Effects of Ecosystem Respiration on the Global Carbon Cycle

Dear Colleagues,

Forests cover 31% of the Earth’s land surface and play a significant role in the global carbon cycle. Forests ecosystems have a unique capacity for carbon uptake and storage, but the biotic processes governing this capacity are not fully known. Despite its importance in the global carbon cycle, respiration from forest ecosystems and its components is under-represented in the literature. Available studies indicate considerable variability in the magnitude of respiratory flux, in response to both abiotic and biotic factors (including disturbance). For instance, we still do not know whether tree or forest respiration is proportional to photosynthesis, biomass or both, and under what conditions. This hinders our understanding of the relationships between respiration and net primary and net ecosystem productivities. It is also not known how or whether respiration responds to or drives carbon allocation patterns within forest ecosystems and what the implications are of such responses to root–rhizosphere interactions. As such, modeling representations of forest respiration highlight this lack of functional knowledge. In fact, most large-scale models rely on one component of respiration (growth respiration) scaling with photosynthesis (often as a fixed proportion), and another (maintenance respiration) scaling with existing biomass and temperature and forest microbial respiration responding to soil water and temperature conditions. This results in great uncertainty in climate predictions and impedes characterization of future responses of forest productivity to a changing climate. In this Special Issue, we encourage empirical and modeling studies on any component of forest respiration: from leaves, roots, and bole to soils, ecosystems, and the globe. All forest ecosystem types are included in this call. We are particularly interested in studies that link respiratory processes with other components of the carbon, nutrient or energy cycles (photosynthesis, autotrophic and heterotrophic respiration, net primary productivity, vascular tissue flow), and physiological studies that explore responses of respiration to abiotic and biotic factors (nutrients, temperature, drought, CO2, pests, disturbance, lands use, etc.).

Dr. Miquel Gonzalez-Meler
Dr. Charles Flower
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.

• Autotrophic respiration
• Carbon allocation
• Carbon use efficiency
• Construction costs
• Forest
• Heterotrophic respiration
• Gross primary productivity
• Growth
• Maintenance
• Microbial respiration
• Net primary productivity
• Nutrient uptake
• Photosynthesis
• Respiration
• Soil moisture
• Soil respiration
• Temperature
• Total belowground C allocation