Ecophysiological Responses of Tropical Plants to Climate Change

Dear Colleagues,

The impacts of climate change scenarios on tropical forests could be catastrophic and irreversible, possibly affecting photosynthesis and their plant species' growth. The survival and perpetuation of native vegetation under different climate change scenarios will depend, in part, on their ability to adjust carbon pools between source and sink organs. In the long term, vulnerable species will not survive if carbon pools do not meet the immediate demands of their metabolism and growth. Carbon that photoassimilates and is not consumed via cellular respiration is accumulated in the plant cell in the form of non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs; sugars and starch) and cell-wall polymers (CWPs; cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin). Climate change may reduce NSCs to critical levels insufficient to meet the demands of cellular respiration, culminating in metabolic collapse if environmental conditions become severe. In addition to being an energy source, sugars act as environmental signals. These molecules also participate in plant defense mechanisms against drought, flooding, heat, cold, high irradiance, and increased atmospheric CO₂. They combat free radicals, reduce water potential, and protect membranes and biological molecules. Although CWPs are less susceptible to environmental variations due to their rigid nature, the proportions of cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin microfibrils can increase or decrease in tropical species exposed to environmental gradients. Understanding how tropical forest species will respond to future and ongoing climate scenarios is the main objective of this Special Issue. In this Special Issue, we hope to share with ecophysiologists, ecologists, botanists, and others interested in plants advances in our shared knowledge of the defense mechanisms of vulnerable and resistant tropical species to possible damage caused by adverse and/or contrasting environmental conditions. This Special Issue emphasizes the effects of warming, cold, drought, flooding, variations in irradiance, increased atmospheric CO₂, and other abiotic factors on the photosynthesis, growth, and allocation of NSCs and CWPs in tropical forest species.

Prof. Dr. Geraldo Rogério Faustini Cuzzuol
Guest Editor

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• cellulose
• growth
• hemicelluloses
• lignin
• non-structural carbohydrates
• starch
• sugars