Morphological, Physiological and Carbon Balance Response of Trees under Water Stress

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue “Morphological, Physiological and Carbon Balance Response of Trees under Water Stress” for the journal Plants. This Special Issue aims to provide a space for manuscripts that increase our understanding of tree physiological and morphological adaptations and/or responses under potential effects of global warming and water stress affecting carbon fluxes and carbon balance from the leaf to the ecosystem level. Significant areas of the world are recurrently facing extreme climatic events that threaten natural forests and the restoration plans of native species, but also the establishment and sustained productivity of intensively managed plantations in many parts of the world. There is increasing uncertainty about how forest species will be able to respond to more frequent and/or prolonged events of extreme temperatures and droughts that may reduce plant survival, regeneration, and the growth of natural and planted forests. Individual plant and whole ecosystem responses will affect carbon fixation, partitioning, allocation, and sequestration, which may lead to a loss of diversity, changes in species distribution, and the eventual loss of natural species. Similarly, changes in planted species and genotypes may be required to maintain forest productivity, but management strategies for the manipulation of resource availability at an establishment or in younger phases may also provide opportunities to reduce the impacts of climate change on planted forests. Our current understanding of climate change effects on natural and planted forests species is crucial for global ecosystem and social health, but also for providing direction on strategies of adaptation, response, and action to these challenges. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Physiological responses and adaptations to thermal and/or water stress.
• Morphological responses and adaptations to thermal and/or water stress.
• Carbon balance responses under thermal and/or water stress.
• Climate change effects on natural and planted forests.
• Ecophysiological responses under thermal or water stress.
• Tree water use, water use efficiency and growth.
• Genetic (species) x environmental interactions.
• Restoration and establishment strategies for adaptation.

Dr. Rafael A. Rubilar
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. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2700 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
• drought effects
• physiological adaptation
• morphological response
• carbon and water fluxes