Research prospects and progress on chilling injury of economic forest and fruit trees in South China

Chilling injury has posed severe threat to the environment and agroforestry in South China and it has gained considerable research attention in terms of species sensitivity and injury risk with the unfolding global climate change. To thoroughly understand the current status of chilling injury, this study summarized and reviewed progresses in chilling injury researches in South China using relevant literatures in recent ten years. The definition and types of chilling injury, differences between chilling injury and other common types of low-temperature injury, mechanism of chilling injury and its controlling factors, methods of identification and classification of chilling injury, critical temperature of chilling injury of different species in South China, elements and methods of risk assessment of chilling injury, specific defensive practices and appropriate management strategies after chilling injury were discussed in this review. There were the needs for future researches focusing on developing comprehensively standardized chilling injury index, transfer and quantitative expression of cold-resistant genes, dynamic and quantitative evaluation of regional chilling injury risk and risk assessment of chilling injury under global climate change. Also in the future researches, the following aspects should be pay more attention, i. e. accurate and quantifiable grading of chilling injury, early warning and risk assessment of chilling injury using remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) techniques, integration of chilling injury mechanisms and field survey, and consideration of both biological characteristics of plant species and topographic variations. There was the potential for any such future researches to benefit the optimization of plant distribution pattern, accurate early warning for chilling injury and sustainable development of economic forest and fruit trees in South China.