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Diversity
Special Issues
Structure and Ecosystem Services of Forests
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Structure and Ecosystem Services of Forests

A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Diversity".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 May 2023) | Viewed by 6842

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jian Lin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Sierra Nevada Research Institute, University of California Merced, Merced, CA 95340, USA
Interests: urban forestry; ecosystem services; environmental justice; remote sensing; nature-based solutions
Dr. Qin Ma

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Geography, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023，China
Interests: forest aboveground biomass; tree height; LiDAR; forest age; wildfire; drought; disturbances.
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Jingyu Dai

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Urban and Environmental Science and MOE Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Interests: biogeography; forest dynamic; LiDAR; plant ecology; plant functional traits; remote sensing; tree allometry; tree drought acclimation
Dr. Weichao Guo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Sierra Nevada Research Institute, University of California Merced, Merced, CA 95340, USA
Interests: carbon neutral; ecosystem services; fire disturbance; forest management; earth system modeling
Dr. Yang Ju

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
Interests: urban green space; environmental justice; environmental health; urban planning; remote sensing

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Forests provide multiple ecosystem services (ESs) to benefit human livelihoods and societies, ranging from meeting people’s basic needs (e.g., food supply, water purification, and climate regulation) to satisfy other constituents of well-being (e.g., aesthetic and spiritual benefits, physical and mental health). Despite the increasingly recognized roles of forests for sustainable development, forests worldwide are facing unprecedented threats from climate change, urbanization, and increased disturbances. To inform management and policy addressing these challenges, forest structure and ESs need to be quantified with the state-of-art metrics, data and methods. In addition, the linkages between forest structure, biodiversity, and ESs and the contribution of forests to human societies need to be explicitly quantified. This Special Issue focuses on various aspects of forest studies, such as innovative methods for quantifying forest structure and ESs, environmental or artificial factors affecting forest structure and ESs, and the contribution of forest to sustainable and equitable communities. We welcome forest studies in any setting from urban, rural, to wildland, and call for theoretical, methodological, empirical, and policy-related contributions on the topic of forest structure and ESs. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Linkages between forest structure, function, and ecosystem services;
  • Relationships between biodiversity and forest ecosystem services;
  • Biophysical, social, and economic values of forest ecosystems;
  • Forest dynamics and ecosystem service changing under climate change, natural or artificial disturbances;
  • Synergies and trade-offs of forest ecosystem services;
  • Forest ecosystem services for human well-being and sustainable development;
  • Contribution of forest ecosystems to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals;
  • Novel remote sensing and GIS applications in estimating forest structure and ecosystem services;
  • Studies of all the above-mentioned topics in understudied areas, such as the Global South and rural settings.

Dr. Jian Lin
Dr. Qin Ma
Dr. Jingyu Dai
Dr. Weichao Guo
Dr. Yang Ju
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diversity is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • forest structure
  • ecosystem service
  • biodiversity
  • ecosystem process and function
  • human well-being
  • environmental justice
  • nature-based solutions
  • social-ecological system
  • geospatial data science

