EDITORIAL article
Front. For. Glob. Change
Sec. Forest Management
This article is part of the Research TopicStructure and Functioning of Alpine Treeline EcosystemsView all 7 articles
Structure and Functioning of Alpine Treeline Ecosystems
Provisionally accepted
- 1SRM University AP, Amaravati, India
- 2Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Mengla, China
- 3Piramal Foundation for Education Leadership, Rajasthan, India
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Alpine treelines represent the uppermost limit of forest growth and serve as critical ecological boundaries between cold-tolerant, non-arboreal vegetation and forested communities (Negi et al., 2025). The intricate relationships between vegetation, soils, climate, snow, topography, and disturbance regimes shape treeline ecotones (Schwab et their responses over decadal to millennial timescales are complex and governed by poorly understood lags and feedbacks (Holtmeier and Broll, 2019). Our understanding of the patterns, processes, functioning, and ecosystem services of alpine treeline ecotones and their underlying drivers is still limited. This Research Topic aims to stimulate more and wider discussions about the manifold interactions in treeline ecosystems that influence the products and services on which people rely, the role of natural and human disturbances in affecting these sensitive ecosystems, and strategies to improve their functioning and management. We invited contributions focusing on treeline structure and functioning, degradation of treelines and its drivers, treeline biodiversity in response to global change, vulnerability of treeline ecosystems to climate change, ecosystem services provided by treeline ecosystems and challenges to the functioning of treeline ecosystems and restoration practices.
Keywords: Conservation and management, ecosystem services, treeline dynamics, Treeline Ecosystems, Vegetation patterns
Received: 23 Nov 2025; Accepted: 04 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wani, Ahmad and Bhat. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zishan Ahmad Wani
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