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Forests
Special Issues
Forest Ecosystem Dynamics, Carbon-Nitrogen Cycling and Environmental Systems
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Forest Ecosystem Dynamics, Carbon-Nitrogen Cycling and Environmental Systems

A Special Issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907) belonging to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 July 2026) | Viewed by 2812

Editors

Dr. Yibo Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGSNRR, CAS), Beijing, China
2. Department of Architecture, Heilongjiang Institute of Construction Technology, Harbin, China
Interests: forest carbon cycle; forest nitrogen cycling; carbon sink enhancement; forest management and restoration; ecosystem modeling; climate change mitigation
Dr. Guoyong Yan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Life Sciences, Qufu Normal University, Qufu 273165, China
Interests: impact of climate change on forest ecological environment and urban ecological environment; forest carbon and nitrogen cycling; root morphology, structure, and physiological functions
Prof. Dr. Qinggui Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Life Sciences, Qufu Normal University, Qufu 273165, China
Interests: response of forest ecosystems under climate change; the role and value of forest ecosystems in carbon neutrality and carbon peaking; the preservation and utilization of forest plant resources

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Forest Ecosystems are fundamental components of the Earth system, playing a pivotal role in regulating the global carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycles while serving as critical interfaces for addressing environmental challenges such as climate change and ecosystem degradation. Understanding the complex interactions among ecosystem dynamics, strategies for enhancing carbon sinks, and the mechanisms of C–N biogeochemical coupling is essential not only for improving predictions of ecosystem responses to global change but also for guiding sustainable management practices (e.g., forest/restoration ecology, pollution control) and supporting national/global carbon accounting and climate mitigation goals.

This Special Issue explores the interdisciplinary connections between forest ecosystem dynamics and environmental science, with a focus on:

(1) The coupled processes driving ecosystem structure and function (e.g., plant–soil–microbe interactions, energy and material fluxes) across spatial and temporal scales;

(2) Pathways and practices for enhancing carbon sinks (e.g., reforestation, soil carbon sequestration, wetland restoration) and their integration with ecosystem resilience;

(3) The mechanisms and management implications of C–N cycling, including how nutrient dynamics interact with carbon fluxes, influence ecosystem services (e.g., water purification, greenhouse gas regulation), and respond to natural or human-induced disturbances (e.g., pollution, land-use change).

We welcome original research and reviews that leverage diverse methods (field observations, remote sensing, manipulative experiments, meta-analyses, and modeling) to advance mechanistic understanding. Studies may span natural ecosystems (e.g., forests, forest wetland systems), with a shared goal of supporting evidence-based ecosystem management, restoring degraded environments, and informing climate mitigation and environmental sustainability strategies.

Dr. Yibo Li
Dr. Guoyong Yan
Prof. Dr. Qinggui Wang
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.

Keywords

  • forest ecosystem dynamics
  • environmental science
  • carbon sink enhancement
  • carbon–nitrogen coupling
  • ecosystem carbon budget
  • nutrient cycling
  • ecosystem management and restoration

