Physiological and Ecological Responses of Arctic and Alpine Plants to Climate Change
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Ecology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2026 | Viewed by 899
Special Issue Editors
Interests: alpine plant ecology with special interests in eco-physiology of alpine plant life, coupling of water, carbon and nitrogen cycling of alpine ecosystems on the Tibetan Plateau
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: geographical patterns of biodiversity; alpine plant regeneration in response to climate change; invasion of alien plant species on the Tibetan Plateau
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Arctic and alpine ecosystems are among the most climate-sensitive regions on Earth. Under accelerating global warming, shifting precipitation patterns and intensified ultraviolet radiation, plants in cold-climate environments face unprecedented challenges to their survival strategies, community structure, and ecological functions. However, critical knowledge gaps remain in our understanding of the physiological adaptation mechanisms, interspecific interaction, and long-term impacts of community dynamics on ecosystem functioning. Unraveling how vulnerable cold-climate plants respond to intensifying climate changes is a pivotal scientific question with far-reaching global implications. This Special Issue aims to synthesize recent multidisciplinary advances and original research on the responses of cold-climate plants, deciphering the physiological and ecological mechanisms underlying arctic and alpine plant responses to changing climate, providing scientific foundations for biodiversity conservation and management strategies.
We welcome submissions addressing, among other topics, plant eco-physiology, dendroecology, phenology, and population- or community-level characteristics in cold environments, with a particular emphasis on their responses to warming, altered precipitation regimes, changing snow cover, extreme climatic events, and interactions with both biotic and abiotic stressors. We especially encourage experimental, observational, and modeling studies that elucidate the underlying mechanisms of resilience, acclimation, and evolutionary adaptation in arctic and alpine areas. The major thematic topics are as follows:
- Plant distribution and adaptation in the cold-climate environments.
- Eco-physiological responses, including photosynthesis, water relation, nutrient mineralization, carbon investment and productivity, etc.
- Phenotypic plasticity, intraspecific trait variation in mediating plant species’ responses to climate change.
- Range shift or vegetation boundary (e.g., tree lines and shrublines) to keep up with climate change.
- Impacts of climate change on plant-plant interactions, plant–pollinator networks and plant–microbial interactions.
- Vulnerability of plants and ecological consequences in response to extreme climatic events (e.g., droughts and snowstorms).
- Seed ecology of cold-climate plants in response to climatic change.
- Plant diversity conservation and ecosystem management.
Dr. Peili Shi
Prof. Dr. Guoyan Wang
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. 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.
Keywords
- arctic and alpine environments
- climate change
- extreme climate events
- biotic interaction
- eco-physiological response
- phenology
- plant and population
- community ecology
- seed ecology
- phenotypic plasticity
- adaptive evolution
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