Unlocking the Secrets of Soil: How Carbon and Nutrient Dynamics Shape Forest Ecosystems
A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Soil".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 May 2026 | Viewed by 19
Special Issue Editors
Interests: soil carbon sequestration; phosphorus dynamics; ecoenzymatic stoichiometry; soil quality improvement; soil stoichiometric imbalance
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Forests are among the most critical terrestrial ecosystems, playing a pivotal role in regulating regional climates. Soil functions as the primary reservoir of carbon and nutrients in forest ecosystems; minor perturbations to soil biogeochemical processes can strongly alter ecosystem carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling. Therefore, elucidating the cycling processes of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other elements is critical for informing effective forest conservation strategies and ensuring long-term ecosystem sustainability. Our Special Issue focuses on studies of element cycling in forest ecosystems, including their underlying mechanisms and response patterns under global change, and nutrient-mediated regulation of forest community structure and ecosystem functions. These studies may conduct cross-scale analyses from macroscopic community patterns to microscale microbial processes. We encourage submissions addressing elemental cycling in tropical, temperate, boreal, coastal, mangrove, and wetland forest ecosystems.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Mechanisms underlying forest soil carbon sequestration processes and stabilization;
- Long-term monitoring and large-scale investigations of forest soil carbon budgets and nutrient cycling processes;
- Dynamics of soil nutrient availability and plant/community adaptation mechanisms in forest ecosystems under global change;
- Impacts of land use/land cover changes on forest nutrient balances;
- Alterations in soil element dynamics and their trajectories under anthropogenic interventions/management.
Dr. Senhao Wang
Dr. Taiki Mori
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 ecosystem functioning
- carbon sequestration
- nutrient cycle
- forest management
- forest community composition and structure
- global change
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