Forest-climate-water nexus under a changing environment: resilience and adaption
Published 24 October, 2024
Introduction:
Forests cover one-third of global landmass and supply 50% of the world’s drinking water. They influence water resources through various ecohydrological processes, such as energy, water and carbon cycling) at multiple scales. In doing so, forests regulate multiple water-related ecosystem services, such as water supply, water purification, flow regulation, soil protection and climate mitigation. Given these critical roles, understanding and managing the forest-water nexus would be crucial for water provision and water-related functions and services.
Forests are undergoing significant changes due to anthropogenic activities like forest harvesting, reforestation, afforestation, land use change and urbanization, as well as and natural disturbances including wildfire, insect infestation and drought. These disturbances, especially drought and wildfires, are expected to intensify with future climate change, posing threats to forest resilience and the forest-water nexus. This in turn jeopardizes the stability of water-related ecosystem services. affecting the forest-water nexus and water-related ecosystem services.
Thus, further research is needed to explore the impacts of climate and forest changes on water provision and to develop forest management strategies that enhance the hydrological resilience of forest ecosystems and sustain water-related services in a changing environment.
At the 26th IUFRO World Congress in Stockholm, Sweden (June 24-29, 2024), the IUFRO Forest and Water Task Force organized various sessions (sub-plenary, technical and postal) to discuss recent research findings on the forest-climate-water nexus. The Task Force emphasized the critical need for an interdisciplinary and holistic approach in both research and management to understand this nexus and its resilience. This Special Issue aims to further advance scientific communication on these key areas.
Topics covered:
This special issue welcomes the studies presented at the Congress as well as original and motivated studies outside of the Congress. Topics for this call for papers include but are not limited to:
- Forest changes on hydrological processes;
- Forest management practices and their impacts on water quantity and quality;
- Forest resilience and water-related ecosystem services;
- Forest-water nexus and climate change adaptation;
- Forestation impact on water and climate;
- Forest carbon and water coupling;
- Biodiversity and forest hydrology; and
- Mechanisms and processes driving the forest-water-climate nexus at multiple scales.
Submission deadline:
December 31st, 2025
Submission instructions
All articles submitted will undergo the journal’s full standard peer-review process. Manuscripts should be formatted according to Forest Ecosystems Guide for Authors and be submitted through the online editorial system. Please ensure that you:
- Select the correct collection title in Editorial Manager’s “Section Category” tab.
- Mention in the covering letter that the manuscript is to be considered for the thematic series “Forest-climate-water nexus under a changing environment: resilience and adaption”.
For further information, please contact the Managing Editor Dr. Li Hui (bjfulihui@gmail.com OR lihui@bjfu.edu.cn).
Guest editors:
Dr. Mingfang Zhang
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.
Email: mingfangzhang@uestc.edu.cn
