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Forests
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Environmental Signals in Tree Rings
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Environmental Signals in Tree Rings

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 1093

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ouya Fang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
Interests: dendroecology; dendroclimatology; ecological resilience; stress memory; tree growth decline; synchrony in tree growth; climate response; extreme event
Prof. Dr. Ruibo Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Desert Meteorology, China Meteorological Administration, Urumqi 830002, China
Interests: tree rings; dendrochronology; dendroclimatology; dendroglaciology; dendrohydrology; stable isotope; climate change; extreme climates; forest meteorology; forest carbon sink and climate model
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Tree rings serve as natural archives of environmental conditions, providing detailed records of climate variations, environmental stressors, and ecological disturbances over time. By analyzing the width, density, and isotopic composition of tree rings, researchers can explore historical climate patterns, identify periods of forest decline, and estimate the impacts of extreme climate events. This Special Issue seeks to compile cutting-edge research that highlights the role of tree rings in detecting and interpreting environmental signals, encompassing studies in the fields of dendroclimatology and dendroecology.

Dendroclimatological studies should focus on understanding the responses of trees to environmental factors and reconstructing past climates through tree rings. On the other hand, dendroecological studies should investigate how trees adapt to climate change and endure extreme environmental conditions. By bringing together research from various fields in dendroclimatology and dendroecology, this Special Issue aims to enhance our understanding of the environmental signals in tree rings. This knowledge is crucial for developing strategies for sustainable forest management and conservation in the face of ongoing climate change.

Dr. Ouya Fang
Prof. Dr. Ruibo Zhang
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

  • dendrochronology
  • dendroclimatology
  • dendroecology
  • ring width
  • density
  • isotope
  • wood anatomy
  • climate change
  • environmental stresses
  • extreme events
  • growth response
  • reconstruction
  • tree sensitivity
  • adaptation
  • resilience

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 10085 KiB  
Article
Climate–Growth Sensitivity Reveals Species-Specific Adaptation Strategies of Montane Conifers to Warming in the Wuyi Mountains
by Xiao Zheng, Jian Yu, Yaping Hu, Xu Zhou, Hui Ding and Xiaomin Ge
Forests 2025, 16(8), 1299; https://doi.org/10.3390/f16081299 - 8 Aug 2025
Viewed by 165
Abstract
Subtropical high-elevation mountain ecosystems are crucial for regional climate regulation and biodiversity conservation. However, the patterns of conifer radial growth in response to climate change in these regions remain unclear, significantly hindering the development of effective adaptive forest management strategies. This study examined [...] Read more.
Subtropical high-elevation mountain ecosystems are crucial for regional climate regulation and biodiversity conservation. However, the patterns of conifer radial growth in response to climate change in these regions remain unclear, significantly hindering the development of effective adaptive forest management strategies. This study examined Pinus taiwanensis and Cryptomeria fortunei, two dominant species in the Wuyi Mountains, using dendroclimatological methods to systematically analyze their long-term climate–growth relationships. The main findings include the following: (1) P. taiwanensis radial growth was significantly and positively associated with summer mean and maximum temperatures (in both the current and previous year), with no significant correlation to precipitation or minimum temperatures. In contrast, C. fortunei growth showed a positive relationship with previous autumn precipitation and a negative correlation with previous winter precipitation; (2) moving-window analysis revealed that P. taiwanensis maintained consistent temperature sensitivity, with an increasing response to summer warming in recent decades. Meanwhile, C. fortunei displayed phase-specific responses driven by precipitation and minimum temperatures. These results demonstrate divergent climate-response strategies among subtropical conifers in a warming climate: P. taiwanensis exhibits temperature-sensitive growth, whereas C. fortunei is primarily regulated by moisture availability. The findings provide critical insights for the adaptive management of subtropical montane forests, highlighting the need for species-specific strategies to maintain ecosystem services under future climate change. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Signals in Tree Rings)
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13 pages, 2240 KiB  
Article
Multi-Annual Dendroclimatic Patterns for the Desert National Wildlife Refuge, Southern Nevada, USA
by Franco Biondi and James Roberts
Forests 2025, 16(7), 1142; https://doi.org/10.3390/f16071142 - 10 Jul 2025
Viewed by 359
Abstract
Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Lawson & C. Lawson) forests in the western United States have experienced reduced fire frequency since Euro-American settlement, usually because of successful fire suppression policies and even without such human impacts at remote sites in the Great Basin [...] Read more.
Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Lawson & C. Lawson) forests in the western United States have experienced reduced fire frequency since Euro-American settlement, usually because of successful fire suppression policies and even without such human impacts at remote sites in the Great Basin and Mojave Deserts. In an effort to improve our understanding of long-term environmental dynamics in sky-island ecosystems, we developed tree-ring chronologies from ponderosa pines located in the Sheep Mountain Range of southern Nevada, inside the Desert National Wildlife Refuge (DNWR). After comparing those dendrochronological records with other ones available for the south-central Great Basin, we analyzed their climatic response using station-recorded monthly precipitation and air temperature data from 1950 to 2024. The main climatic signal was December through May total precipitation, which was then reconstructed at annual resolution over the past five centuries, from 1490 to 2011 CE. The mean episode duration was 2.6 years, and the maximum drought duration was 11 years (1924–1934; the “Dust Bowl” period), while the longest episode, 19 years (1905–1923), is known throughout North America as the “early 1900s pluvial”. By quantifying multi-annual dry and wet episodes, the period since DNWR establishment was placed in a long-term dendroclimatic framework, allowing us to estimate the potential drought resilience of its unique, tree-dominated environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Signals in Tree Rings)
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