Forest Growth, Soil Properties and Climate
A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Soil".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2025 | Viewed by 442
Special Issue Editors
Interests: soil; water; plant and farming technology
Interests: soil erosion; soil survey; soil characterization; digital soil mapping
Interests: forestry; silviculture; modeling; biomass; stand structure
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Site quality, genetic factors, and forest management are crucial to forest stand productivity. In physiographically homogeneous landscape units, soil quality, climate, and microclimate determine the variability of the physical environment and the productive potential of a forest ecosystem.
In addition to its support function, soil is a source of water and nutrients for terrestrial plants. Poor performance of these functions can make soil a limiting factor for tree growth and the productivity of forest stands. The soil's physical, chemical, and biological properties, primarily emanating from its profile, directly affect the soil’s ability to provide the necessary resources for forest growth. The climate also plays a major role in tree growth, both by directly affecting vital functions and by influencing the soil's productive capacity. Both soil and climate set limits for fundamental forest planning and management decisions.
In turn, soil formation is a major service provided by forests to society. Furthermore, forests provide protection against erosion and excessive evaporation, promote water drainage and aeration, improve soil structure, and enrich the soil with organic matter and nutrients. By directly interfering in the water cycle, forests also shape the climates within their perimeters and in the surrounding areas. Given the amount of biomass produced, forest soils are one of the largest carbon reservoirs on the planet.
Only a deep knowledge of these mutual influences can guarantee the sustainable management of forest resources, i.e., promoting forest growth, yield, and productivity without compromising other natural resources, particularly soil resources. This Special Issue will focus on examples of these relationships, resulting from ongoing experiments in the scientific community. The contributions should also help to clarify the concept of forest soils, as well as the relative importance of each climatic factor in forest growth.
Dr. José Alexandre Varanda Andrade
Dr. Carlos A. Alexandre
Dr. Ana Cristina Gonçalves
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
- forest growth
- forest soil
- soil properties
- site quality
- forest productivity
- forest climatology
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