Agroforestry Systems and Global Change: Carbon and Nitrogen Cycling Regulation, Ecosystem Functions, and Sustainable Development

Dear Colleagues,

Living organisms regulate the flow of carbon and nitrogen across terrestrial ecosystems, forming the biological foundation of ecosystem functioning under global change. In agricultural, forestry and agroforestry systems, plants, microorganisms and their interactions collectively shape biogeochemical cycles, ecosystem productivity and resilience to environmental stressors.

Agroforestry and diversified land-use systems provide unique biological contexts in which multiple life forms—plants, microbes and associated organisms—interact across spatial and temporal scales. These systems offer valuable opportunities to explore how biological processes, from molecular and microbial mechanisms to community- and ecosystem-level dynamics, mediate carbon and nitrogen cycling under changing climatic and environmental conditions.

Despite increasing interest in nature-based solutions, fundamental questions remain unresolved regarding how biological traits, interactions and adaptive responses regulate carbon and nitrogen transformations across scales. Addressing these questions is essential not only for ecosystem management but also for advancing core themes in life sciences, including ecology, microbiology, systems biology and evolutionary adaptation.

This Special Issue aims to bring together conceptual, experimental and theoretical studies that investigate life-driven mechanisms of carbon and nitrogen regulation, using agroforestry and related systems as model biological systems under global change.

Scope and Topics

We welcome original research articles, review papers and case studies addressing (but not limited to) the following topics:

Biological Regulation of Carbon and Nitrogen Cycling

1. Biological controls on carbon and nitrogen transformation across molecular, microbial, organismal and ecosystem levels
2. Coupled carbon–nitrogen dynamics driven by biological processes
3. Trait-based and functional approaches to understanding biogeochemical regulation

Plant–Microbe–Soil Interactions as Life Processes

1. Plant physiological traits and belowground allocation strategies shaping carbon and nitrogen pathways
2. Microbial functional traits, metabolic networks and community assembly in biogeochemical cycling
3. Emergent properties arising from plant–microbe–environment interactions

Ecosystem Biology under Global Change

1. Biological responses and adaptive mechanisms to climate drivers (warming, drought, elevated CO₂, extreme events)
2. Resilience, resistance and recovery of biological systems following disturbance
3. Feedbacks between biological regulation and ecosystem stability

Systems Biology and Cross-Scale Integration

1. Linking molecular, microbial and ecosystem-level processes in carbon and nitrogen cycling
2. Integrative frameworks, models and theoretical approaches
3. Use of isotopes, omics, trait-based and systems approaches to study life-driven regulation

Conceptual Advances, Hypotheses and Open Questions

1. Novel hypotheses or research ideas related to life-mediated biogeochemical processes
2. Conceptual frameworks connecting agroecosystem biology with fundamental life science questions
3. Perspectives on future research directions at the interface of life sciences and global change

Prof. Dr. Ling Zhang
Dr. Xintong Xu
Dr. Xi Yuan
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-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Life 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.

• carbon and nitrogen cycling
• plant–microbe–soil interactions
• plant-ecology