Forest Land Change and Carbon Stock Dynamics Under Climate Change
A special issue of Land (ISSN 2073-445X). This special issue belongs to the section "Land–Climate Interactions".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 26 March 2027 | Viewed by 11
Editors
Interests: soil organic carbon; forest hydrology; soil spectroscopy
Interests: forest hydrology; water balance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue explores the complex interactions between forest land dynamics and carbon storage in the context of accelerating climate change. Forest ecosystems play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle by acting both as carbon sinks and sources. However, ongoing climate pressures such as rising temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, extreme disturbances, and land-use change are reshaping forest structure, productivity, and long-term carbon storage capacity.
The contributions in this Special Issue examine how forest land changes, including deforestation, afforestation, reforestation, forest degradation, and land-use conversion, affect carbon stocks across different spatial and temporal scales. Several studies employ advanced tools such as remote sensing, ecosystem modeling, and long-term field measurements to quantify changes in aboveground biomass, soil carbon, and overall ecosystem carbon balance. Together, these works highlight the importance of accurate monitoring and improved methodological approaches for assessing forest carbon dynamics.
A key theme across the issue is the role of climate-driven disturbances, such as drought, wildfire, pests, and storms, in altering forest carbon sequestration potential. The research presented demonstrates that climate change not only affects forest growth and mortality but can also accelerate carbon losses, thereby influencing global mitigation efforts.
Importantly, the Special Issue also addresses management and policy implications. Sustainable forest management, landscape restoration, and climate-smart land-use strategies are emphasized as critical pathways for maintaining or enhancing forest carbon stocks while supporting biodiversity and ecosystem resilience.
Overall, this collection provides new insights into the mechanisms driving forest carbon dynamics under changing climatic conditions. It contributes valuable scientific evidence to inform climate mitigation strategies, land management policies, and global efforts aimed at reducing atmospheric carbon concentrations through improved stewardship of forest landscapes.
The goal of this Special Issue is to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) to give insights into the following topics. Interactions between climate change, forest ecosystem dynamics, land-use transformations forest degradation, and land-use conversion on aboveground biomass, soil carbon, and total ecosystem carbon storage. It also encourages studies that explore climate-driven disturbances such as drought, wildfire, pests, and storms and their effects on forest structure, productivity, and carbon sequestration potential.
This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts that link the following themes:
- Forest land-use and land-cover change;
- Forest degradation and restoration;
- Soil carbon dynamics;
- Remote sensing, GIS and geospatial technologies;
- Ecosystem and carbon cycle modeling;
- Regional and global assessments.
We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.
Dr. Lizardo Reyna-Bowen
Dr. Anna Klamerus-Iwan
Prof. Dr. Maria Luisa Izaguirre-Mayoral
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. Land 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 land change
- carbon stocks
- forest carbon dynamics
- climate change
- soil organic carbon
- aboveground and belowground biomass
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