Implications of Forest Biodiversity Conservation in a Changing World

Dear Colleagues,

Humans have altered the biodiversity and functioning of forests ecosystems since the origin of agriculture, about eight millennia ago, but the impacts of our activities were almost negligible until the 20^th century. The technological advances that took place during the last 100 years increased human well-being and triggered the growth of our population, but this resulted in extensive forest losses due to the growing demand for cultivable lands and other natural resources. The rate of international exchange of goods also increased during this century for satisfying different human needs, but this promoted the intentional or accidental introduction of species in biogeographic areas where they were never present, several of which are competitors, predators or parasites that negatively affect the performance of native trees. Additionally, the global temperature is rising due to the growing accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which, in turn, is altering rainfall regimes worldwide, causing negative physiological responses in trees and decreasing their establishment rates. Therefore, because forests provide a number of ecosystem services to humankind, such as water provisioning and carbon storage, and because the quantity and quality of these services depend upon the biodiversity they contain, their recovery and protection in the face of the advance of land use changes, biological invasions and climate change currently constitute mayor challenges for scientists, policy makers and nature managers. This Special Issue focuses on these challenges, and manuscripts addressing them through field surveys, experimental and modeling studies, and the analysis and design of public policies are welcomed. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Effects of human-induced disturbances on forest biodiversity;
• Tree biodiversity conservation in fragmented forest landscapes;
• Biological invasions in forest ecosystems and their implications for biodiversity conservation;
• Consequences of climate change on tree development and forest biodiversity;
• Challenges for forest restoration practices in the face of climate change and/or biological invasions;
• Effects of land use change, climate change and/or biological invasions on forest ecosystem functioning;
• Forest conservation policy making in a human-dominated world.

Dr. Ernesto I. Badano
Guest Editor

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. Forests 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 2600 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.

• climate change
• land use change
• biological invasions
• landscape fragmentation
• public policies
• forest restoration
• biological conservation
• ecosystem functioning