Green Machines: Understanding the Interplay Between Natural and Human-Induced Factors on Plant Life

Dear Colleagues,

We are organizing a new Special Issue for the MDPI journal Plants titled “Green Machines: Understanding the Interplay Between Natural and Human-Induced Factors on Plant Life”.

Environmental changes, both of natural and anthropogenic origin, play a key role in sessile organisms such as plants. As they lack mobility (except for their disapores), plants are forced to respond “in situ”. The responses of plants to environmental changes occur at different levels. They may be physiological, such as adaptations to heat, sun, shade, drought, flooding. However, plants may also respond at the population level through alterations in birth and death rates, which will lead to a modified community in terms of composition, abundance, and structure. Inter and intraspecific interactions vary as the environment changes and plants respond to these changes. In brief, studying the processes and factors that determine the spatial variation in plants is vital for understanding the biodiversity of plant life. Furthermore, it is key for the comprehension of how plants respond to the increasing impact of human activities and the accompanying environmental changes, which can be local, regional, or even global in scope. Such knowledge will help us make predictions and projections of how plant life will change and, ultimately, be prepared and respond adequately through conservation and restoration actions.

This Special Issue will gather a broad set of studies focusing on the responses of plant life to environmental changes of both natural and anthropogenic origin. Plant responses may occur at different levels, ranging from the physiological to the demographic and community levels. Some of the questions that we will try to answer are as follows: What environmental factors affect plants the most? Are human activities significantly affecting plant life? What remediation actions are available? Are some plant communities more affected than others?

Dr. M. Luisa Martínez
Guest Editor

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. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2700 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.