Year: 2026
Type: editorial
Abstract: The aim of this Research Topic was to catalyse studies that examine not just the magnitude of carbon sequestration, but how climate-driven factors (temperature, precipitation, CO₂ concentrations, plant phenology, extreme events, land-use change) alter the mechanisms of carbon uptake, storage, and loss. Specifically, the issue includes 4 papers ranging from detailed mechanism studying at site scale, to city or regional scale of carbon sequestration estimation, and global scale of GPP controls. While all the papers dealing with the environmental (and land use management) control on the C fluxes or storage. These studies together show widely different controls for terrestrial carbon sequestration at different spatial scales.The importance of temperature in controlling GPP is well established in boreal ecosystems. Recent studies also highlight that there is significant knowledge gap in representing phenology in ecosystem and or global vegetation models. In this collection, He et al. showed that spring phenology to influence photosynthetic control in a boreal peatland ecosystem -highlighting how the timing of climate-driven changes impacts carbon capture. The so-called 'winter brownification' of shrubs in boreal peatlands is shown to regulate the spring photosynthesis. They also suggest a new model scheme based on growing degree-day sum for incorporating spring phenology in calculate GPP, which can be widely used for global vegetation models.The research topic emphasises the growing importance of disturbance: droughts, heatwaves, and compound extreme events. The contribution "Differential impacts of compound dry-and humidhot events on global vegetation productivity" by Liu et Finally, Wang et al studied the soil carbon storage and influence factors in urban forest, a strongly managed system. They used data from field survey and remote sensing and found that tree diameter and plant community structure positively correlated with carbon storage, providing important guideline for urban forests development.What emerges from this collection is not just academic interest, but policy-relevant insight. The collection emphasises that interventions (afforestation, reforestation, wetland restoration, urban greening) cannot simply rely on planting trees and hoping for the best: the species mix, management regime, interaction with disturbance regimes and local climate trajectory all matter. The modelling study in the collection shows that future pathway choices -of land use, ecosystem management, climate policy -will shape carbon sequestration outcomes. The current collection continues that trajectory: mechanistic process studies, remote sensing, modelling, scenario analysis and empirical case studies all appear. But the pace of climate change demands even faster development of frameworks that can integrate across scales, from microbial to landscape, and across disturbances. Therefore, integrating observations, models, and management across scales is essential to predict and sustain soil carbon sequestration under a changing climate.
Authors: Hongxing He, Binggeng Xie, Yongmei Huang, Xiaoyong Bai, Cicheng Zhang
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDGs: Climate action, Life on land
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,801
OpenAlex ID: W7124833376