Understorey vegetation is a vital forest stratum composed of vascular (woody and non-woody) and nonvascular (liverworts, hornworts, and mosses) plants, which plays an important role in forest ecosystem functioning and provision of ecological services (e.g., ecosystem productivity, carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, tree regeneration, and water conservation). It also can provide food and shelter for animal species, maintain soil physico-chemical properties and biological activity, as well as mitigate carbon emissions. Management practices (e.g., thinning and agroforestry managing) have direct and indirect effects on the species composition and diversity of understorey vegetation, which in turn influence understorey community resistance, adaptation and resilience to general climate changes (e.g., drought and global warming), extreme climate events (e.g., hurricane, heat waves, fire, storms, floods, freezing rain) and other adversities (e.g., strong irradiance, pests, and pathogens).

Research on the roles of understorey vegetation in various forest ecosystem functioning and services and its response to management practice and climate change will provide insights into the scientific management of the reconstruction and restoration of degraded forest ecosystem, and maintenance of ecosystem multilevel structures, spatial patterns and functions. In this special issue, we welcome the submissions of original research articles, reviews, methods, meta-analysis and opinions including but not limited to the following topics:
● Biodiversity, carbon storage and allocation, functional traits, regeneration of understorey vegetation in response to management practice and climate change;
● The impact of understorey vegetation on soil nutrient dynamics, microbial community, gas emission, water conservation, and litter decomposition under forest management and climate change;
● Understorey plant acclimation and adaptation to climate change;
● The relationship of understory vegetation and tree overstory;
● The newly developed nondestructive techniques that predict understory biomass.

Guest Editors

Chenggang Liu, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Hang Wang, Southwest Forestry University, China
Qing-Wei Wang, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Submission Deadline

April 30, 2024. All papers will be published online after acceptance.

Submission Instructions

Please submit the full manuscript to Forestry Research via our online submission system. Please choose the topic of this Special Issue when submitting and specify it in your cover letter. For further inquiries, please contact guest editors:

Chenggang Liu (liuchenggang@xtbg.ac.cn)
Hang Wang (hwang17@163.com)
Qing-Wei Wang (wangqingwei@iae.ac.cn)