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Forests
Special Issues
Drought Impacts on Wood Anatomy and Tree Growth
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Drought Impacts on Wood Anatomy and Tree Growth

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 1665

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Xinsheng Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Geography and Tourism, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241002, China
Interests: transpiration; high-resolution stem radial growth; tree physiology; plant hydraulic traits; sap flow; dendroecology; drought resistance and resilience; tree phenology; plant adaptation to drought
Dr. Rosana López Rodríguez

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
ETSI Montes, Forestal y del Medio Natural. C/ José Antonio Novais, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 10, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: plant hydraulics; water relations; drought resistance; wood anatomy; phenotypic plasticity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change has caused more frequent extreme drought events, which increasingly threaten ecosystem function and services and weakens the potential to mitigate climate change. Declines in tree growth and/or adjustments in wood anatomy have emerged as consequences and a potential adaptive acclimation in woody plants. These biological processes include physiological responses in the seasonality of wood formation as well as structural and hydraulic adjustments in different plant organs at the multi-year scale.

Understanding the impacts of drought on tree growth and wood anatomy at different time scales is pivotal for assessing drought effects on forest ecosystem functioning and providing useful management options for forest adaptation. We are pleased to invite researchers to contribute to this Special Issue focusing on “Drought Impacts on Wood Anatomy and Tree Growth”.

The aim of this Special Issue is to assemble related data to advance our understandings of drought impacts on forest growth, productivity, and wood anatomical properties. Studies using retrospective, modeling, and observational approaches, including but not limited to dendrochronology, wood anatomy, micro-coring, dendrometer, sap flow, etc., are welcome.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Xinsheng Liu
Dr. Rosana López Rodríguez
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

  • climate change
  • drought
  • extreme drought events
  • tree growth
  • wood anatomy
  • dendrometer
  • sap flow
  • micro-coring
  • ecophysiology
  • dendroecology
  • ecohydrology
  • drought resistance and resilience
  • forest management

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 6346 KiB  
Article
Intra-Annual Growth Dynamics and Environmental Response of Leaves, Shoots and Stems in Quercus serrata on Lushan Mountain, Subtropical China
by Dina Fu, Wenpeng Zhang, Xinsheng Liu, Yesi Zhao, Lian Sun, Sirui Zhang and Zilong Chen
Forests 2025, 16(2), 305; https://doi.org/10.3390/f16020305 - 10 Feb 2025
Viewed by 681
Abstract
Primary and secondary growth of trees are key components of carbon sequestration in forest ecosystems. However, the temporal relationships between primary and secondary growth as well as their responses to environmental variations are still poorly understood. Herein, we continuously measured the intra-annual leaf, [...] Read more.
Primary and secondary growth of trees are key components of carbon sequestration in forest ecosystems. However, the temporal relationships between primary and secondary growth as well as their responses to environmental variations are still poorly understood. Herein, we continuously measured the intra-annual leaf, shoot and stem growth of Quercus serrata for two years on Lushan Mountain, southeastern China. Our results showed that shoots were ranked as the first organ to initiate, peak and cease growth, rather than leaves and stems. Moreover, the phenological stages of shoot growth were negatively associated with those of leaves and stems, whereas there was a weak positive correlation in phenological events between leaves and stems. These temporal connections in phenological events between primary and secondary growth suggest a prioritized carbon allocation to shoot growth and a high dependence of stem growth on carbon from newly developing leaves. Although stem growth started earlier in response to the warmer spring in 2018 compared to the colder spring in 2017, no significant difference in annual increment was observed between years, which was related to the more severe drought condition during the dry season in 2018. At the intra-annual scale, different organs generally had a consistent growth response to temperature variables but showed a divergent response to vapor pressure deficit. Despite a relatively short observational period and potential bias in spatial representativeness, our data provide nuanced knowledge on seasonal growth dynamics in primary and secondary of broadleaved species, underlining the importance of jointly considering intra-seasonal variabilities of environmental conditions in order to correctly predict tree growth response to climate change in subtropical regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drought Impacts on Wood Anatomy and Tree Growth)
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15 pages, 1917 KiB  
Article
Morphological, Physiological, and Transcriptional Responses to Drought Stress in Sensitive and Tolerant Elm (Ulmus pumila L.) Varieties
by Xuejie Zhang, Zhicheng Wu, Shoujin Fan and Luoyan Zhang
Forests 2025, 16(1), 72; https://doi.org/10.3390/f16010072 - 5 Jan 2025
Viewed by 707
Abstract
The exploration of the genetic resources of drought-resistant trees is highly significant for improving the ecological environment. Elm trees are widely distributed in the cold and arid regions of the Northern Hemisphere and have a strong tolerance for adverse conditions. This study evaluated [...] Read more.
The exploration of the genetic resources of drought-resistant trees is highly significant for improving the ecological environment. Elm trees are widely distributed in the cold and arid regions of the Northern Hemisphere and have a strong tolerance for adverse conditions. This study evaluated the drought tolerance of 20 elm varieties (Ulmus pumila L.) collected from areas subject to varying degrees of drought and cold. By assessing phenotypic and growth indicators, we found that the drought-sensitive varieties ULP-2 and ULP-3 exhibited a significant reduction in height (31 cm and 16 cm) and root collar diameter (0.37 cm and 0.17 cm), whereas the drought-tolerant varieties ULP-19 and ULP-12 maintained favorable growth conditions under drought stress. Moreover, ULP-19 and ULP-12 displayed significantly fewer yellow leaves (12 and 19) and greater root biomass (237.8 g and 221.2 g). Compared with the sensitive varieties, the relative water content in leaves (21.02% and 30.10%) and roots (26.13% and 34.53%) decreased less in the drought-tolerant varieties. Transcriptome sequence analysis showed that the stable drought resistance of the drought-resistant variety ULP-19 is associated with changes in the processes of carbohydrate metabolism and lignin synthesis in the roots, and these processes are governed by an increase in the regulation of transcription in the leaves of protective pathways controlled by calcium ions and phytohormones (abscisic acid). These results will aid in the selection of appropriate elm varieties for afforestation initiatives and the development of sustainable forest ecosystems in arid regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drought Impacts on Wood Anatomy and Tree Growth)
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