Dear Colleagues,

Islands have always played a leading role in biodiversity (from the species level to ecosystems and landscapes), in biogeography and in conservation biology. Islands harbor evolutionary and ecologically-unique biota, which are strongly influenced by diverse global environmental changes related to land-use practices, climate change, sea level rise, forest fires and biological invasions (Borges et al. 2018, Medail 2017). Island ecosystems, usually intensively influenced by humans, provide significant challenges when considering how to conserve biodiversity (Nogué et al. 2017). They consist great natural laboratories, providing innumerable replicated ‘experiments’ in the factors controlling the distribution, character, and diversity of species and offering the opportunity for rapidly advancing our understanding of fundamental aspects of human relationships with nature, and of conservation strategies (Whittaker et al. 2018, Whittaker and Fernández-Palacios 2007). We welcome your contributions to this Special Issue that provides a platform to highlight new research and significant advances concerning the conservation and management of island ecosystems.

Ass. Prof. Maria Panitsa
Guest Editor

Borges, P.A.V., Cardoso, P., Kreft, H. et al. (2018). Global Island Monitoring Scheme (GIMS): a proposal for the long-term coordinated survey and monitoring of native island forest biota. Biodiversity and Conservation 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-018-1553-7

Médail, F. (2017). The specific vulnerability of plant biodiversity and vegetation on Mediterranean islands in the face of global change. Reg Environ Change 17 (6): 1775-1790. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-017-1123-7

Whittaker R. J. & Fernández-Palacios J. M. (2007). Island Biogeography: Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation. Oxford University Press, 2007.

Whittaker, R.J., Fernández-Palacios, J.M., Matthews, T.J., Borregaard, M.K. & K. A. Triantis (2017). Island biogeography: Taking the long view of nature’s laboratories. Science 357(6354): 876-885.

Nogué, S., de Nascimento, L., Froyd, C.A., Wilmshurst, J.M., de Boer, E.J., Cofey, E.D., Whittaker, R.J., Fernández-Palacios, J.M., Willis, K.J. (2017). Island biodiversity conservation needs palaeoecology. Nat Ecol Evolut 1:0181. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0181.

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• Island
• Ecosystem
• Habitat
• Conservation
• Management
• Biodiversity
• Threats
• Pressures
• Monitoring
• Conservation status
• Restoration