Forest Dynamics under Climate and Land Use Change

Dear Colleagues,

In the context of accelerating climate change and intensifying land use pressures, understanding forest dynamics has never been more critical. Climate change significantly influences forest health, altering growth rates, species distribution, and biodiversity and rising temperatures alter precipitation patterns, increasing the frequency of extreme weather events such as droughts while storms are pivotal climate-related factors affecting forest resilience and productivity. Concurrently, land use changes, including deforestation, urban expansion, and agricultural intensification, have led to habitat fragmentation and loss, further stressing forest ecosystems. These transformations not only reduce the carbon sequestration capacity of forests but also impair their ability to support biodiversity and provide essential ecosystem services. The interactions between climate change and land use change create complex feedback loops, complicating forest management and conservation strategies. Adaptive management approaches that incorporate predictive modeling and real-time monitoring are essential for mitigating these adverse effects and enhancing the resilience of forest ecosystems. Hence, there is a need for integrated policies that address both climate and land use impacts to sustain and restore forest ecosystems in the face of environmental change.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• The impacts of climate and land use change on forest functioning;
• The responses of vegetation, soil, and epigeal fauna;
• The resistance and resilience of forest ecosystems to global changes;
• The modeling of future scenarios of forest changes under different climate and land use transformations;
• The restoration of forest ecosystems.

Dr. Lucia Santorufo
Dr. Giorgia Santini
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. 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.

• vegetation dynamics
• soil functioning
• soil organisms
• restoration
• modeling