Woody Plants and Climate Resilience: Responses to Environmental Stress and Weather Extremes

About this Research Topic

Background

Woody plants, encompassing both shrubs and trees, play a crucial role in managed landscapes, urban plantings, and natural ecosystems by providing essential ecological services. These include climate regulation, soil stabilization, habitat support, water cycle maintenance, and carbon sequestration. These long-lived species often face challenges from climate change and abiotic stresses such as drought, extreme temperatures, and fluctuating water availability. To endure these conditions, woody plants employ an array of strategies, including morphological and anatomical adaptations, physiological and biochemical changes, molecular and genetic mechanisms, phenological shifts, ecological interactions, and human-assisted methods like breeding and biotechnology. Despite advancements in ecological modeling, physiology, and molecular biology, there remain significant knowledge gaps regarding short- and long-term resilience mechanisms of woody plants. Addressing these challenges is critical in developing effective strategies to protect woody plant populations and ensure their survival under increasingly harsh environmental conditions.

The main objective of this Research Topic is to explore the diverse strategies woody plants implement to cope with stressful environmental conditions and extreme weather in the context of climate change. As key components of forests, agroforestry systems, and urban landscapes, woody plants must withstand long-term exposure to abiotic stressors such as drought, heat, salinity, and temperature fluctuations. These adversities pose threats to plant growth and productivity and impact ecosystem stability, biodiversity, and carbon cycling.

In an effort to understand and bolster woody plant resilience, this Research Topic aims to gather interdisciplinary research examining the physiological, biochemical, molecular, and ecological mechanisms behind stress perception, response, and adaptation in these species. It also seeks to highlight innovations in breeding, biotechnology, and management practices that enhance resilience and sustainability. Through global contributions, we seek to identify knowledge gaps, stimulate scientific dialogue, and inform policy and conservation strategies that can support the survival and function of woody plants under future climate scenarios.

This Research Topic welcomes original research articles, reviews, short communications, and perspectives that address woody plants' responses to environmental stress and climate-related challenges. We encourage submissions that delve into physiological, biochemical, molecular, genetic, and ecological mechanisms underlying stress tolerance, as well as studies on breeding, biotechnology, and adaptive management practices aimed at enhancing resilience in woody species.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Responses to drought, salinity, temperature extremes, and irregular weather

• Stress signaling pathways and gene expression

• Morphological and phenological adaptations

• Advances in climate-resilient breeding and biotechnology

• Ecological modeling and resilience assessment

• Interactions with microbiomes and mycorrhizal networks

Authors are encouraged to submit high-quality, novel research that contributes to the understanding and improvement of woody plant resilience in natural and managed ecosystems. Submissions should adhere to the journal's guidelines and formatting instructions.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review

Keywords: Woody plants, Climate change, Tolerance, Resistance, Drought, Cold Weather

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.

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