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Forests
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Oak Forests under Global Change
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Oak Forests under Global Change

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2019)

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Christian Kuehne

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Forest Resources, University of Maine, Nutting Hall, Orono, ME 04469, USA
Interests: forest regeneration dynamics, forest growth and yield modeling, management of oak forests, close-to-nature forest management, forest structure, management of mixed-species forests, ecological forestry
Dr. Somidh Saha

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Research Group Sylvanus, Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), D-76133 Karlsruhe, Germany
Interests: challenges in sustainable and multifunctional forest management; trade-offs between adaptation strategies and climate protection strategies; increasing the resilience of forests to climate change; meta-analysis and quantitative review in forestry and ecology; synthesis of data from the national forest inventory; stress ecology (e.g. drought) of trees in the forests; urban forestry and urban ecology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Oak trees and forests have played a major role in human live and culture for millennia. As a result of research efforts on anthropogenic global environmental change, ecological importance and socio-economic significance of oak forests are increasingly realized and studied. Oak dominated forest ecosystems are supposed to extend their distribution due to suitable habitat change and natural migration in some regions while oak cover has been increasing due to afforestation and reforestation activities in others. At the same time, health and vigor of existing oak forest stands are negatively affected by a myriad of threats such as extreme weather events, mass propagation of pests, air pollution and atmospheric depositions, as well as introduction of exotic pathogens and invasive species. This special issue aims at providing new insights on issues related to the provision of ecosystem services from oak forests affected by global change. We invite manuscripts that cover topics including but not limited to forest ecology, eco-physiology, forest management, restoration and biodiversity conservation, forest pathology, and genetics.

Dr. Christian Kuehne
Dr. Somidh Saha
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.

Keywords

  • Climate change
  • Environmental stresses
  • Introduced species
  • Atmospheric depositions
  • Forest restoration
  • Forest pathology
  • Forest management
  • Oak decline

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 1989 KiB  
Article
Development of a Mixed-Effects Individual-Tree Basal Area Increment Model for Oaks (Quercus spp.) Considering Forest Structural Diversity
by Wenwen Wang, Xinyun Chen, Weisheng Zeng, Jianjun Wang and Jinghui Meng
Forests 2019, 10(6), 474; https://doi.org/10.3390/f10060474 - 30 May 2019
Cited by 35 | Viewed by 3768
Abstract
In the context of uneven-aged mixed-species forest management, an individual-tree basal area increment model considering forest structural diversity was developed for oaks (Quercus spp.) using data collected from 11,860 observations in 845 sample plots from the 7th (2004), 8th (2009), and 9th [...] Read more.
In the context of uneven-aged mixed-species forest management, an individual-tree basal area increment model considering forest structural diversity was developed for oaks (Quercus spp.) using data collected from 11,860 observations in 845 sample plots from the 7th (2004), 8th (2009), and 9th (2014) Chinese National Forest Inventory in Hunan Province, south-central China. Since the data was longitudinal and had a nested structure, we used a linear mixed-effects approach to construct the model. We also used the variance function and an autocorrelation structure to describe within-plot heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation. Finally, the optimal mixed-effects model was determined based on the Akaike information criterion (AIC), Bayesian information criterion (BIC), log-likelihood (Loglik) and the likelihood ratio test (LRT). The results indicate that the reciprocal transformation of initial diameter at breast height (1/DBH), relative density index (RD), number of trees per hectare (NT), elevation (EL) and Gini coefficient (GC) had a significant impact on the individual-tree basal area increment. In comparison to the basic model developed using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression, the mixed-effects model performance was greatly improved. In addition, we observed that the heteroscedasticity was successfully removed by the exponent function and autocorrelation was significantly corrected by AR(1). Our final model also indicated that forest structural diversity significantly affected tree growth and hence should not be neglected. We hope that our final model will contribute to the scientific management of oak-dominated forests. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Oak Forests under Global Change)
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19 pages, 3477 KiB  
Article
Effects of Stand Age on Biomass Allocation and Allometry of Quercus Acutissima in the Central Loess Plateau of China
by Bin Yang, Wenyan Xue, Shichuan Yu, Jianyun Zhou and Wenhui Zhang
Forests 2019, 10(1), 41; https://doi.org/10.3390/f10010041 - 09 Jan 2019
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 3267
Abstract
We studied the effects of stand age on allocation and equation fitting of aboveground and below-ground biomass in four Quercus acutissima stands (14, 31, 46, and 63 years old) in the Central Loess Plateau of China. The stem wood, stem bark, branch, foliage, [...] Read more.
We studied the effects of stand age on allocation and equation fitting of aboveground and below-ground biomass in four Quercus acutissima stands (14, 31, 46, and 63 years old) in the Central Loess Plateau of China. The stem wood, stem bark, branch, foliage, and belowground biomass of each of the 20 destructive harvesting trees were quantified. The mean total biomass of each tree was 28.8, 106.8, 380.6, and 603.4 kg/tree in the 14-, 31-, 46-, and 63-year-old stands, respectively. Aboveground biomass accounted for 72.25%, 73.05%, 76.14%, and 80.37% of the total tree biomass in the 14-, 31-, 46-, and 63-year-old stands, respectively, and stem wood was the major component of tree biomass. The proportion of stem (with bark) biomass to total tree biomass increased with stand age while the proportions of branch, foliage, and belowground biomass to total tree biomass decreased with stand age. The ratio of belowground biomass to aboveground biomass decreased from 0.39 in the 14-year-old stand to 0.37, 0.31, and 0.24 in the 31-, 46-, and 63-year-old stands, respectively. Age-specific biomass equations in each stand were developed for stem wood, stem bark, aboveground, and total tree. The inclusion of tree height as a second variable improved the total tree biomass equation fitting for middle-aged (31-year-old and 46-year-old) stands but not young (14 years old) and mature (63 years old) stands. Moreover, biomass conversion and expansion factors (BCEFs) varied with stand age, showing a decreasing trend with increasing stand age. These results indicate that stand age alters the biomass allocation of Q. acutissima and results in age-specific allometric biomass equations and BCEFs. Therefore, to obtain accurate estimates of Q. acutissima forest biomass and carbon stocks, age-specific changes need to be considered. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Oak Forests under Global Change)
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