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Towards a Sustainable Future: Understanding Climate Change's Impact on Forest Growth

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Forestry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 750

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Forest Sciences and Ecology, Agriculture Academy, Vytautas Magnus University, Studentų Str.11, Akademija, LT-53361 Kaunas, Lithuania
Interests: productivity of pure and mixed stands; short rotation forestry; effects of climate change to forests; growth and yield models
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change affects forests in various aspects that directly impact the productivity of forest stands. Increasing temperatures and precipitation may increase the productivity of boreal forests. Yet, increasing temperatures in temperate forests may lead to severe droughts, fires, or other natural calamities that would hurt these forests’ growth. Thus, planned adaptation to climate change, mainly through introducing new silvicultural measures and strategies, may create new opportunities that arise from climate change. Also, productive forests accumulate more carbon, which could be stored in various forms of wood products.

Thus, this Special Issue, ‘Towards a Sustainable Future: Understanding Climate Change's Impact on Forest Growth’, aims to present the state-of-the-art developments and best sustainable sylvicultural practices for managing pure and mixed forest stands to maintain their productivity in the presence of climate change.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Socio-economic and integrated policies for the sustainable future of forests;
  • Sustainable silvicultural practices to mitigate climate change;
  • Sustainability of forest ecosystems under changing climates;
  • Forest growth and yield modeling approaches for the sustainable management of forests;
  • Renewable energy resources and their sustainability;
  • New carbon sequestration approaches and climate change;
  • Sustainable forest formation under changing environmental conditions;
  • Biodiversity of the natural and anthropogenic ecosystems, and their structure, stability, and variation under climate change and human activity.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Edgaras Linkevičius
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 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. Sustainability 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 2400 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

  • climate change
  • mixtures
  • pure stands
  • fast-growing trees
  • sylviculture
  • productivity
  • carbon sequestration
  • growth and yield modeling

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

25 pages, 2239 KB  
Review
Carbon–Water Coupling in Forest Ecosystems Under Climate Change: Advances in Water Use Efficiency and Sustainability Perspectives
by Xiongwei Liang, Xue Cong, Baolong Du, Yongfu Ju, Yingning Wang and Dan Li
Sustainability 2025, 17(21), 9501; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17219501 - 25 Oct 2025
Viewed by 512
Abstract
Climate change is reshaping how forests balance carbon uptake and water loss. This review aims to clarify how climate change alters forest carbon–water coupling. Using water-use efficiency (WUE) as a unifying lens, we synthesize mechanisms from leaves to ecosystems and evaluate evidence from [...] Read more.
Climate change is reshaping how forests balance carbon uptake and water loss. This review aims to clarify how climate change alters forest carbon–water coupling. Using water-use efficiency (WUE) as a unifying lens, we synthesize mechanisms from leaves to ecosystems and evaluate evidence from studies screened in 2000–2025 spanning eddy covariance, tree-ring isotopes, remote sensing and models. Globally, tree-ring data indicate ~40% intrinsic WUE increases since 1901, yet ecosystem-scale gains are usually <20% after accounting for mesophyll conductance. Under drought, heat and high vapor-pressure deficit, photosynthesis declines more than evapotranspiration, producing partial carbon–water decoupling and lower WUEe. Responses vary with hydraulic traits, forest type/age and site water balance, with notable tropical data gaps. We identify when WUE gains translate into true resilience: stomatal regulation and canopy structure jointly maintain GPP, prevent hydraulic failure and ensure post-event recovery. Management options include thinning, species/provenance choice, mixed stands and adaptive rotations to balance carbon storage with water yield. Key uncertainties stem from sparse long-term observations, tropical satellite biases and models that overestimate WUE or underplay extremes. We recommend integrating multi-source, multi-scale data with interpretable hybrid models, expanding tropical networks and strengthening MRV frameworks to support risk-aware, climate-smart forestry. Full article
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