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Special Issue "Nutrient Cycling in Forest Ecosystems under Environmental Changes"

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2023 | Viewed by 2882

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Mianhai Zheng

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Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China
Interests: nitrogen deposition; biological nitrogen fixation; biogeochemical cycling; global change; ecological process of forest ecosystem
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Prof. Dr. Zhenghu Zhou

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Center for Ecological Research, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
Interests: global change; microbial community; soil science; forest

Prof. Dr. Chengjie Ren
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College of Agronomy, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
Interests: soil carbon cycle; soil microbial ecology; utilization of soil microbes
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Dr. Hao Chen

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State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen 510006, China
Interests: global changes; nitrogen deposition; carbon cycle; nutrient cycle

Dr. Pengpeng Duan

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Guest Editor

Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha 410125, China
Interests: nitrous oxide; nitrogen transformation; organic carbon; nitrogen deposition; plant diversity

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Global environmental changes, such as elevated nitrogen deposition, increased CO₂ emission, and warming, have altered the nutrient cycles of forest ecosystems. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and other nutrients (including macro- and microelements) are important components that support forest structures and functioning. The environment-induced nutrient imbalance and/or the changes in nutrient dynamics can alter the trajectory of forest development and succession, plant and microbial growth, soil carbon sequestration, vegetation productivity, and further the feedbacks of forest ecosystems to environments. Given the complexity of multiple environmental impacts, it is necessary to accurately understand and evaluate the current status, ecological process, and response mechanisms of forest ecosystems. This Special Issue aims to deepen scientific understanding of the environmental impacts on forest nutrient cycling and provide a scientific basis for improved preservation and management of forests. The article types considered for publication are original research, modeling, or review papers.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

Nutrient cycling in forest ecosystem
Plant–soil–microbe feedbacks and their impacts on nutrient cycling
Regulation of nutrients on forest carbon cycling (e.g., carbon formation, turnover, and emission)
Community composition and diversity of plants and soil microbes in forests
Impacts of environmental change factors (nitrogen deposition, warming, altered precipitation, management strategies, etc.) on ecological processes and ecosystem multifunctionality

Dr. Mianhai Zheng
Prof. Dr. Zhenghu Zhou
Prof. Dr. Chengjie Ren
Dr. Hao Chen
Dr. Pengpeng Duan
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. 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

nitrogen deposition
nutrient cycling
carbon sequestration and loss
resource stoichiometry
plant nutrient acquisition
biogeochemistry
warming
change in precipitation patterns
climate change
ecosystem structures and functioning

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Open AccessArticle

Importance of Considering Enzyme Degradation for Interpreting the Response of Soil Enzyme Activity to Nutrient Addition: Insights from a Field and Laboratory Study

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Forests 2023, 14(6), 1206; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14061206 - 11 Jun 2023

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Abstract

Soil enzyme activity can be affected by both production and degradation processes, as enzymes can be degraded by proteases. However, the impact of nutrient addition on enzyme activity is often solely attributed to changes in enzyme production without fully considering degradation. In this study, we demonstrate that the activities of β-1,4-glucosidase (BG), β-D-cellobiohydrolase (CBH), β-1,4-xylosidase (BX), and β-1,4-N-acetyl-glucosaminidase (NAG) in two tropical plantations exhibited comparable levels between nitrogen (N)- and phosphorus (P)-fertilized soils and the unfertilized control under field conditions. However, it was observed that the reduction in enzymatic activity was significantly higher in the fertilized soils during short-term laboratory incubation in the acacia plantation. Additionally, the eucalyptus plantation exhibited a similar tendency, although statistical significance was not achieved due to the high variance of the data. The results show that the interruption of the natural, continuous supply of organic matter or non-soil microbial-derived enzymes, which typically occurs under field conditions, leads to a more significant reduction in soil enzyme activities in fertilized soils compared to unfertilized control. This may be attributed to the higher abundance of protease in fertilized soils, resulting in faster enzyme degradation. Interestingly, P fertilization alone did not have a similar effect, indicating that N fertilization is likely the main cause of the larger decreases in enzyme activity during incubation in fertilized soils compared to unfertilized control soils, despite our study site being poor in P and rich in N. These findings highlight the importance of considering enzyme degradation when investigating material dynamics in forest ecosystems, including the impact of nutrient addition on enzyme activity, as enzyme production alone may not fully explain changes in soil enzyme activity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrient Cycling in Forest Ecosystems under Environmental Changes)

