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Special Issue "Forest Soil Carbon and Climate Change"

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Guest Editor

School of Forestry, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China
Interests: soil carbon cycle; priming effect; warming; biochar; greenhouse gas

Prof. Dr. Xuhui Zhou

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Guest Editor

School of Forestry, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China
Interests: global change ecology; ecosystem ecology; biogeochemical cycle; ecological modeling and ecoinformatics; data assimilation and ecological forecasting

Dr. Junjiong Shao

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Guest Editor

College of Forestry and Biotechnology, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Hangzhou, China
Interests: carbon cycle; drought; global change; plant evolutionary history; plant water use strategy

Dr. Lingyan Zhou

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Guest Editor

School of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
Interests: global change; carbon cycle; Nitrogen; interaction
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Forest ecosystems cover ~22% of terrestrial area but contribute ~50% of terrestrial carbon (C) reserves. With ~70% of forest carbon being stored in soils, even slight changes in forest soil C stock could exert significant impacts on the atmospheric CO₂ concentration. It is now becoming generally recognized that the magnitude and stability of forest soil C are profoundly influenced by climate changes, such as global warming, changes in precipitation regime, and extreme climatic events. This Special Issue aims to understand the impacts of climate change on soil C cycling, including soil C inputs, outputs, stabilization, and their underlying mechanisms in forest ecosystems. We invite submissions of studies on soil C cycling in response to climate change, which include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

Forest soil organic C and its fractions under changing climate;
Forest soil C fluxes in response to temperature and precipitation changes;
Effects of climate change on soil C stabilization in forests;
The interactive effects of global change factors;
Thermal acclimation of soil C microbial-driven C processes in forests;
Simulating soil C dynamics under climate scenario in forests.

Prof. Dr. Yanghui He
Prof. Dr. Xuhui Zhou
Dr. Junjiong Shao
Dr. Lingyan Zhou
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

soil carbon cycling
soil carbon stability
warming
drought
extreme climate events
interactive effects
thermal acclimation

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Stand Density on Soil Organic Carbon Storage and Extracellular Enzymes Activity of Larch Plantation in Northeast China

and

Forests 2023, 14(7), 1412; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14071412 - 11 Jul 2023

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Abstract

Soil is the largest carbon (C) pool in terrestrial ecosystems. A small change of soil organic carbon (SOC) storage may have a substantial effect on the CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere, potentially leading to global climate change. Forest stand density has been reported to influence SOC storage, yet the effects are often inconsistent. In order to reveal the mechanisms of effect of stand density on SOC storage, larch plantations with three different stand densities (which were 2000, 3300 and 4400 trees per hectare) were chosen. Soil properties were measured in three soil layers which are: 0–20 cm, 20–40 cm and 40–60 cm. An incubation experiment with ¹⁴C-labeled cellulose addition was subsequently conducted to study the decomposition of SOC and cellulose, as well as the enzymes activity involved in C and nutrients cycle. The results showed that SOC storage increased with increasing stand density in larch plantations, which was due to the higher C stored in heavy fraction instead of light fraction in higher density. The decomposition of added cellulose decreased with increasing stand density in each soil layer, as well as the cumulative soil derived CO₂ emission rate. The activity of enzymes involved in C-cycle and C- and nitrogen (N)-cycle remained unaffected by stand density in the 0–20 cm and 20–40 cm layers. The enzyme activity involved in the phosphorus (P)-cycle did not change corresponding to the stand density in each soil layer. Enzymes involved in the N-cycle showed the highest activity in the middle stand density in 0–20 cm, but no difference was observed among different densities in the subsurface layer except for tyr in the 40–60 cm layer, which showed the lowest activity in high stand density. Cellulose addition stimulated the extracellular enzymes activity involved in the C-cycle and P-cycle in the 0–20 cm layer, and the stimulation declined with increasing stand density. However, significant stimulation of cellulose addition to C-cycle involved enzymes activity was not found in the subsurface layer. We aim to reveal the mechanism of effects of stand density of larch plantations on SOC storage by focusing on the cellulose and SOC decomposition and the corresponding extracellular enzymes activity. In the plots of higher stand density, larch plantations may lead to a weaker C output and stronger C input, which leads to the higher SOC storage. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Soil Carbon and Climate Change)

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Open AccessArticle

Responses of Soil Organic Carbon Decomposition and Temperature Sensitivity to N and P Fertilization in Different Soil Aggregates in a Subtropical Forest

and

Forests 2023, 14(1), 72; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14010072 - 30 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 933

Abstract

Soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition, a key process controlling the carbon (C) loss from terrestrial soils to the atmosphere, varies with soil aggregate size and is influenced by increasing nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) inputs from anthropogenic activities. However, how increasing N and P affects SOC decomposition and its temperature sensitivity (Q₁₀) in soil aggregates remains unclear. Thus, we collected soils from a subtropical Cunninghamia lanceolata forest receiving N and P addition for 8 years to explore the interactive effects of N and P fertilization on SOC decomposition and its Q₁₀ in mega-aggregates (>2 mm, MeA), macroaggregates (0.25–2.0 mm, MaA), and microaggregates (<0.25 mm, MiA). Results showed that aggregate size has a huge influence on SOC decomposition and its Q₁₀. Specifically, SOC decomposition in MiA is 49.2% and 26.0% higher than MeA and MaA, respectively. Moreover, the averaged Q₁₀ values were 2.29, 2.26 and 1.83 in MeA, MaA and MiA. SOC decomposition significantly increased by 39.4% in MaA and 23.7% in MiA with N fertilization, but P fertilization had less impact. However, P fertilization increased Q₁₀ by 46.7% in MeA and 46.6% in MaA. Furthermore, we found P fertilization changed the influences of N fertilization on SOC decomposition in MaA and MiA but had no effect on responses of Q₁₀ to N fertilization. Overall, our findings suggested that there were differences in SOC decomposition and Q₁₀ among aggregates, and fertilization treatment had an impact on them. Our results highlighted the significance of considering differences in SOC decomposition and its response to climate warming and nutrient input among different aggregates in the prediction of SOC dynamics and its feedback to environmental changes in terrestrial ecosystems under climate warming scenarios. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Soil Carbon and Climate Change)

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