Main Drivers Affecting/Shaping the Diversity and Variability of Forests

Dear Colleagues,

The biodiversity of forest ecosystems is affected by climatic, edaphic and geographic factors, together with natural disturbances and human-controlled forest management. In recent decades, upcoming climate change and intensification of land use have brought new challenges for forest adaptation. Global climate change causes weather anomalies, including severe droughts, shifts in precipitation patterns and intense storms that are reflected by the diversity and variability of forest ecosystems. Large scale-disturbances together with fragmentation of forest areas, intensive management, especially non-native tree planting, and invasion of alien species are contributing to biodiversity loss and the disappearance of rare forest species and thus, the homogenization of forest vegetation. In the past, forests were thought to be resistant to alien plant invasion, but nowadays, they are known to be affected by invasion processes. However, the mechanisms controlling invasion success are different and still not fully understood. The long-life cycles of trees contribute to the lag-phase in the invasion of forest habitats, as it can take a few decades for a tree to mature and reproduce, slowing local adaptation. Spatial and temporal environmental heterogeneity, which influence diversity at different scales, is crucial for the preservation of the forest ecosystem under a changing environment. Thus, improvement of the understanding of the processes that shape forest diversity, resistance to invasions, and regeneration after natural disturbances is essential. The goal of this Special Issue is to gather knowledge about the diversity, variability and habitat characteristics of forests to determine how these ecosystems react under stress and to improve predictions of the effects of climate and land-use changes on ecosystems.

Dr. Jozef Šibík
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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