New Challenges in Water, Soil and Forest Management in Drylands

Dear Colleagues,

Drlyand ecosystems always suffer from severe drought, erosion, soil and water loss and land degradation, especially in the context of accelerated climatic change and human disturbances. Worldwide, drylands occupy over 41% of total terrestrial land area and a home of more than 3 billion people, which determine the health and sustainability of our human beings. However, a successful restoration of the degraded ecosystems in drylands faces more and more challenges. Due to less precipitation, high water use and evapotranspiration of dense artificial forests, and degraded land soils, the relations among water, soil and forests are quite complex and need more innovative studies. Only when soil–forest–water are in good relations in such fragile water-restricted regions, can a successful land degradation neutrality and ecosystem sustainability be achieved.

This Special Issue is mainly trying to provide a valuable forum for discussing the new challenges of water, soil and forest management in dryland ecosystems. Land degradation can be reversed by reducing water erosion, increasing vegetation diversity and reserving soil water through adjusting plant density as well as their structures. In the meantime, it is also very important to reduce vegetation mortality through land preparation measures and terracing engineering in water-stressed hillslopes. Therefore, how to take solid and comprehensive measures to reduce erosion and mitigate water stress, improving the local site standards for forests, is the key scientific target of our Special Issue. Additionally, we do believe this topic is closely in keeping with the major scope of Land.

Short communications, research articles, review articles and perspectives are all welcome.

Topics with the followings but not limited:

• Forest, water, human and soil nexus;
• Water erosion control and assessment;
• Land degradation and neutrality measures;
• Climate change and forest management;
• Plant and soil;
• Forest thinning and ecohydrological response;
• Soil and water conservation;
• Drought, flooding and forest;
• Land preparation and terracing.

Prof. Dr. Wei Wei
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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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. Land is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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• forest and water
• evapotranspiration
• forest thinning and soil management
• climate change and vegetation adaptation
• forest transition
• terracing and land preparation
• water erosion control
• ecosystem restoration