The Forest Microbiome and Climate Change

Dear Colleagues,

Forests are diverse ecosystems that offer a wide range of services. In addition to the well-known roles of providing wood, energy, food, and recreational spaces, they are also crucial in terms of soil-related services. These include storing carbon, regulating gas emissions, and keeping biogeochemical cycles in check. However, these soil-related functions are sometimes overlooked or underestimated.

Forests play a central role in mitigating climate change; however, these complex ecosystems face challenges such as rising carbon dioxide levels, increasing temperatures, prolonged droughts, wildfires, disease outbreaks and persistent nitrogen deposition. The future of forests depends primarily on the performance and balance of various microbial communities. These include mostly symbiotic bacterial and fungal communities, as well as plant pathogenic microorganisms.

A better understanding of the interactions between plants and microorganisms is crucial for predicting forest dynamics and formulating effective management strategies that strengthen ecosystem stability and mitigate the negative impacts of climate change. Furthermore, these interactions exert a significant influence on wood quality and the availability of wood resources, which underlines their crucial importance.

Manuscripts are being accepted for this Special Issue on the following topics:

• Studies on the biodiversity and function of microbial communities in forests, including forest microbial biogeography.
• The quality of forest soils, including the specific roles of fungal symbionts and bacteria in sequestering carbon.
• The role of microorganisms in carbon cycling and nutrient turnover in forest ecosystems, including biochemical pathways and metabolic processes.
• Enhancing forest soil quality using biotechnologies, including microbiome-based restoration.
• Microbial responses to environmental disturbances and their impact on forest health.
• Human impacts on the forest microbiome and their consequences for forest health.
• Microbial contributions to wood, including the effects of plant–microbial interactions on wood quality, quantity, and accessibility. Also, exploration of how these factors relate to wider forest management strategies.
• Sustainable microbial biotechnology for wood improvement.
• Forest–wood–microbe interactions in the context of climate policy.

Other topics related to forests, wood, and microbial or fungal communities in the context of climate change.

Dr. José Gonçalves
Dr. Davor Kržišnik
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.

• climate change
• forest microbiome
• forest health
• microbial communities
• microbiome
• bacteria
• fungi