Ecophysiology of Forest Trees and Responses to Environmental Changes

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2022) | Viewed by 8948

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Ecoregion Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Fuchu, Japan
Interests: plant ecology; ecophysiology; soil chemistry; carbon sequestration

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Environmental changes, e.g., increasing CO2 and O3, nitrogen deposition, soil degradation, and global warming, have become important environmental issues. These problems of ‘Environmental Changes’ are now spreading worldwide. Rather than viewing environmental changes as a threat that will adversely affect forest trees, it is also an opportunity to develop innovative approaches in forest tree ecophysiology, management, and forest conservation. Understanding how the ecological and physiological responses in forest trees are affected by an environmental change is therefore fundamental to any sound prediction of future environmental changes. This Special Issue of Forests is calling for original, innovative papers on anatomical, morphological, ecological, and physiological tree responses, including experimental studies, monitoring approaches, and models, to environmental changes at all levels of organization, from the seedling phase to the mature stage.

Dr. Dongsu Choi
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • environmental change
  • tree physiology
  • heavy metal
  • O3
  • global warming
  • CO2
  • photosynthesis
  • nutrient uptake
  • growth
  • forest decline
  • biodiversity
  • disturbance

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 1860 KiB  
Article
Moderate Nitrogen Deposition Alleviates Drought Stress of Bretschneidera sinensis
by Xiao Wang, Gaoyin Wu, Deyan Li and Xiaohui Song
Forests 2023, 14(1), 137; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14010137 - 12 Jan 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1717
Abstract
Droughts are becoming more frequent and intense, and the nitrogen deposition rate is increasing worldwide due to human activities. Young seedlings of Bretschneidera sinensis Hemsl. are susceptible to mortality under drought conditions because their root tips have few root hairs. We studied the [...] Read more.
Droughts are becoming more frequent and intense, and the nitrogen deposition rate is increasing worldwide due to human activities. Young seedlings of Bretschneidera sinensis Hemsl. are susceptible to mortality under drought conditions because their root tips have few root hairs. We studied the effect of nitrogen deposition on the physiological characteristics of two-year-old B. sinensis seedlings under drought stress. Seedlings were grown under no nitrogen deposition (control; N0), low nitrogen deposition (N30, 30 kg·hm−2 year−1), medium nitrogen deposition (N60, 60 kg·hm−2 year−1), and high nitrogen deposition (N90, 90 kg·hm−2 year−1), and were subjected to either the normal watering regime (NW) or drought stress (DW). Under DW, the relative conductivity (RC) of seedlings receiving N60 was not significantly different from that of N0 seedlings, and the RC of seedlings receiving N90 was significantly higher than that of N0 seedlings. Under 10 d DW, N60 treatment increased antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and catalase (CAT) activities and content of soluble protein, chlorophyll a and a + b, with POD activity and soluble protein significantly increasing by 18.89% and 34.66%, respectively. Under DW, the proline (PRO) content of seedlings treated with N90 increased. Our data suggested that moderate nitrogen deposition could alleviate drought stress by decreasing cell membrane permeability, reducing cell membrane peroxidation, increasing the content of osmoregulatory substances, and reducing the tendency for chlorophyll to decline, whereas high nitrogen deposition increased the sensitivity of B. sinensis seedlings to drought stress and aggravated the degree of stress, thereby affecting growth. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecophysiology of Forest Trees and Responses to Environmental Changes)
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14 pages, 3164 KiB  
Article
Tree Water Status Affects Tree Branch Position
by Samuli Junttila, Mariana Campos, Teemu Hölttä, Lauri Lindfors, Aimad El Issaoui, Mikko Vastaranta, Hannu Hyyppä and Eetu Puttonen
Forests 2022, 13(5), 728; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13050728 - 6 May 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4230
Abstract
Physiological processes cause movements of tree stems and branches that occur in a circadian rhythm and over longer time periods, but there is a lack of quantitative understanding of the cause-and-effect relationships. We investigated the movement of tree branches in a long-term drought [...] Read more.
Physiological processes cause movements of tree stems and branches that occur in a circadian rhythm and over longer time periods, but there is a lack of quantitative understanding of the cause-and-effect relationships. We investigated the movement of tree branches in a long-term drought experiment and at a circadian time scale using time-series of terrestrial laser scanning measurements coupled with measurements of environmental drivers and tree water status. Our results showed that movement of branches was largely explained by leaf water status measured as leaf water potential in a controlled environment for both measured trees (R2 = 0.86 and R2 = 0.75). Our hypothesis is that changes in leaf and branch water status would cause branch movements was further supported by strong relationship between vapor pressure deficit and overnight branch movement (R2 = [0.57–0.74]). Due to lower atmospheric water demand during the nighttime, tree branches settle down as the amount of water in leaves increases. The results indicate that the quantified movement of tree branches could help us to further monitor and understand the water relations of tree communities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecophysiology of Forest Trees and Responses to Environmental Changes)
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16 pages, 3963 KiB  
Article
Intraspecific Pollen Morphology Variation and Its Responses to Environmental Factors of Wild Cathaya argyrophylla Chun Et Kuang Endemic to China
by Fen Xiao, Yuchen She, Jiyun She, Yun Wang, Fei Wu, Peng Xie and Qianxin Chen
Forests 2022, 13(5), 651; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13050651 - 22 Apr 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2121
Abstract
Studying the pollen morphology of this remnant and endemic wild species of Cathaya argyrophylla can be of use for paleobiologists. During this study, 23 genotypes sampled from four natural populations in two regions of Hunan Province, China. A total of 460 pollen grains [...] Read more.
Studying the pollen morphology of this remnant and endemic wild species of Cathaya argyrophylla can be of use for paleobiologists. During this study, 23 genotypes sampled from four natural populations in two regions of Hunan Province, China. A total of 460 pollen grains were analyzed for seven quantitative and seven qualitative traits (including five new traits). Three quantitative traits (B, P, and A) (Width of the saccus (B); Length of the polar axis (P); Length of the saccus (A)) and four qualitative traits (O-CO, B-SD, O-CSR, and B-SU) (Pollen corpus outlined in the polar distal view (O-CO); Whether the outline of two sacci was distinct or not in the polar proximal view (B-SD); Roughness degree between corpus from the polar proximal view and the sacci from the polar distal view (O-CSR); Whether the overall size of two sacci was uniform or not (B-SU)) were the diagnostic pollen features that could possible to differentiate one population and classified 23 samples into two, three, or four clusters. Furthermore, 24 environmental factors were evaluated and precipitation factors effected more on pollen morphology than geographic and temperature factors, which including annual precipitation (bio12), precipitation of wettest month and driest month (bio13, bio14), precipitation seasonality (bio15) and monthly averaged precipitation in May (05-precip). The main precipitation and temperature factors exhibited positive and negative correlation with pollen size (B and E (Equatorial diameter (E))), respectively. This article provides deeper insight into intraspecific variability of pollen grains of C. argyrophylla, which have been investigated for the first time. In addition, the insights gained from this study could assist with the seed breeding and population reproduction of the endangered C. argyrophylla tree. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecophysiology of Forest Trees and Responses to Environmental Changes)
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