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Tree Growth and Physiological Properties Under Ongoing Global Climate Change:...
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Tree Growth and Physiological Properties Under Ongoing Global Climate Change: 2nd Edition

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2025 | Viewed by 1139

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Jakub Černý

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Forestry and Game Management Research Institute, Research Station at Opočno, Na Olivě 550, 517 73 Opočno, Czech Republic
Interests: silviculture; forest ecology; forest management; climate change; tree adaptation; resource use
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is known that forest ecosystems, as a significant sink of atmospheric carbon, play a pivotal role in the global carbon cycle, especially under ongoing global climate change (GCC). GCC, characterized by weather and climatic anomalies that primarily include increasing air temperatures and changes in the precipitation distribution during the growing season, significantly affect the provision of forest ecosystem services. GCC also increases forest ecosystems' vulnerability to abiotic and biotic stressors. Therefore, forest adaptation measures promoting tree/ecosystem resistance, resilience, vitality, growth, stability, and sustainability of material and energy fluxes are necessary to ensure secure and sustainable producing and non-producing forest functions.

The submission of new original research and review papers devoted to "carbon forestry" worldwide is encouraged for this Special Issue.

Potential topics include the following:

  • Adaptation strategy;
  • Anatomical/physiological/morphological adaptability;
  • Carbon sequestration;
  • GCC mitigation;
  • Multiple ecosystem services;
  • Resource use;
  • Resilience/resistance of tree species;
  • Sustainable forest management.

Dr. Jakub Černý
Guest Editor

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

  • forest management
  • forest growth and productivity
  • sustainable silviculture
  • forest adaptation
  • tree resilience
  • physiological traits
  • forest acclimation
  • resource use
  • carbon sequestration
  • global climate change

