About this Research Topic

Background

Climate change has far-reaching implications for terrestrial ecosystems, significantly transforming their composition, functionality, and delivered services. A methodical understanding of the microbial communities' responses to climatic deviations and proactive formulation of mitigation and adaptation strategies is indispensable. Monitoring constitutes the backbone of this approach. It involves an organized accumulation of data across an extended time-frame to discern alterations pertaining to ecosystem components, which include species composition, biodiversity, and biogeochemical cycles.

Employable techniques encompass traditional field surveys, state-of-the-art remote sensing, and inclusive citizen science initiatives. The resulting data collection offers a comprehensive snapshot of microbial communities' present state in these ecosystems. Importantly, it delineates discernible trends in their responses to climate change, such as species distribution shifts, phenological changes, and alterations in productivity and carbon sequestration.

Subsequently, modeling applies mathematical and computational mechanisms to simulate ecosystem dynamics and project future changes under assorted climate scenarios. Ranging from simple models to complex, multi-faceted numerical simulations, these tools incorporate our understanding of ecological processes and their correlation with climate factors. Crucially, they predict potential climate change effects on ecosystems, like shifts in species richness, community structure, and ecosystem functions. They also evaluate the efficiency of management strategies and guide policy-making decisions.

Together, monitoring and modeling offer a holistic approach to studying terrestrial ecosystems' responses to climate change. They assist scientists in documenting ongoing changes, hypothesizing future scenarios, and creating actionable strategies to conserve ecosystems in the face of escalating global warming and carbon dioxide levels. However, challenges and accompanying uncertainties related to both domains warrant active, dedicated research efforts across the globe.

This Research Topic encourages Mini Reviews, Reviews, and Methods, among others. It is designed to catalyze advancements in these crucial areas and intensify our capability of comprehending and addressing the impacts of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems.

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
• ... View all formats

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
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Climate change, Terrestrial ecosystems, Species composition, Mitigation, Adaptation, Biodiversity, Biogeochemical cycles, Ecological processes, Climatic risks, Greenhouse gas emissions, Sustainable Development Goals, Carbon sequestration, Ecosystem services

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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