Microbial Community Composition and Function in Forest Soil, 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

The inaugural Special Issue, ‘Microbial Community Composition and Function in Forest Soil’ (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/forests/special_issues/A00EXI3YL9), established a foundational framework for understanding the roles of soil microbes in forest ecosystems, with contributions spanning microbial diversity, nutrient cycling, and responses to anthropogenic disturbances. Highlights included studies on how tree species (e.g., Pinus yunnanensis Franch. and Pinus densata Mast.) shape microbial gene abundances in carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) metabolisms. These findings underscored the critical need to integrate microbial dynamics into sustainable forest management. Building on this success, this second edition seeks to address emerging frontiers in microbial ecology, technological advancements, and pressing environmental challenges.

This Special Issue solicits research on themes including, but not limited to, the following:

(1) Climate–Microbe Interactions: Mechanisms of microbial adaptation to warming, drought, and extreme events (e.g., wildfires) across soil depths.

(2) Microbe–Plant Synergy: Roles of mycorrhizal networks, root exudates, and plant genotype in shaping soil communities.

(3) Synthetic Microbiology: Design and field testing of SynComs for carbon sequestration, pollution remediation, and forest resilience.

(4) Technological Innovations: Applications of multi-omics, single-cell sequencing, and machine learning in microbial ecology.

(5) Ecosystem Services: Microbial contributions to soil fertility, carbon storage, and disease suppression in managed and natural forests.

Dr. Yujing Yang
Prof. Dr. Xiankai Lu
Dr. Xiong Fang
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-anonymized 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.