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Forests
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Pathways to “Carbon Neutralization” in Forest Ecosystems
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Pathways to “Carbon Neutralization” in Forest Ecosystems

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Meteorology and Climate Change".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2025 | Viewed by 4575

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Shuai Wang

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Guest Editor
College of Land and Environment, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China
Interests: cultivated land quality; landscape ecology; sustainability science; land spatial simulation; land use change
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Qianlai Zhuang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Department of Gronomy, Purdue University, Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
Interests: biogeochemistry and ecosystem modeling; earth system; atmospheric chemistry; greenhouse gas cycling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Fengkui Qian

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
College of Land and Environment, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China
Interests: cultivated land protection; cultivated land quality; sustainable cultivated land use
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Hui Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Forestry, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, China
Interests: soil fertility; carbon sequestration; nutrient cycling

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

The concept of "carbon neutralization" has been around for nearly 18 years. At the same time, the Paris Agreement reached in December 2015 aims to limit the rise in global average temperature to 2℃ compared to pre-industrial levels, pushing "carbon neutralization" to the forefront. Therefore, it is very important to draw the attention of the international community to urgent issues such as climate change, low-carbon economies and policies, green energy and eco-technologies.

Forests Ecosystems are the main body of the terrestrial ecosystem, which can absorb and stabilize the CO₂ in the atmosphere continuously (2 billion tons of carbon from the atmosphere every year), making it a huge carbon sink. Forming the main body of the terrestrial ecosystem, forests play a central role in the regional and global carbon cycles, and it can even be said that after achieving the goal of "carbon neutrality", human fossil fuel use (that is, carbon dioxide emissions) mainly depends on the size of the forest carbon sink; that is, the forest carbon sink plays a "neutral" role in fighting emmisions.

This research topic will cover multiple research fields related to forest ecosystem carbon neutrality, aiming to optimize the approach of "carbon neutrality", which is in line with the aims of Forests.

For this Research Topic, Original Research articles and Reviews are welcome. Potrential research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  1. Clarifying the spatio-temporal change pattern and environmental driving force mechanism of carbon sinks in typical forest ecosystems;
  2. Investigating the interaction mechanism between forest carbon stock change, tree species diversity, and stand structure;
  3. Studying management responses to formation, transformation, and stability of forest soil organic carbon for sequestration;
  4. Proposing estimation methods for forest carbon storage and improving the potential of carbon neutrality, management technology, and countermeasures. 

Dr. Shuai Wang
Prof. Dr. Qianlai Zhuang
Prof. Dr. Fengkui Qian
Dr. Hui Li
Guest Editors

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. 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 carbon emission efficiency
  • spatial association network
  • carbon peak
  • carbon neutralization
  • carbon prediction model