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Open AccessArticle

Contrasting Soil Microbial Functional Potential for Phosphorus Cycling in Subtropical and Temperate Forests

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Forests 2022, 13(12), 2002; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13122002 - 26 Nov 2022

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Abstract

Microorganisms play important roles in phosphorus (P) cycling via their regulation of P uptake and transport, P mineralization and solubilization, and the mediation of P deficiency in forest biomes. However, the dynamics of microbial P functional genes and the underlying regulatory mechanisms in different forest biomes (e.g., temperate vs. subtropical) have yet to be sufficiently clarified. In this study, we applied a metagenomics approach to investigate changes in the abundance of three microbial P functional gene groups (P starvation response regulation genes, P uptake and transport genes, and P solubilization and mineralization genes) along a subtropical–temperate gradient of forest biomes (23° N–45° N) in China. Our results revealed that the abundances of P starvation response regulation genes in temperate forest biomes were significantly higher than those in the subtropics (p < 0.05), although not in the cases of the other two P functional gene types (p > 0.05). Moreover, in both temperate and subtropical forests, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Verrucomicrobia were identified as key phyla associated with P cycling; moreover, we found dominate species of Acidobacteria and Proteobacteria at genus level were higher in subtropical zones than that of temperate zones, in most cases. Furthermore, our results showed that significant correlation was found between P functional genes and microbial α-diversity along latitude gradient. Furthermore, in both forest biomes, microbial community α-diversity was significantly positively correlated with P starvation response regulation genes (p < 0.05), whereas α-diversity was significantly positively related to P uptake and transport genes in temperate forest biomes (p < 0.001), although not in subtropical forests (p > 0.05). In addition, we found that whereas soil substrates showed significant negative relationships with P solubilization and mineralization genes in temperate forest biomes (p < 0.05), this was not the case in subtropical forests. Collectively, these findings indicate that the responses of microbial P functional genes to the environmental variation in temperate forests are more sensitive than those in subtropical forests, thereby providing a theoretical foundation for further elucidation of the differential regulatory roles of these genes in different forest biomes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrient Cycling in Forest Ecosystems under Environmental Changes)

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Open AccessArticle

Trade-Offs between Economic Gains and Carbon Stocks across a Range of Management Alternatives in Boreal Forests

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Forests 2022, 13(11), 1777; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13111777 - 27 Oct 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 868

Abstract

Boreal forests, storing approximately half of the global forest carbon (C), are key to the global C cycle and climate regulation. The sustainability of C stocks is adversely impacted by forest management. However, the economic gain–C stock relationship across forest management alternatives and diverse C pools remain unclear. Using empirical data, we examined the relationships between economic gains and total ecosystem C in response to the changes in rotation age and overstorey composition in boreal forests. We found that total ecosystem C increased initially, reached a maximum, and declined thereafter with increasing economic gains. The relationships between economic gains and C stocks of live biomass, deadwood, forest floor, and mineral soil followed similar trends with total ecosystem C. Path analysis showed that both rotation age and overstorey composition simultaneously drove economic gains and C stocks that led to their trade-off relationship. We further indicated that maximum economic gains (USD 5000/ha) could lead to approximately 40% loss of total ecosystem C, while the maximum total ecosystem C (320 Mg/ha) could be attained when giving up 50% of economic gains. These results provide broad guides for forest managers and decision-makers towards balancing economic and C objectives in forest management by integrating into a forest carbon market. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrient Cycling in Forest Ecosystems under Environmental Changes)

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Special Issue "Nutrient Cycling in Forest Ecosystems under Environmental Changes"

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