Forest Soil Carbon Cycle in Response to Global Change

Dear Colleagues,

Forests of trees are reservoirs of biodiversity, sustaining a web of life while sequestering carbon, and modulating regional climates. Forests are key components of the global carbon cycle storing more than 39% of the total terrestrial organic carbon both below and above ground. A growing number of studies suggest that tree species mixture can enhance forest productivity. Knowledge of the diversity of plant species' effect on soil organic carbon formation and storage is limited. A better understanding of the relationships between biodiversity, productivity, and carbon sequestration may help in maintaining forest productivity and improving terrestrial carbon cycling, feedback, and their future projection in the context of global change. This Special Issue aims to synthesize the current understanding of relationships between forest productivity, biodiversity, microbial diversity, and carbon persistence and formation, to solve the mechanisms of species diversity affecting soil organic carbon accumulations, and to illustrate how this knowledge could be translated into forest management strategies and long-term carbon sequestrations sustainably in the context of global change.

Manuscripts focusing on forest species diversity, carbon cycling, microbial diversity, soil carbon, litter decomposition and soil carbon formation and persistence are welcomed in this Special Issue.

Dr. Maokui Lyu
Prof. Dr. Jingsheng Xie
Dr. Minhuang Wang
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.