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 9877 KB  
Article
Small-Scale Carbon Storage in a Relict Andean Forest: Linking Species-Level Biomass with Reported Corporate Emissions for Local Climate Mitigation
by Vania Rosas Campos, Antonio Liendo Perea, Ney Ríos Ramírez and Jorge Achata Böttger
Forests 2026, 17(8), 946; https://doi.org/10.3390/f17080946 - 10 Aug 2026
Viewed by 842
Abstract
Research Highlights: This study quantifies aboveground biomass for Oreopanax oroyanus and Escallonia resinosa in an Andean relict forest and examines their conservation relevance related to the scale of emissions voluntarily reported by small corporate emitters. Background and Objectives: Andean relict forests face severe [...] Read more.
Research Highlights: This study quantifies aboveground biomass for Oreopanax oroyanus and Escallonia resinosa in an Andean relict forest and examines their conservation relevance related to the scale of emissions voluntarily reported by small corporate emitters. Background and Objectives: Andean relict forests face severe fragmentation and degradation. This research evaluates carbon stocks in the Bosque de Zárate Reserved Zone (Peru) and explores how these findings may inform climate mitigation and conservation initiatives by examining their potential alignment with emissions voluntarily reported by Peruvian firms participating in a carbon disclosure system. Materials and Methods: A total of 27 plots were evaluated between 3034 and 3200 m a.s.l., tree height and diameter (DBH ≥ 10 cm) were measured for key species, and biomass was estimated using a pantropical allometric equation. Landsat imagery (1985–2025) was analyzed to assess long-term vegetation conditions, while Dynamic World land cover and Sentinel-1 radar (2018–2025) were used to assess forest cover and canopy structure changes. Voluntarily reported emissions of Peruvian firms participating in the “Carbon Footprint Peru” system (2012–2024) were analyzed to contextualize the forest results in the potential corporate interest in climate mitigation in Peru. Results: Total aboveground carbon stock for the altitudinal belt in the study area was 919.4 Mg C (18.6 Mg C ha−1), equivalent to 3374.2 Mg CO2, with Escallonia resinosa accounting for approximately 71% of the estimated stock. Multi-decadal satellite observations indicated persistent forest cover within the evaluated belt, while analysis of voluntarily reported corporate emissions identified numerous service-sector firms with annual emissions below 100 Mg CO2 eq, providing context for the potential scale of future conservation-financing initiatives. Conclusions: Relict forests offer relevant localized carbon storage linked to other ecosystem services. Providing field-based carbon data may support the development of locally relevant community-led initiatives meaningful to climate-financing initiatives. However, the existing carbon stock does not by itself represent a source of carbon credits, and carbon capture-specific studies would need to be implemented to fully assess the mitigation capacity of these ecosystems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Ecosystem Dynamics, Carbon-Nitrogen Cycling and Environmental Systems)
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25 pages, 3332 KB  
Article
Forest Carbon Compensation Accounting and Zoning Optimization Path from the Perspective of Carbon Budget in Fujian Province
by Wanmei Chen, Youquan Ouyang, Wanyi Liu, Jixing Huang, Xiaoyan Hong, Jinhuang Lin and Guoxing Huang
Forests 2026, 17(3), 369; https://doi.org/10.3390/f17030369 - 16 Mar 2026
Viewed by 774
Abstract
Rapid urbanization has seriously interfered with the carbon sink function of forests, and has even led to an increased risk of forest carbon imbalance. It is important to explore the regional carbon compensation mechanism and zoning optimization path based on forest carbon accounting [...] Read more.
Rapid urbanization has seriously interfered with the carbon sink function of forests, and has even led to an increased risk of forest carbon imbalance. It is important to explore the regional carbon compensation mechanism and zoning optimization path based on forest carbon accounting to achieve the “dual carbon” goal and sustainable forest management in Fujian Province. Based on remote sensing and GIS technologies, this study measured forest carbon emissions and carbon sequestration of each county in Fujian Province, revealed spatial and temporal evolution of forest carbon budget during the period from 2000 to 2020, and calculated carbon compensation value of each county, so as to realize scientific accounting of forest carbon compensation, and then explored zoning optimization pathways of forest carbon compensation in Fujian Province. The results show the following: (1) From 2000 to 2020, the forest carbon budget in Fujian Province as a whole showed a spatial pattern of “coastal deficit, northwest surplus”, with obvious spatial imbalance characteristics, and showed a high growth trend of net carbon sequestration. (2) From 2000 to 2020, the average carbon compensation rate in Fujian Province was 7.92, and compensation zones were mainly concentrated in the economically developed southeast coastal regins such as Fuzhou, Quanzhou, Xiamen, Zhangzhou, and Putian, while compensation-receiving zones were mainly concentrated in northwestern mountainous areas such as Nanping, Ningde, and Longyan, which had a high forest coverage rate. (3) From 2000 to 2020, there was a significant difference in growth rates of compensation amounts and compensation-receiving amounts in Fujian Province. The cumulative increase in compensation amounts was 322.82%, while the cumulative increase in compensation-receiving amounts was only 17.5%. (4) Based on priority levels, the counties in Fujian Province are classified into six types of forest carbon compensation zones—potential compensation zones, secondary compensation zones, priority compensation zones, potential compensation-receiving zones, secondary compensation-receiving zones and priority compensation-receiving zones—and optimization paths of differentiated zones are explored. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Ecosystem Dynamics, Carbon-Nitrogen Cycling and Environmental Systems)
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14 pages, 2764 KB  
Article
Cross-Tissue and Spatial Pattern of Carbon Fraction in 41 Fagaceae Species from China
by Yulong Liu, Luna Zhang, Zhecheng Liu, Chengke Dong, Xiaoyi Chao, Yankun Liu and Xingchang Wang
Forests 2026, 17(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/f17010002 - 19 Dec 2025
Viewed by 634
Abstract
Fagaceae trees dominate in the temperate and subtropical forests in East Asia. Understanding the spatial patterns of their carbon contents and the influencing factors can support high-precision forest carbon accounting. A comprehensive understanding of the changes in carbon in multiple organs of trees [...] Read more.
Fagaceae trees dominate in the temperate and subtropical forests in East Asia. Understanding the spatial patterns of their carbon contents and the influencing factors can support high-precision forest carbon accounting. A comprehensive understanding of the changes in carbon in multiple organs of trees such as Fagaceae trees is still lacking at a large scale. This study investigated the inter-tissue variation, spatial patterns, and climatic drivers of carbon fraction across nine tissues (leaves, branches, bark, sapwood, heartwood, stump, coarse roots, medium roots, and fine roots) in 41 Fagaceae species (5 genera) from 12 sites across China’s major forest biomes. The sampling sites ranged from northern temperate to northern-tropical and covered an elevation range of 1200 m. The carbon fraction was measured with dry combustion after dried at 60 °C. Variance decomposition revealed that geographical location was the dominant source of variation (16%–55%), outweighing differences at the species and genus levels. Significant disparities in carbon fraction were observed among tissues, following a general pattern of leaves (517 mg g−1) ≈ fine roots (516 mg g−1) > heartwood (510 mg g−1) > sapwood (504 mg g−1) > branches (501 mg g−1) ≈ medium roots (500 mg g−1) > bark (495 mg g−1) > coarse roots (488 mg g−1) ≈ stump (487 mg g−1). This indicated a “high-at-both-ends” arcuate pattern from leaves to fine roots. Spatially, carbon fractions in most tissues exhibited significant declining trends with increasing latitude and eastward longitude. Generalized additive models identified mean annual temperature and precipitation as the most influential factors for most above-ground tissues, while fine roots were primarily regulated by temperature seasonality. These findings help us understand the differences in tree carbon fraction from an organ perspective, highlighting the critical importance of multi-tissue sampling protocol. We recommend integrating the spatial and climatic drivers for refining forest carbon accounting. More species should be included to separate the species and climatic effects in the future. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Ecosystem Dynamics, Carbon-Nitrogen Cycling and Environmental Systems)
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