Changing Driving Mechanisms of Climate Change and Human Management on Forest and Other Vegetation Ecosystems

The ongoing climate change and intensifying human activity have and will continue to impact traits and processes of the forest ecosystem, which affect its ability to provide goods and services for human well-being. Investigating the driving mechanisms of climate change and human management on the forest ecosystem is crucial for decision-makers to manage forest ecosystems to achieve sustainable development. However, the driving mechanisms of climate change and human management of forest ecosystems show a strong spatial heterogeneity. Globally, forest greenness has increased significantly in most parts of the land surface during the last three decades, attributed to the combination of CO₂ fertilization, nitrogen deposition, climate change, and land management. In the high latitudes and plateaus, the effects of climate change explain most of the greening trend. In drylands, the warming trends are twice the global average, increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme climate events. The increasing extreme climate events aggravate the risks of forest disasters and ecosystem degradation. In southeast China and the eastern United States, the observed regional greening mainly results from human land management. Due to the spatial heterogeneity mentioned above, the divergent driving mechanisms need to be further explored in a more spatially specific manner across different climate zones and/or different management approaches.

Moreover, to mitigate climate change, carbon dioxide removal (CDR) has been developed to achieve net zero CO₂ to limit future warming. Currently, afforestation, reforestation, improved forest management, and soil carbon sequestration are the widely practiced CDR methods. However, forest and soil management methods are sensitive to human or natural disturbances. Effective afforestation and its combined benefits will depend on forest policies and measures across multiple scales: international, regional, national, and sub-national. The effects of forest management on climate change mitigation need to be explored using multi-sources data, including ecological and management policy data. Meanwhile, future forest expansion and greening might be limited by water resource conditions under climate warming and drying. This problem is more urgent in arid and semiarid areas, where the forest ecosystem shares water resources with other natural and cultural ecosystems. Comparisons of driving mechanisms between forest ecosystems and other ecosystems are essential for decision-makers to select suitable vegetation types in the development of CDR.

This Research Topic aims to gather innovative research articles dealing with mechanisms of different ecosystem responses to climate warming. We welcome studies based on different approaches focusing on but not limited the following topics:
- Comparison studies of driving mechanisms between forest ecosystems and other ecosystems.
- Effects of forest management on forest greenness and productivity across multiple scales.
- Feedback of ecosystem management to the ongoing climate change
- Phenology variations and their driving mechanisms in forests and other ecosystems.
- Ecosystem responses to environmental disturbances such as extreme climate events.
- Effect of topographic, water stress, and other factors on diversifying climatic driving mechanism of the forest ecosystem.