Adaptive Response of Grasslands to Climate and Microclimates Changes

Dear Colleagues,

Grassland ecosystems provide important ecological services and functions such as forage production for animal husbandry, biodiversity conservation, soil and water conservation, carbon storage, water resource regulation, etc. Recent decades, however, have seen rapid climatic warming and changes in precipitation regimes worldwide—e.g., an increase or decrease in precipitation and an increase in annual mean air temperature. Even minor disturbances to grassland habitats may substantially alter above-ground community and below-ground soil processes, and function changes of grassland ecosystems. Hence, above- and below-ground responses of grassland ecosystems to climatic changes and human disturbances have recently drawn significant interest and become a global concern.

The subject of this research topic is to explore the above-ground community and below-ground soil processes, function changes, and driven mechanisms of grassland ecosystems (natural grassland and artificial grassland) responding to direct changing climate or indirect microclimate change caused by disturbances (e.g., dynamics of temperature and precipitation, extreme weather events, grazing disturbance, ecological restoration or protection projects).

We invite papers from researchers to share new ideas, techniques, and findings about this subject from field control test experiments, temporal and spatial-scale studies, or remote sensing studies. These studies will provide insight into the effects of the direct changing climate or the indirect microclimate changing on the above-ground community and below-ground soil processes, and function changes of grassland ecosystems. This is key to predicting future successions of grassland ecosystems under the ongoing global climate and microclimate changes. These studies will influence the future development of adaptive management practices for grassland ecosystems under the ongoing climate change.

We invite papers from researchers to share findings from the spatial–temporal response of natural grassland and artificial grassland under the changing environment based on orientation observations, control experiment research, and spatial analysis research.

Prof. Dr. Gaolin Wu
Prof. Dr. Zhanhuan Shang
Dr. Jian Sun
Guest Editors

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• natural grassland
• artificial grassland
• community
• soil
• climate change
• microhabitat change