Special Issue "The Response of Trees to Air Pollution in Urban Forests"

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 916

Special Issue Editors

1. Department of Ecology and Environmental Conservation, Faculty of Biology, Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”, 24 Tzar Assen Street, 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria
2. Department of Microbiology and Ecological biotechnologies, Faculty of Plant protection and Agroecology, Agricultural University, 12 Mendeleev Blvd, 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Interests: urban ecology; urban vegetation; biomonitoring; environmental pollution; oxidative stress; soil ecology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Ecology, Institute for Biological Research 'Siniša Stanković'—National Institute of Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, Bulevar despota Stefana 142, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Interests: environmental pollution; adaptive response of plants; soils science; bioaccumulation and biomonitoring

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The urbanization rate in recent decades, combined with global climate change, has led to dynamic changes in the environmental factors which pose new challenges for urban vegetation. Heat island, higher albedo of buildings’ surfaces, lower moisture, and significant pollution of both air and soil represent a small number of all negative effects of urban landscape to green infrastructure. To address these problems and to build a sustainable urban green infrastructure, the first step should be related to studying the reaction specificity and the tolerance to air pollution of the urban forests in the actual cities’ conditions, and then performing a revision and revaluation of the adaptation ability of the newly planted trees to the degraded urban environment.

We encourage studies from all fields related to the effects of air pollution of urban trees to contribute to this Special Issue. Such information will inform researchers in the fields of air pollution, tree physiology, and urban forestry, as well as landscape architects, arborists, and urban planners.

This Special Issue plans to provide an overview of the most recent advances in the field of sustainable urban forests’ management and the possibilities for enhancing the ecosystem services they provide.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

  • Oxidative stress;
  • Dose–response mechanisms;
  • Impact on plant physiology;
  • Impact on trees diversity;
  • Impact on trees development;
  • Leaf threats;
  • Biochemical markers;
  • Molecular traits.

Dr. Slaveya T. Petrova
Dr. Dragana Pavlović
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

  • air pollution
  • urban forest
  • ecosystem services
  • oxidative stress
  • bioaccumulation

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Plant Traits of Tilia tomentosa Moench, Fraxinus excelsior L., and Pinus nigra J.F.Arnold as a Proxy of Urbanization
Forests 2023, 14(4), 800; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14040800 - 13 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 738
Abstract
Linden, ash, and pine are ubiquitous ornamental trees due to their ability to adapt to the urban environment. They have been key species in urban green infrastructure from more than hundreds of years and play an active role in maintaining ecosystem services. The [...] Read more.
Linden, ash, and pine are ubiquitous ornamental trees due to their ability to adapt to the urban environment. They have been key species in urban green infrastructure from more than hundreds of years and play an active role in maintaining ecosystem services. The urbanization rate in recent decades, combined with global climate change, has led to dynamic changes in the environmental factors which pose new challenges to urban vegetation. Hence, the aims of this study were as follows: (i) to track changes in the content of some elements in plant leaves after transplanting them into an urban environment; (ii) to investigate the relationship between urbanization intensity with plant traits (leaf injuries, photosynthetic activity, transpiration, stomatal conductance, and molecular changes); and (iii) to provide recommendations for improving the management and ecological functions of urban trees. To address these aims, data on urbanization intensity (according to the percentage of built-up area and traffic volume), plant performance, and intraspecific variations of silver linden (Tilia tomentosa), European ash (Fraxinus excelsior), and European black pine (Pinus nigra) were collected at four experimental plots in the city of Plovdiv (Bulgaria) during 2015–2020. The initial concentrations of some potentially toxic elements (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Pb, V, and Zn) in the tree leaves at the beginning (prior to planting into the urban environment) and at the end of the experiment were also measured. We illustrate that the growth of urbanization intensity increased the concentrations of potentially toxic elements in tree leaves, caused leaf injuries, and enhanced the maximum photosynthetic rate but decreased the transpiration rate and stomatal conductance. At the molecular level, the percentage of polymorphic bands was also found to depend on urbanization intensity. High similarity was observed between the trees in the first three experimental plots (subjected to urbanization load), with the lowest similarity in the control plot. These findings are of high practical value for urban planners regarding how to build a new green infrastructure and how to preserve plant diversity in urban areas across urbanization gradients. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Response of Trees to Air Pollution in Urban Forests)
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