Metabolomic and Morphological Adaptations of Terrestrial Ecosystems under Global Change

Dear Colleagues,

Rapid global changes, occurring naturally or due to human interventions, include climate change (warming, drought, or floods depending on the region), forest fires, air pollution, land-use change, eutrophication, and their feedbacks. The capacity of natural and crop plants to adapt and survive to those changes is critical to the maintenance of the economic, ecological, and social services of terrestrial ecosystems today and in the future—that is, their sustainability.

To face those changes, plant species modulate their physiological functioning, eventually resulting in changes in their metabolome (production and composition) and morphology (growth, anatomy, and functional traits). These morphochemical modifications (in living plants and litter) are very diverse and include, non-exhaustively, aerial and belowground plant growth, litter production, leaf density, tissue, trichome and stomata development and distribution, and production of both primary (e.g., lignin, primary antioxidants) and specialized metabolites (e.g., phenolic compounds, terpenes).

Despite the vast amount of literature reporting physiological, metabolomic, and morphological modifications of vegetation under global change, experiments performed under long-term scales and/or considering the concomitant impact of several factors are especially scarce.

This interdisciplinary Special Issue welcomes the submission of articles (original research papers, perspectives, hypotheses, opinions, reviews, modeling approaches, and methods) that tackle changes in physiological, metabolomic, and morphological traits of vegetation (living plants, litter) in response to global change-related factors, in both natural and crop ecosystems. Such changes can affect vegetation functioning (e.g., plant adaptation to climate change, litter dynamics, volatile emissions, plant–organism interactions), plant flammability, and trigger environmental feedbacks by altering greenhouse gas and pollutant concentrations in the atmosphere.

Dr. Elena Ormeño
Dr. Silvano Fares
Guest Editors

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