Call for Papers

Impacts of Droughts and Drought Legacies on Plants and Ecosystems

Edited by: Michael Bahn, Thorsten E.E. Grams, Charlotte Grossiord, Lucy Rowland, Christiane Werner

Summary:

Severe droughts are affecting terrestrial ecosystem functioning worldwide. However, our knowledge of the impacts of the projected increase in frequency and severity of droughts under climate change is sparse, and the implications of recurrent droughts are poorly constrained. This is largely due to a lack of process understanding of the impact of severe droughts, as well as drought legacies. A wide range of physiological and morphological changes can persist after drought release, ranging from the soil to vegetation and ecosystem scales. Drought impacts and legacies can involve plant structural and physiological responses, such as altered stomatal sensitivity to drought, reduced hydraulic conductivity or changes at the root-soil interface. Moreover, effects on plant growth and phenology can alter plant-plant interactions and community composition. Similarly, changes in soil microbial communities, fauna, or soil physical and chemical properties may alter soil processes, with subsequent feedback on soil-plant interactions. Ultimately, changes in ecosystem structure, functioning, and biodiversity have cascading effects on feedbacks and interactions at the community and ecosystem scales.

Thus, severe drought impacts and their legacies may alter the resilience to subsequent droughts, and inversely, recurrent droughts may amplify or buffer drought legacies. Given the accelerating climate change, a better understanding of the processes during severe droughts, as well as mechanisms driving drought legacies, is urgently needed. With this special issue, we aim to enhance experimental and observational evidence of mechanisms and effects of severe droughts on plants and ecosystems, as well as the role of recurrent droughts and drought legacies. We welcome contributions from the organ, species, communities to ecosystem scales, comprising experimental work, field observations, and modelling approaches.

Deadline for submissions: 31 December 2024

Submission guidelines:

Please refer to the journal's Author Guidelines page, which also contains further information on article types. Papers should be submitted at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/plabio.

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