Soil Microbial Communities in Forests: Assessing Impact of Disturbances and Climate Change
A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Soil".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2024) | Viewed by 3756
Special Issue Editors
Interests: forestry; environmental science; environmental protection
Interests: microbial ecology; bacteria; microbiology; molecular biology; soil analysis; soil ecology; environment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
A forest's biodiversity is a key factor in its functioning, which results in a multitude of forest ecosystem services and in maintaining its adaptation and resilience to climate change. Forest biodiversity is changing dramatically due to current management practices. The extent of anthropogenic forest conversion to other land uses is continuously increasing over time. In this context, the characterization of the impact of forest disturbance on terrestrial biodiversity is essential. Soil microbial communities are increasingly being used to determine the responses of soils to stress and disturbances. Climate change also significantly impacts the soil biota, with consequences for soil functioning. Microbial communities might thus serve as an indicator of forest ecosystem status. Our understanding on how soil microbial communities will be affected by the disturbances expected from climate change is actually very limited. Therefore, new studies on the responses of microorganisms to various disturbances, including climate change and forest management activities, are needed. This Special Issue is aimed at publishing selected contributions on the effects of forest disturbance and climate change on soil microbial communities and on plant-associated microbiomes. The goal of the current Special Issue is to publish high-quality original scientific articles, paying special (but not exclusive) attention to the following topics:
- Responses of soil microorganisms to forest disturbances;
- Influence of tree vegetation on soil microbial communities and their potential as indicators of vegetation shifts due to climate change;
- Predictions of soil microbial communities' responses to climate change;
- Influence of forest conversion on the composition and activities of soil microorganisms;
- Soil microbial communities' successional patterns during forest ecosystem restoration;
- Influence of soil microbial communities on plant-associated microbiomes in the context of anthropogenic forest disturbance;
- Influence of harvesting on the diversity and structure of soil bacterial and fungal communities.
Both reviews and original research papers are welcome in this Special Issue.
Dr. Aurelia Onet
Dr. Paola Grenni
Guest Editors
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. 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
- forest soil microorganisms
- forest disturbance
- climate change
- anthropogenic forest conversion
- microbial community profile
- microbial metabolic activity
- diversity and abundance of forest soil biota
- disturbance responses of soil bacterial and fungal communities
- soil microbial community and on plant microbiome interactions
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