Land degradation is a critical global issue threatening environmental health, food security, and sustainable development. Afforestation has emerged as a vital nature-based solution to combat land degradation by restoring soil structure, enhancing water regulation, sequestering carbon, and supporting biodiversity. Despite extensive research on degraded lands and forestry, there remains a notable gap specifically addressing afforestation of degraded lands, which this study aims to fill through a comprehensive bibliometric and qualitative review of global trends, species use, ecological impacts, and restoration techniques. This study was conducted in two main phases: a bibliometric analysis followed by a traditional literature review. A total of 631 publications published between 1993 and 2024 on the afforestation of degraded lands were analyzed, with the majority consisting of research articles (87%), followed by review papers (5%), book chapters (4%), and conference proceedings (4%). In conclusion, afforestation of degraded lands is a well-established and actively studied field, supported by a substantial body of empirical research and expanding interdisciplinary engagement. The literature encompasses a wide variety of publication types, enabling both the production and dissemination of knowledge across ecological, technical, and socio-economic areas.

There is an increasing trend in forest production towards planting rapid-growing trees as attractive, environmentally friendly energy sources. This study aimed to establish an alternative to the traditional propagation of a number of selections of Robinia pseudoacacia L. by developing an in vitro culture protocol. This study’s topic is of great importance, and it reflects an ongoing concern at the University of Oradea’s Faculty of Environmental Protection’s sustainable research program. The explants from four forms (called S1, S2, S3, and S4), selected for their phenotypic characteristics, were inoculated on four culture media (Murashige–Skoog (MS), Anderson, Chée–Pool, and Driver and Kuniyuki Woody (DKW)) with the same phytohormonal balance. DKW medium proved to be the better support of morphogenic activity, and it was further tested under different phytohormonal balances. Different results were observed depending on the hormone content in the DKW environment. In the presence of 0.5 mg/L benzylaminopurine (BAP) and 0.04 mg/L aminoisobutyric acid (AIB), 91.5% of the explants developed an average of 4.45 ± 0.18 shoots, whereas the average upper shoot height (3.82 cm) was recorded on DKW medium with 0.5 mg/L BAP and 0.04 mg/L α-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA). Auxin, 0.05 mg/L AIB, promoted root production (5.27 ± 0.15 roots/explant), while 0.1 mg/L NAA promoted root length. In conclusion, the S4 selection produced the greatest outcomes of all environmental variables in terms of both the number of shoots and their heights.

This study aims to evaluate the genetic diversity of the species Robinia pseudoacacia L. using several populations selected from places located in the Crișana Region. The first six ISSRs tested gave distinct bands, with a total of 59 loci, of which 45 were polymorphic (63.85%). The percentage of polymorphic loci varied within populations from 33.33% to 100%. The average number of observed alleles (Na) is 1.7627 and the average effective number of alleles (Ne) is 1.4926, indicating that the effective variability is lower than the observed variability. For the Nei (h) gene diversity index, we recorded an average value of 0.2795, and for allelic entropy, the average value of the Shannon index (I) was 0.4137. The study finds a significant differentiation between populations, with a Gst coefficient value of 0.43 indicating that 43% of the variability is due to interpopulation differences.

Oak species (Quercus spp.) represent one of the most widespread and ecologically important groups of woody plants in the Northern Hemisphere, forming dominant forest ecosystems across temperate, Mediterranean, subtropical, and montane regions. Due to their longevity, high wood density, extensive root systems, and large biomass, oaks play a significant role in terrestrial carbon cycling and long-term carbon storage. However, a comprehensive synthesis of the contribution of oak forests to carbon sequestration remains limited. This review integrates a systematic bibliometric assessment with a qualitative synthesis of the peer-reviewed literature to evaluate the role of oak species and oak-dominated forests in carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation. A total of 656 publications indexed in Scopus and Web of Science were analyzed, revealing increasing research activity after 2008 and a broad geographic distribution of studies, with the highest contributions from the United States, Spain, China, and Germany. The reviewed studies demonstrate that oak ecosystems function as substantial and durable carbon sinks, storing carbon in aboveground biomass, belowground biomass, deadwood, litter, and soil organic carbon pools. Carbon sequestration is influenced by stand age, site conditions, species composition, and management practices. This review highlights oak forests as resilient, multifunctional ecosystems, with a critical role in nature-based climate solutions and sustainable forest management.