Physiological and Ecological Responses of Arctic and Alpine Plants to Climate Change

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

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