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 6710 KiB  
Article
Response of Topsoil Organic Carbon in the Forests of Northeast China Under Future Climate Scenarios
by Shuai Wang, Yuxi Guan, Zicheng Wang, Zijiao Yang, Chen Li, Xingyu Zhang, Di Shi and Min Zhang
Forests 2024, 15(12), 2138; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15122138 - 4 Dec 2024
Viewed by 707
Abstract
Soil organic carbon (SOC) serves as a highly sensitive indicator of climate change and plays a crucial role in terrestrial carbon cycles. Evaluating the impact of regional land use changes on SOC stocks is essential for assessing ecological and environmental effects. In this [...] Read more.
Soil organic carbon (SOC) serves as a highly sensitive indicator of climate change and plays a crucial role in terrestrial carbon cycles. Evaluating the impact of regional land use changes on SOC stocks is essential for assessing ecological and environmental effects. In this study, we utilized 157 soil samples and 11 environmental variables—including soil properties, topographic factors, and climatic conditions—to develop boosted regression tree (BRT) and random forest (RF) models to estimate topsoil SOC stocks for the year 2015. We used a 10-fold cross-validation approach, along with four validation metrics, to assess model performance. The BRT model demonstrated superior accuracy, with a higher R2 and Lin’s consistency correlation coefficient and a lower mean absolute error and root mean square error compared to the RF model. The key environmental factors influencing SOC stock variability in the BRT model included mean annual temperature, elevation, mean annual precipitation, the topographic wetness index (TWI), and catchment area. Based on this, we employed the space-for-time substitution approach and BRT model to forecast the spatial distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks in Northeast China’s forested regions under future climate scenarios for the 2050s and 2090s. Our findings indicate that, compared to the 2015 levels, the forecast indicates that SOC stocks will decrease by 122 Tg carbon and 123 Tg carbon under two different future scenarios, SSP245 and SSP585, respectively, by the 2050s. By the 2090s, these figures are expected to decrease further by 127 Tg C and 126 Tg C, respectively. Throughout both future periods, SOC stocks will predominantly be concentrated in the northwest region. This research highlights the necessity of thoroughly considering climatic factors in future studies of regional SOC stock dynamics. Moreover, the high-resolution maps produced in this study offer a scientific foundation for enhancing the implementation of ecological management practices in the forested regions of Northeast China, fostering environmental improvement and bolstering SOC and soil management strategies in response to future climate change. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pathways to “Carbon Neutralization” in Forest Ecosystems)
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14 pages, 2741 KiB  
Article
Unveiling the Dynamics of Canopy Transpiration: A Novel Model Integrating Stomatal and Aerodynamic Resistance in Semi-Humid Forests
by Yongxiang Cao, Yushi Wang, Naichang Zhang, Chendong Ning, Nan Dang and Jianbo Jia
Forests 2024, 15(11), 1945; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15111945 - 5 Nov 2024
Viewed by 800
Abstract
Canopy–atmospheric water vapor output resistance (gs) is a key parameter in researching forest canopy transpiration. It is important for quantifying the water vapor exchange in forest ecosystems. However, the method by which gs is determined has been controversial, and it [...] Read more.
Canopy–atmospheric water vapor output resistance (gs) is a key parameter in researching forest canopy transpiration. It is important for quantifying the water vapor exchange in forest ecosystems. However, the method by which gs is determined has been controversial, and it cannot precisely represent water vapor exchange. This study aimed to develop a model to quantify the water vapor resistance between the canopy and the atmosphere in Platycladus orientalis (P. orientalis) forests using sap flow and meteorological factors monitoring data. The resistance model was constructed using the relationship between canopy stomatal resistance (gc) and aerodynamic resistance (ga) from the mechanism perspective, and sap flow data and measurements of meteorological variables were used to model the stomatal and aerodynamic resistance of the canopy. The results indicate that the canopy-atmospheric water vapor output resistance was closer to the measured values and showed a unimodal curve in the diurnal scale, and this change could provide more accurate measurements of tree transpiration. At the same time, the canopy-atmospheric water vapor output resistance was strongly influenced by wind speed and PAR when 0.2 m/s < u < 0.4 m/s (R2 = 0.871, p < 0.01). The stomatal and aerodynamic resistance were also both strongly influenced by wind speed, with the proposed model achieving a high degree of fit (R2 = 0.949, p < 0.01), providing a new tool for analyzing forest transpiration. This research provides a new perspective and technical reference for clarifying the mechanism of forest canopy water output. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pathways to “Carbon Neutralization” in Forest Ecosystems)
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22 pages, 7082 KiB  
Article
Seasonal Variations in Hydraulic Regulation of Whole-Tree Transpiration in Mongolian Pine Plantations: Insights from Semiarid Deserts in Northern China
by Jifeng Deng, Longyan Wan, Yanfeng Bao, Minghan Yu and Qingbin Jia
Forests 2024, 15(8), 1367; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15081367 - 6 Aug 2024