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 4799 KiB  
Article
Coastal Forest Structure Survey and Associated Land Crab Population in Suao Dakenggu Community, Yilan, Taiwan
by Chia-Hsuan Hsu, Wei-Ta Fang, Hung-Kai Chiu, Wei-Cheng Kao and Tsung-Shun Huang
Diversity 2023, 15(4), 515; https://doi.org/10.3390/d15040515 - 3 Apr 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1944
Abstract
Coastal forests can increase the resilience of seaside communities against natural disasters. These forests also provide other benefits, including food and an avenue for economic growth. The Dakenggu community in Suao, Yilan (Taiwan), is adjacent to a coastal forest with an area of [...] Read more.
Coastal forests can increase the resilience of seaside communities against natural disasters. These forests also provide other benefits, including food and an avenue for economic growth. The Dakenggu community in Suao, Yilan (Taiwan), is adjacent to a coastal forest with an area of nearly 114,000 m2. Artificial plantation has been performed locally in this area since 1977 to prevent the loss of beaches. The coastal forest area was estimated through drone aerial photography combined with a geographic information system. We found that Pandanus tectorius (11.5%), Casuarina equisetifolia (30.8%), Cerbera manghas (4.07%), Hibiscus tiliaceus (5.2%), and grass (23.52%) are the dominant species in the plant community of Dakenngu coastal forest, which together accounted for 75.1% of the total land area. The area covered by different species in the coastal forest was examined and estimated as well. The height and diameter at breast height (DBH) of the main tree species in five transects were surveyed, and we also found some significant differences among transects that correspond to cohorts planted at different times by the Forestry Bureau. We also performed a survey of land crabs in the same transects over five months to infer any differences in land crab species among the transects. We found that the transect dominated by H. tiliaceus had a larger population of land crabs than others. We revealed that the mudflat crab Chiromantes haematocheir prefers to live under H. tiliaceus. Finally, we propose recommendations for improving the biodiversity of the Dakenggu coastal forest so that it can become a sustainable resource for its residents. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structure and Ecosystem Services of Forests)
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12 pages, 4244 KiB  
Article
Exploring Texture Diversity of Beech-Spruce-Fir Stands through Development Phase Analysis in the Frakto Virgin Forest of Greece
by Dimitra Papadopoulou, Dimitrios Raptis, Vassiliki Kazana and Thekla Tsitsoni
Diversity 2023, 15(2), 278; https://doi.org/10.3390/d15020278 - 15 Feb 2023
Viewed by 1295
Abstract
The structural diversity of old-growth forests is a fundamental element as regards ecosystem stability and functionality. The current study aims at exploring the texture diversity in the unique virgin Frakto forest of Greece through the determination of the forest development phases and their [...] Read more.
The structural diversity of old-growth forests is a fundamental element as regards ecosystem stability and functionality. The current study aims at exploring the texture diversity in the unique virgin Frakto forest of Greece through the determination of the forest development phases and their related stages. Eight sample plots of 0.25 hectares each were randomly distributed to serve the field research needs. During the single phases, a significant number of variables at the stand level, such as the total dead and living timber volume and the density expressed as the number of stems per hectare and basal area, were calculated, and their values were merged into three main stages. The Frakto virgin forest was found to be dominated by the optimal stage (61.7%), followed by the decay stage (22.7%), and the initial stage (15.6%), in alignment with relevant distributions reported for other European virgin forests. Statistically significant differences in terms of stem density and woody volume between the stages demonstrated increased structural diversity and heterogeneity, a typical characteristic of primeval forests. The results offer an insight into forest growth dynamics under natural processes, thus providing a knowledge base for the promotion of sustainable forest management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structure and Ecosystem Services of Forests)
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Review

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11 pages, 667 KiB  
Review
Deep Ecology, Biodiversity and Assisted Natural Regeneration of European Hemiboreal Forests
by Raimundas Petrokas, Diana-Abasi Ibanga and Michael Manton
Diversity 2022, 14(10), 892; https://doi.org/10.3390/d14100892 - 21 Oct 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2792
Abstract
Climate change and the associated disturbances have disrupted the relative stability of tree species composition in hemiboreal forests. The natural ecology of forest communities, including species occurrence and composition, forest structure, and food webs, have been affected. Yet, the hemiboreal forest zone of [...] Read more.
Climate change and the associated disturbances have disrupted the relative stability of tree species composition in hemiboreal forests. The natural ecology of forest communities, including species occurrence and composition, forest structure, and food webs, have been affected. Yet, the hemiboreal forest zone of Lithuania is the least studied in the country for climate change risks and possible management adaption techniques. This problem is further complicated by the fact that Lithuania uses a traditional centralised forest management system. Therefore, this work proposes assisted natural regeneration (ANR) of tree species as a more viable means of building hemiboreal forest resilience to cope with future climate change risks. The ANR model implies that forest management is localised in local communities, to provide opportunities for the local people to participate in forest management based on local knowledge, thereby facilitating the transition from cultural diversity to biodiversity. Further, ANR is grounded on an ethical framework—deep ecology—to provide ethical justification for the proposal to transit forest management in Lithuania from the traditional centralised segregated system to a community-driven practice. The work combines the theories of ANR, deep ecology, and hemiboreal forest knowledge systems to provide complementary information that builds on gaps in the existing literature. This study is unique in that no previous work has linked ANR and deep ecology in the context of Lithuania’s forest ecosystems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Structure and Ecosystem Services of Forests)
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