Drought Tolerance in ​Trees: Growth and Physiology

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2025 | Viewed by 190

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
College of Forestry, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, China
Interests: forest ecology; plant functional traits; droughts; wood anatomy; non-structural carbohydrate
College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China
Interests: forest ecology; tree ring ecology; restoration ecology; ecosystem service functions

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Guest Editor
College of Life Sciences, Shandong Normal University, Ji’nan, China
Interests: plant water physiology; plant functional traits; carbon allocation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The increasing frequency and intensity of drought events worldwide pose significant challenges to forest ecosystems, affecting tree growth, survival, and ecosystem functioning. As the backbone of many terrestrial ecosystems, trees play a critical role in maintaining biodiversity, carbon storage, and water cycles. Understanding the mechanisms that underpin tree responses to drought is, therefore, pivotal to predicting and mitigating the impacts of climate change on forests.

This Special Issue, "Drought Tolerance in ​Trees: Growth and Physiology", aims to bring together cutting-edge research and synthesis on how trees respond to drought at various scales, from molecular to ecosystem levels. By highlighting the latest advances in this field, we hope to foster interdisciplinary collaborations and inspire innovative strategies for forest management and conservation under changing environmental conditions.

The Special Issue welcomes contributions that explore the multifaceted responses of trees to drought. Key areas of focus include, but are not limited to, the following: studies on hydraulic architecture, stomatal regulation, osmotic adjustment, and carbon allocation in trees under drought stress; studies on how drought influences tree growth patterns, biomass distribution, and phenological adjustments; and studies on how tree responses to drought scale up to affect community structure, ecosystem function, and biogeochemical cycles.

We look forward to your contributions to this exciting collection.

Dr. Guangqi Zhang
Dr. Yang Cao
Dr. Peipei Jiang
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

  • drought tolerance
  • drought resistance
  • tree physiology
  • tree growth
  • water stress
  • hydraulic efficiency
  • stomatal regulation
  • xylem cavitation
  • climate resilience
  • forest adaptation

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Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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