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 3119 KiB  
Article
A Standardized Framework to Estimate Drought-Induced Vulnerability and Its Temporal Variation in Woody Plants Based on Growth
by Antonio Gazol, Elisa Tamudo-Minguez, Cristina Valeriano, Ester González de Andrés, Michele Colangelo and Jesús Julio Camarero
Forests 2025, 16(5), 760; https://doi.org/10.3390/f16050760 (registering DOI) - 29 Apr 2025
Abstract
Forests and scrubland comprise a large proportion of terrestrial ecosystems and, due to the long lifespan of trees and shrubs, their capacity to grow and store carbon as lasting woody tissues is particularly sensitive to warming-enhanced drought occurrence. Climate change may trigger a [...] Read more.
Forests and scrubland comprise a large proportion of terrestrial ecosystems and, due to the long lifespan of trees and shrubs, their capacity to grow and store carbon as lasting woody tissues is particularly sensitive to warming-enhanced drought occurrence. Climate change may trigger a transition from forests to scrubland in many drylands during the coming decades due to the higher resilience of shrubs. However, we lack standardized frameworks to compare the response to drought of woody plants. We present a framework and develop an index to estimate the drought-induced vulnerability (DrVi) of trees and shrubs based on the radial growth trajectory and the response of growth variability to a drought index. We used tree-ring width series of three tree (Pinus halepensis Mill., Juniperus thurifera L., and Acer monspessulanum L.) and three shrub (Juniperus oxycedrus L., Pistacia lentiscus L., and Ephedra nebrodensis Tineo ex Guss.) species from semi-arid areas to test this framework. We compared the DrVi values between species and populations and explored their temporal changes. Across species, the strongest DrVi values were found in declining P. halepensis stands and J. oxycedrus from the same site, while the lowest DrVi values were found in A. monspessulanum, P. lentiscus, and E. nebrodensis. Across populations, J. oxycedrus presented higher vulnerability in one of the dry sites. The P. halepensis declining stand showed a steady increase in DrVi value after the 1980s as the climate shifted toward warmer and drier conditions. We conclude that the DrVi allows comparing species and populations using a standardized general framework. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tree Growth and Physiological Properties Under Ongoing Global Climate Change: 2nd Edition)
25 pages, 4650 KiB  
Article
Growth Responses of European Beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) and Oriental Beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky) Along an Elevation Gradient Under Global Climate Change
by Zdeněk Fuchs, Zdeněk Vacek, Stanislav Vacek, Jakub Černý, Jan Cukor, Václav Šimůnek, Josef Gallo and Vojtěch Hájek
Forests 2025, 16(4), 655; https://doi.org/10.3390/f16040655 - 9 Apr 2025
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Abstract
European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) and Oriental beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky) are ecologically and economically important tree species in European and western Asian forests, which are currently significantly affected by global climate change. To assess their response to climate variability, tree-ring [...] Read more.
European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) and Oriental beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky) are ecologically and economically important tree species in European and western Asian forests, which are currently significantly affected by global climate change. To assess their response to climate variability, tree-ring data from 12 permanent research plots (PRPs) were analyzed in Central Europe and Turkey, covering an elevational gradient from 360 to 1430 m above sea level (a.s.l.). Using 360 tree cores, the relation between air temperature, precipitation, and climate-related stress on radial growth was investigated, alongside production potential and carbon sequestration. The results show that European beech is more sensitive to both air temperature and precipitation than Oriental beech. Carbon sequestration of forest stands ranged from 37 to 361 t·ha−1 depending on the elevational gradient, with European beech storing, on average, 33.1% more carbon than Oriental beech stands. Radial growth was related to both air temperature and precipitation, with the strongest effects observed at mid-elevations (740–950 m a.s.l.). In European beech, both current and previous year temperatures significantly related to growth, whereas in Oriental beech, only the current year was critical. July was the most influential month for tree growth in both species. On PRPs located at lower elevations, radial growth over the past 20 years decreased by 13.1%–19.3% compared to the previous 20-year period, whereas in mountainous areas, it increased by 5.6%–9.8%. Low precipitation during the growing season was the main limiting factor for growth in lowland areas, whereas low temperatures were the primary constraint in mountainous regions, and vice versa. In recent years, the frequency of negative pointer years with extremely low radial growth has been increasing, reflecting a rising occurrence of climate extremes. These findings highlight species-specific climate sensitivities, emphasizing the importance of adaptive forest management strategies for mitigating global climate change impacts and increasing carbon sequestration. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tree Growth and Physiological Properties Under Ongoing Global Climate Change: 2nd Edition)
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15 pages, 1902 KiB  
Article
Is the Concentric Plot Design Reliable for Estimating Structural Parameters of Forest Stands?
by Martin Kománek, Robert Knott, Jan Kadavý and Michal Kneifl
Forests 2024, 15(12), 2246; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15122246 - 20 Dec 2024
Viewed by 711
Abstract
Monitoring forest stands using sampling techniques offers a valuable alternative to conventional forest condition assessment methods in Central Europe. While these designs are optimized for assessing production parameters, their effectiveness for structural characteristics remains unclear. This study evaluates various plot designs to determine [...] Read more.
Monitoring forest stands using sampling techniques offers a valuable alternative to conventional forest condition assessment methods in Central Europe. While these designs are optimized for assessing production parameters, their effectiveness for structural characteristics remains unclear. This study evaluates various plot designs to determine their reliability in estimating structural diversity indices, including the Gini index, Artenprofile index, and Shannon index. We compared ten fixed-radius (FR) sampling designs (plot sizes: 50–1250 m2) and a concentric circle (CC) design (500 m2) employed at the Mendel University Forest Enterprise (Křtiny, Czech Republic). The CC design proved adequate for assessing production parameters and structural diversity indices like Artenprofile and Shannon. However, it showed significant limitations for the Gini index (p < 0.01), due to a smaller number of sampled trees. For the Gini index, fixed-radius plots of at least 150 m2, with 200 m2 being the most cost-effective size, provided the most reliable estimates. Interestingly, the CC design may also be less suitable for production parameters, where smaller fixed-radius plots (50 m2) were more effective, requiring fewer total samples despite the need for more plots. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tree Growth and Physiological Properties Under Ongoing Global Climate Change: 2nd Edition)
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