About this Research Topic
Extreme climate events such as drought, heat waves, floods and fires are defined by their great magnitude over short temporal scales. Their frequency, intensity and length are expected to increase globally, becoming a serious threat to plants. Cascading effects on plant communities and ecosystem functioning are also likely to occur. In this context, trees are long-lived individuals that contribute to the ecosystem with services, such as extreme temperature mitigation, carbon sequestration and social well-being. Therefore, their resistance and resilience to disturbances can be crucial to limit the impact of climate change, including these extreme events.
Plant responses to abiotic stresses are complex and typically include physiological and metabolic alterations. However, extreme climate events do not provide time for acclimation, and can therefore cause strong negative effects on plants, which in turn can be upscaled to the population and community levels. The impact of extreme climate events may have even more drastic consequences in urban areas, where the urban conditions can exacerbate climate extremes and demographic processes and species coexistence are limited.
The need for greater understanding of the impacts of extreme climate events on woody plants and their ability to recover from them (i.e., their resistance and resilience) is therefore urgent, especially considering the rising frequency of this type of environmental disturbance.
Here, we aim to bring together a collection of studies regarding the investigation of woody plant responses and recovery after extreme climate events in urban and natural ecosystems.
We welcome original research articles, short reports, reviews that will provide a collection of recent advances in understanding the impacts of extreme climatic events on woody species, and their physiological and biochemical mechanisms to cope with and recover from these abiotic stresses.
Both experimental and observational studies at different scales (plant- and community-based) are suitable for this collection, including but not limited to:
- Remote-sensing studies
- Field campaigns
- Common garden experiments
Keywords: woody species, abiotic stress, ecology, urban ecology
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.
