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Forests
Special Issues
Water and Carbon Cycles and Their Coupling in Forest
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Water and Carbon Cycles and Their Coupling in Forest

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Hydrology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 2144

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Beibei Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Ecology and Nature Conservation Institute, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
Interests: forest hydrology; forest ecology; plant water uptake; isotopic hydrology; climate change
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Futing Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Ecology and Nature Conservation Institute, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
Interests: soil carbon cycle; biogeochemistry; microbial community; climate change
Dr. Jian Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Interests: isotopic hydrology; ecohydrology; landscape patterns and ecological processes; stable isotope in ecology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Water and carbon cycles play important roles in material and energy exchange in forest ecosystems. Under climate change conditions, shifts in environmental factors will inevitably trigger changes in water and carbon cycles, thereby affecting the carbon source/sink and evapotranspiration processes of forests. A comprehensive evaluation of the carbon and water cycles in forests and their systems is, therefore, of the utmost importance for understanding their water and carbon budgets. Today, many challenges still remain in this field. For example, in forests, plant and soil carbon cycles and their drivers need to be further explored, especially in terms of evaluating their responses to climate change. Moreover, given climate change and the large heterogeneity of vegetation and soil in different regions, how to strengthen research on carbon/water cycle at the site level and expand it to regional and even global scales is a topic that needs further exploration. In addition, the carbon–water coupling process is also an urgent issue that must be solved. Therefore, the aim of this Special Issue is to collect recent findings related to water and carbon cycles and their couplings in forest systems. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • The assessment of vegetation and soil carbon storage;
  • Carbon cycle and its response to climate change;
  • The precipitation interception capacity of vegetation and soil;
  • Plant water use strategies and efficiency;
  • Evapotranspiration from forest ecosystems;
  • Carbon–water coupling mechanisms.

Dr. Beibei Zhang
Dr. Futing Liu
Dr. Jian 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 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. Forests 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.

Keywords

  • forest ecosystem
  • carbon cycle
  • water cycle
  • carbon–water coupling
  • climate change

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (2 papers)

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27 pages, 9905 KB  
Article
Hydrology and Carbon Flux Interconnections in a Hemiboreal Forest: Impacts of Heatwaves in Järvselja, Estonia
by Felipe Bortolletto Civitate, Emílio Graciliano Ferreira Mercuri and Steffen Manfred Noe
Forests 2026, 17(3), 297; https://doi.org/10.3390/f17030297 - 26 Feb 2026
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Abstract
Understanding the coupling between hydrological dynamics and carbon sequestration is critical for predicting hemiboreal forest resilience to climate extremes. This study investigates water–carbon interactions in the Järvselja forest (Estonia) through a multi-objective hybrid modeling framework. We integrated long-term (2014–2025) eddy covariance flux measurements [...] Read more.
Understanding the coupling between hydrological dynamics and carbon sequestration is critical for predicting hemiboreal forest resilience to climate extremes. This study investigates water–carbon interactions in the Järvselja forest (Estonia) through a multi-objective hybrid modeling framework. We integrated long-term (2014–2025) eddy covariance flux measurements and daily meteorological data with a coupled architecture combining the process-based GR4J-Cemaneige model and a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network. To validate the physical consistency of the deep learning component, we employed Support Vector Regression (SVR) diagnostic probes to map LSTM internal cell states against ERA5 soil moisture reanalysis data and in situ water table measurements. The combined LSTM + GR4J-Cemaneige model outperformed standalone approaches in the calibrated Reola catchment (NSE = 0.887), so by assuming hydrological similarity the hybrid model was regionalized to the streamflow ungauged Kalli basin. An in silico interpretability probe validated that the LSTM implicitly encoded physically meaningful soil moisture dynamics (r>0.9) without explicit training data. The analysis revealed that the 2018 heatwave triggered a synchronous collapse in water availability and carbon uptake, shifting the ecosystem from a robust sink to a net source. A significant legacy effect was observed, with carbon sequestration capacity lagging behind hydrological recovery for two years. The results of this paper substantiate the influence of climate warming on hemiboreal forests, demonstrating its implications for soil hydrology and the availability of water to sustain photosynthesis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water and Carbon Cycles and Their Coupling in Forest)
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21 pages, 3013 KB  
Article
Determining Early Warning Thresholds to Detect Tree Mortality Risk in a Southeastern U.S. Bottomland Hardwood Wetland
by Maricar Aguilos, Jiayin Zhang, Miko Lorenzo Belgado, Ge Sun, Steve McNulty and John King
Forests 2025, 16(8), 1255; https://doi.org/10.3390/f16081255 - 1 Aug 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1311
Abstract
Prolonged inundations are altering coastal forest ecosystems of the southeastern US, causing extensive tree die-offs and the development of ghost forests. This hydrological stressor also alters carbon fluxes, threatening the stability of coastal carbon sinks. This study was conducted to investigate the interactions [...] Read more.
Prolonged inundations are altering coastal forest ecosystems of the southeastern US, causing extensive tree die-offs and the development of ghost forests. This hydrological stressor also alters carbon fluxes, threatening the stability of coastal carbon sinks. This study was conducted to investigate the interactions between hydrological drivers and ecosystem responses by analyzing daily eddy covariance flux data from a wetland forest in North Carolina, USA, spanning 2009–2019. We analyzed temporal patterns of net ecosystem exchange (NEE), gross primary productivity (GPP), and ecosystem respiration (RE) under both flooded and non-flooded conditions and evaluated their relationships with observed tree mortality. Generalized Additive Modeling (GAM) revealed that groundwater table depth (GWT), leaf area index (LAI), NEE, and net radiation (Rn) were key predictors of mortality transitions (R2 = 0.98). Elevated GWT induces root anoxia; declining LAI reduces productivity; elevated NEE signals physiological breakdown; and higher Rn may amplify evapotranspiration stress. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed critical early warning thresholds for tree mortality: GWT = 2.23 cm, LAI = 2.99, NEE = 1.27 g C m−2 d−1, and Rn = 167.54 W m−2. These values offer a basis for forecasting forest mortality risk and guiding early warning systems. Our findings highlight the dominant role of hydrological variability in ecosystem degradation and offer a threshold-based framework for early detection of mortality risks. This approach provides insights into managing coastal forest resilience amid accelerating sea level rise. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water and Carbon Cycles and Their Coupling in Forest)
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