Seedling Management in Temperate Forest Ecosystems

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2024 | Viewed by 1847

Special Issue Editor

Department of Biotechnologies and Life Sciences (DBSV), University of Insubria, 21100 Varese, Italy
Interests: root anatomy; root architecture; tree stability; ecophysiology; drought
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues

After recruitment, seedling survivorship and growth are increasingly important means of regeneration for plants in the face of rapid climate change and habitat destruction. This is particularly important for temperate forests, where the majority of human activities take place. Therefore, new strategies for improving seedling survivorship are urgently needed for the conservation of forest biodiversity. This Special Issue aims to pay particular attention to the regeneration techniques in nurseries, following the field conditions for which the seedlings are intended (steep or shallow slope); to the abiotic and biotic drivers of seedling survival in the field and their relative importance at different stages of succession; and to the potential allelopathic interaction among species which may impair their growth.

For this Special Issue, potential topics include, but are not limited to, novel insights on seedling management in temperate forest ecosystems, including a) intraspecific plasticity between survival and growth, b) drought resistance, c) shade tolerance, d) chemical defence (allelochemicals), e) new technologies for root and shoot investigation. Original works, reviews, and short communications are all welcome.

Dr. Antonino Di Iorio
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. 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

  • recruitment ecology
  • allelochemicals
  • root-system morphology
  • drought resistance
  • shade tolerance
  • resilience
  • mycorrhiza
  • coexistence
  • phenology

Published Papers (2 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

19 pages, 5000 KiB  
Article
Induced Drought Stress Response of European Beech Seedlings Treated with Hydrogel and Ectomycorrhizal Inoculum
by Ivan Repáč, Martin Belko, Diana Krajmerová, Jaroslav Kmet’ and Martin Pavlík
Forests 2023, 14(9), 1749; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14091749 - 29 Aug 2023
Viewed by 784
Abstract
Bareroot European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) seedlings are frequently used in reforestation programs in Central Europe. However, beech outplanting is often unsuccessful due to drought stress. In this study, the effects of a simulated water deficit and of a hydrogel and ectomycorrhizal [...] Read more.
Bareroot European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) seedlings are frequently used in reforestation programs in Central Europe. However, beech outplanting is often unsuccessful due to drought stress. In this study, the effects of a simulated water deficit and of a hydrogel and ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) application were estimated on the development of 1 + 1 beech seedlings. The roots of 1-year-old bareroot seedlings were treated with the additives at the time of transplanting to pots in spring and then exposed to the whole growing season under different watering regimes: (i) full watering (FW; volumetric water content 70%), (ii) reduced watering (RW; 40%), (iii) periodic watering (PW; substrate rewetted to 70% after drying), and (iv) no watering (NW). Almost all FW seedlings survived the whole growing season, whereas all NW seedlings died after 17 weeks of desiccation. The survival and growth of FW and NW seedlings were significantly higher and lower, respectively, than those under both PW and RW treatments. The additives significantly increased survival in RW seedlings only but had no effect on growth. A promoting effect of FW on the chlorophyll a fluorescence parameters was found. The number and EMF colonization of the short roots were significantly lower in FW seedlings compared to the other watering treatments. The additives did not affect these parameters. The occurrence of neither treatment-specific EMF root morphotype nor fungi applied in the inoculum and traced by molecular analysis indicated the formation of ectomycorrhizas with native EMF in all treatments. The seedlings in the water-deficient treatments exhibited higher foliar nutrient concentrations than FW seedlings. The additives increased the concentration of nutrients in PW and phosphorus in NW seedlings. The results suggest the significant effect of the water supply, but a weaker effect of the additives tested on beech seedling development under experimental conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Seedling Management in Temperate Forest Ecosystems)
Show Figures

Figure 1

11 pages, 3198 KiB  
Article
Is the Fine Root Tensile Strength Predictable from Structural and Morphological Traits across Mycorrhizal Types in Cool-Temperate Woody Species?
by Ruiqi Zeng and Kobayashi Makoto
Forests 2023, 14(8), 1542; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14081542 - 28 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 660
Abstract
The mycorrhizal type affects the structure and functions of tree roots. Therefore, the mechanical traits of the roots of tree species with different types of mycorrhizal fungi may be linked to different root functional traits. Fine roots, in particular, are closely related to [...] Read more.
The mycorrhizal type affects the structure and functions of tree roots. Therefore, the mechanical traits of the roots of tree species with different types of mycorrhizal fungi may be linked to different root functional traits. Fine roots, in particular, are closely related to the root structure and are also important for slope protection. However, the relationship among the mycorrhizal types of trees, root mechanical traits, and root structure remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the link between fine root tensile strength (Tr) and root morphological and/or structural traits in temperate trees with different mycorrhizal types. We investigated the seedlings of 15 dominant tree species in the cool temperate forests of northern Japan. For each species, fine root Tr and other five common root morphological and structural traits were measured. There was a significant positive correlation between total fine root biomass and fine root Tr consistently, even in the analysis of mycorrhizal types (arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM), and ectomycorrhizae (EM)). Our findings indicate that the root structural trait is an important driver of fine root Tr, especially for AM and EM species, and suggest that including a plant-mycorrhizal framework in future work offers great potential to improve our understanding of forest restoration. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Seedling Management in Temperate Forest Ecosystems)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop