Soil Biota and Fertility Under Forest Degradation
A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Soil".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 49
Special Issue Editors
Interests: global change ecology; soil nutrient cycling; soil-plant interactions; ecosystem restoration; soil productivity
2. Centre for Ecology and Environmental Sciences, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China
Interests: soil fertility and plant nutrition; biogeochemistry of C and N; soil organic matter (SOM); recycling of organic wastes; biochar production and utilization; plant growth under stress conditions; phytoremediation of emerging pollutants; bioremediation; biofertilizers; composting from organic wastes; soil microbial biomass
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Forest degradation is a pervasive global threat that profoundly disrupts forest soil biota and fertility, affecting forest productivity and the ecosystem services they offer. With the intensification of global climate change and its negative consequences on environmental sustainability, combating forest degradation to restore the ecosystem services they provide requires an adequate understanding of the responses of soil biota to degradation and restoration efforts, and their relationship with forest soil fertility. This Special Issue, “Soil Biota and Fertility Under Forest Degradation”, seeks to give an overview of recent advances on the impact of soil degradation on the loss of key faunal and microbial communities, nitrogen-fixing bacteria, and macrofauna like earthworms that drive essential ecosystem services and soil fertility. These also include the alteration in soil nutrient cycling, organic matter decomposition, and soil structure under forest degradation scenarios. This Special Issue aims to highlight the critical link between aboveground disturbance and belowground resilience, emphasizing that the deterioration of soil biological health is a primary driver of the long-term decline in forest productivity and recovery potential. This collection aims to advance our understanding of forest degradation on soil health and provide crucial insights for developing effective strategies for ecological restoration, soil conservation, and sustainable management of degraded forest soils.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
- Restoration Practices to Rebuild Soil Biological Fertility;
- Shifts in Microbial Community Structure and Function;
- The Fate of Soil Organic Matter and Carbon Dynamics;
- Soil Nutrient alteration and Dynamics;
- Impacts on Soil Fauna and Ecosystem Engineering;
- Plant–Soil Feedbacks and Recovery Trajectories.
Dr. Muhammed Mustapha Ibrahim
Dr. Adnan Mustafa
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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
- microbial dynamics
- forests productivity
- deforestation
- nutrient addition
- forest restoration
- plant-microbial interactions
- climate change
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