Ecosystem Responses and Restoration under Environmental Change

Ecosystems worldwide are increasingly shaped by a confluence of anthropogenic pressures — contamination, climate change, land-use transformation, resource overexploitation, and biological invasions. These stressors rarely act in isolation; their combined and cascading effects are altering biodiversity patterns, microbial community structure, biogeochemical cycling, and the capacity of ecosystems to recover from disturbance. Understanding how ecosystems respond, adapt, and can be restored under these multiple pressures is one of the most urgent challenges in ecology today.This Research Topic invites contributions that advance our understanding of ecosystem responses to environmental change across terrestrial, freshwater, marine, agricultural, and urban systems. We are particularly interested in studies that address: (i) how individual and combined stressors affect biodiversity, trophic interactions, and ecosystem functioning; (ii) the role of microbial communities in mediating ecosystem resilience and nutrient cycling under environmental stress; (iii) mechanisms and trajectories of natural recovery or active restoration following disturbance; and (iv) sustainable management strategies that balance human needs with long-term ecosystem integrity.We welcome original research articles, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses employing a broad range of approaches, including field observations, manipulative experiments, remote sensing, ecological modelling, and multi-omics techniques. Studies integrating multiple ecosystem types, spatial scales, or methodological frameworks are especially encouraged.This collection aims to build an interdisciplinary knowledge base that connects fundamental ecological science with applied restoration practice, providing evidence-based guidance for ecosystem management under ongoing global change. Topic editors: Zeev Ronen, Yan Xu Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/83066/ecosystem-responses-and-restoration-under-environmental-change