Resilience of Native Grass Species Under Climate Dynamics: Physio-Ecological Insights

Native grass species serve as vital germplasm resources and have evolved impressive traits like drought, cold, disease, and pest resistance, as well as tolerance to saline, alkaline, and nutrient-poor soil conditions through long-term natural selection. Their adaptability to local environments makes them invaluable for ecological restoration, sand dune stabilization, and environmental greening in harsh habitats. Despite the recognized ecological significance of native grasses, the molecular and physio-ecological mechanisms underlying their resilience, particularly under multiple abiotic stresses, are not yet fully understood. Gaining comprehensive insights into their carbon and water use efficiencies, productivity, and genetic adaptation mechanisms is essential to ensure the sustainable utilization and conservation of these grasses amid changing climate scenarios.

Grasslands cover over 40% of the Earth's land area, crucial for biodiversity, carbon cycling, and ecosystem services. These ecosystems are significantly influenced by climate change factors such as heightened atmospheric CO₂ levels, temperature fluctuations, altered precipitation patterns, and increased nitrogen deposition. These factors dynamically affect native grass species' growth, reproduction, competitiveness, and diversity. Understanding the adaptation mechanisms of dominant native species can provide essential insights into vegetation shifts, evolutionary adaptations, and strategies for enhancing climate resilience.

This Research Topic aims to deepen the understanding of physio-ecological and molecular adaptation mechanisms in native grasses in the context of climate change. A specific objective is to illuminate their physiological and ecological strategies for enduring climate-related stresses such as drought and salinity, identify key stress-resistance genes, and assess community responses to climate variability.

To gather further insights into the adaptation mechanisms of native grass species under climate-induced changes, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
• Trait-based analysis of native grasses' adaptability to compound stresses
• Exploration of multiple stress resistance genes and regulatory networks
• Physiological responses to extreme climate changes
• Changes in species composition and diversity in response to long-term environmental changes
• Predictions of grassland resilience and productivity using empirical and model-based approaches

This Research Topic invites mainly reviews, perspectives, and methods papers focused on the responses of native grass species and their communities to environmental changes, integrating ecological, physiological, and molecular dimensions. The outcomes aim to provide a solid scientific foundation for conservation, management, and restoration strategies within indigenous grassland ecosystems under rapid environmental dynamics.

Keywords: native grasses, climate change adaptation, grassland resilience, physio-ecological insights, plant abiotic stress, drought resistance in grasses, salinity tolerance, molecular adaptation, stress resistance genes, ecological restoration, grassland ecosystems, climate dynamics, plant water use efficiency, plant carbon use efficiency, genetic adaptation in plants, ecosystem services, atmospheric CO₂, temperature fluctuations, precipitation patterns, nitrogen deposition, plant community response, vegetation shifts, evolutionary adaptation, climate resilience, trait-based analysis, compound stress in plants, gene regulatory networks, extreme climate events, species composition, grassland biodiversity, grassland productivity models, conservation of grasses, sustainable utilization of germplasm, indigenous grassland management, environmental greening, plant stress physiology, molecular ecology of grasses, long-term environmental changes, sand dune stabilization, plant science review

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.