Soil Organic Carbon Stocks in Forest Ecosystems of Northeastern China Under Future Climate Warming Scenarios
by Shuai Wang, Shouyuan Bian, Zicheng Wang, Zijiao Yang, Chen Li, Xingyu Zhang, Di Shi and Hongbin Liu
Forests 2025, 16(8), 1209; https://doi.org/10.3390/f16081209 - 23 Jul 2025
Viewed by 223
Abstract
Understanding the detailed spatiotemporal variations in soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks is essential for assessing soil carbon sequestration potential. However, most existing studies predominantly focus on topsoil SOC stocks, leaving significant knowledge gaps regarding critical zones, depth-dependent variations, and key influencing factors associated [...] Read more.
Understanding the detailed spatiotemporal variations in soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks is essential for assessing soil carbon sequestration potential. However, most existing studies predominantly focus on topsoil SOC stocks, leaving significant knowledge gaps regarding critical zones, depth-dependent variations, and key influencing factors associated with deeper SOC stock dynamics. This study adopted a comprehensive methodology that integrates random forest modeling, equal-area soil profile analysis, and space-for-time substitution to predict depth-specific SOC stock dynamics under climate warming in Northeast China’s forest ecosystems. By combining these techniques, the approach effectively addresses existing research limitations and provides robust projections of soil carbon changes across various depth intervals. The analysis utilized 63 comprehensive soil profiles and 12 environmental predictors encompassing climatic, topographic, biological, and soil property variables. The model’s predictive accuracy was assessed using 10-fold cross-validation with four evaluation metrics: MAE, RMSE, R2, and LCCC, ensuring comprehensive performance evaluation. Validation results demonstrated the model’s robust predictive capability across all soil layers, achieving high accuracy with minimized MAE and RMSE values while maintaining elevated R2 and LCCC scores. Three-dimensional spatial projections revealed distinct SOC distribution patterns, with higher stocks concentrated in central regions and lower stocks prevalent in northern areas. Under simulated warming conditions (1.5 °C, 2 °C, and 4 °C increases), both topsoil (0–30 cm) and deep-layer (100 cm) SOC stocks exhibited consistent declining trends, with the most pronounced reductions observed under the 4 °C warming scenario. Additionally, the study identified mean annual temperature (MAT) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) as dominant environmental drivers controlling three-dimensional SOC spatial variability. These findings underscore the importance of depth-resolved SOC stock assessments and suggest that precise three-dimensional mapping of SOC distribution under various climate change projections can inform more effective land management strategies, ultimately enhancing regional soil carbon storage capacity in forest ecosystems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Carbon Dynamics of Forest Soils Under Climate Change)
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16 pages, 6645 KiB  
Article
Spatial Distribution Changes and Factor Analysis of Topsoil Organic Carbon Across Different Forest Types on Hainan Island
by Xiang Zhang, Zhongyi Sun, Yinqi Zheng, Lu Dong, Peng Wang, Jie Zhang, Jingli Lu and Lan Wu
Forests 2025, 16(3), 550; https://doi.org/10.3390/f16030550 - 20 Mar 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 543
Abstract
Topsoil organic carbon (SOC, 0–20 cm) is crucial for terrestrial carbon stocks and the global carbon cycle. This study integrated field survey data, re-analysis climatic data, and remote sensing-derived environmental factors to examine SOC distribution and its drivers across forest types on Hainan [...] Read more.
Topsoil organic carbon (SOC, 0–20 cm) is crucial for terrestrial carbon stocks and the global carbon cycle. This study integrated field survey data, re-analysis climatic data, and remote sensing-derived environmental factors to examine SOC distribution and its drivers across forest types on Hainan Island using machine learning models and statistical analysis. The results showed that univariate analysis had limited explanatory power for forest SOC, with terrestrial plantations exhibiting significantly lower SOC than mangroves and natural forests. For mangroves, vapor pressure deficit (VPD) was the most influential factor, followed by precipitation (PRE), the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and forest age; meanwhile, for terrestrial forests, VPD, altitude, PRE, and NDVI were vital drivers. The optimal models demonstrated relatively stronger predictive performance (R2 = 0.71 for mangroves; R2 = 0.81 for terrestrial forests). Mangroves showed higher average SOC (27.91 g/kg) than terrestrial forests (15.82 g/kg), while higher concentrations in the central–western region were attributed to natural terrestrial forests. This study reveals the spatial variation patterns of forest SOC and its environmental regulation mechanisms on Hainan Island, providing important references for forest carbon stock management and environmental protection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Carbon Dynamics of Forest Soils Under Climate Change)
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