Viewed by 1112
Abstract
Seasonal precipitation variance significantly alters soil water content, potentially inducing water stress and affecting plant transpiration in semiarid deserts. This study explored the effects of environmental variables and hydraulic conductance on whole-tree transpiration (ET) in Mongolian pines (Pinus sylvestris [...] Read more.
Seasonal precipitation variance significantly alters soil water content, potentially inducing water stress and affecting plant transpiration in semiarid deserts. This study explored the effects of environmental variables and hydraulic conductance on whole-tree transpiration (ET) in Mongolian pines (Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica) across different forest stages in the semiarid deserts of Northern China. We measured ET using sap flow in mature (MMP), half-mature (HMP), and young (YMP) Mongolian pine plantations. Measurements included soil-leaf water potential difference (ΔΨ), atmospheric conditions, and soil moisture contents on sunny days, both in dry and wet periods. Seasonally variable rainfall distinctly affected soil moisture; during the dry periods, both stomatal and hydraulic conductance influenced ET, whereas stomatal conductance primarily regulated it during the wet periods. Discrepancies between predicted and measured ET were noticed: compared to the predicted ET, the measured ET was lower during dry periods while higher during wet periods. Hydraulic conductance (KT) increased with tree height (H) and ΔΨ. The KT values in the dry period were lower than those in the wet period, indicating that the hydraulic resistance in the dry period was higher. The hydraulic compensation occurred and was observed between 11:00 and 13:00, aligned with increased hydraulic resistance during dry periods. Decreasing hydraulic conductance intensified leaf water stress in dry periods, especially when photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) were heightened, potentially increasing stomatal sensitivity to drought, promoting water conservation and plant survival. A linear relationship between predawn and midday leaf water potentials was noticed, indicating extreme anisohydric behavior across forest stages during dry and wet periods. Although stomatal and hydraulic conductance influenced ET during the dry period, MMP and YMP were more susceptible to drought conditions. Understanding these dynamics could help evaluate semiarid desert ecological functions for water conservation amidst uneven seasonal precipitation in Northern China. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pathways to “Carbon Neutralization” in Forest Ecosystems)
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17 pages, 12640 KiB  
Article
The Impact of Future Land Use Change on Carbon Emission and Its Optimization Strategy
by Yang Sun, Junjun Zhi, Chenxu Han, Chen Xue, Wenjing Zhao, Wangbing Liu and Shanju Bao
Forests 2024, 15(8), 1292; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15081292 - 24 Jul 2024
Viewed by 1159
Abstract
Rapidly changing climate issues and increasingly severe carbon emissions are great challenges to the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality strategy. Analyzing the impact of future land use changes on carbon emissions can provide an important basis and reference for scientifically constructing a low-carbon [...] Read more.
Rapidly changing climate issues and increasingly severe carbon emissions are great challenges to the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality strategy. Analyzing the impact of future land use changes on carbon emissions can provide an important basis and reference for scientifically constructing a low-carbon and sustainable territorial spatial planning, as well as realizing the goal of the dual-carbon strategy. Based on land use data, agricultural production activity data, and energy consumption statistics, this study simulated the land use changes of the Yangtze River Delta region (YRDR) from 2030 to 2060 under the natural development (ND) scenario and sustainable development (SD) scenario by using the Patch-generating Land Use Simulation (PLUS) model and analyzed the impacts of future land use changes on carbon emissions. The results showed that: (1) The land use simulation results obtained by using the PLUS model under the sustainable development scenario were highly consistent with the actual land use with an OA value of 97.0%, a Kappa coefficient of 0.952, and a FoM coefficient of 0.403; (2) Based on the simulated land use under the SD scenario from 2030 to 2060, the quantity of construction land was effectively controlled, and the spatial distributions of cropland and forests were found to dominate in the north and south of the Yangtze River, respectively; (3) Anhui Province was the major contributor (accounted for 49.5%) to the net carbon absorption by cropland while Zhejiang Province was the major contributor (accounted for 63.3%) to the net carbon absorption by forest in the YRDR during the period 2020–2060 under the SD scenario; (4) Carbon emissions from construction land were the main source of carbon emissions from land use in the YRDR during the period 2020–2060 with proportions higher than 99% under both the ND and SD development scenarios. These findings underscore the urgent need for the government to take measures to balance the relationships between cropland and ecological protection and economic development, which provides a reference for the optimization of land use structure and policy formulation in the future. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pathways to “Carbon Neutralization” in Forest Ecosystems)
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