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Forests
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Ecosystem-Disturbance Interactions in Forests
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Ecosystem-Disturbance Interactions in Forests

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 December 2024) | Viewed by 3721

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Camilla Wellstein

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Competence Center for Economic, Ecological and Social Sustainability, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bolzano, Italy
2. Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bolzano, Italy
Interests: climate change adaptation; vegetation dynamics; forest ecology; disturbance ecology; ecosystem resilience; forest restoration; plant ecology; genetic diversity; functional diversity
Prof. Dr. Roberto Tognetti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences, Università degli Studi del Molise, Campobasso, Italy
Interests: climate-smart forestry; forest ecophysiology; forest monitoring; biogeochemical cycles; resilience; mitigation; adaptation; biodiversity; forest restoration; disturbance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Daniel Scherrer

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
Interests: forest modelling; disturbance impact on forest ecosystems; naturalness of forests; natural tree regeneration; interactions of climate change and disturbances; maintaining forest ecosystem services under climate change

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the past few years, major disturbances due to wind, snow pressure, avalanches, fire, and insect outbreaks have occurred in forests worldwide. Increasing the complexity of the problem, these disturbances are projected to increase in intensity and frequency, interact, and fuel further destructive impact on ecosystems. For example, windthrow, snow pressure, and stressful weather conditions can act in concert to trigger insect outbreaks. Forest ecosystems respond to disturbance events and legacies at different timescales in different ways. Their response generally depends on a multitude of factors related to climate, environment, and the properties of the ecosystem itself. Key components in this respect are the structure, composition, and diversity of the vegetation and their variation in time and space. Disturbance–structure interactions change as trees and forests age and influence the landscape-scale processes. The increasing interactions of disturbance regimes with forest structures and the differential responses of trees and ecosystems pose a novel challenge for forest research and management. With this Special Issue, we call for research that investigates the system properties and their link to disturbance–structure interactions. A quantification of the structural and functional components related to the disturbance impact and the recovery process from stand- to landscape-scale is necessary to understand these natural processes and to design and implement adaptive management and enhance the restoration and resilience of forest systems.

Prof. Dr. Camilla Wellstein
Prof. Dr. Roberto Tognetti
Dr. Daniel Scherrer
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

  • disturbance event
  • ecosystem properties
  • ecosystem recovery
  • forest management
  • forest restoration
  • insect outbreak
  • pathogens
  • tree composition
  • vegetation structure
  • weather conditions

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 4977 KiB  
Article
Contrasting Regeneration Patterns in Abies alba-Dominated Stands: Insights from Structurally Diverse Mountain Forests across Europe
by Bohdan Kolisnyk, Camilla Wellstein, Marcin Czacharowski, Stanisław Drozdowski and Kamil Bielak
Forests 2024, 15(7), 1182; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15071182 - 8 Jul 2024
Viewed by 852
Abstract
To maintain the ecosystem resilience to large-scale disturbances in managed forests, it is essential to adhere to the principles of close-to-nature silviculture, adapt practices to the traits of natural forest types, and utilize natural processes, including natural regeneration. This study examines the natural [...] Read more.
To maintain the ecosystem resilience to large-scale disturbances in managed forests, it is essential to adhere to the principles of close-to-nature silviculture, adapt practices to the traits of natural forest types, and utilize natural processes, including natural regeneration. This study examines the natural regeneration patterns in silver fir (Abies alba Mill.)-dominated forests, analyzing how the stand structure—tree size diversity, species composition, and stand density—affects the regeneration. We analyze the data from four sites in Poland, Germany, and Italy, employing generalized linear and zero-inflated models to evaluate the impact of the management strategies (even- vs. uneven-aged) and forester-controlled stand characteristics (structural diversity, broadleaf species admixture, and stand density) on the probability of regeneration, its density, and the developmental stages (seedling, small sapling, and tall sapling) across a climatic gradient. Our results indicate a significantly higher probability of regeneration in uneven-aged stands, particularly in areas with lower temperatures and lower overall regeneration density. The tree size diversity in the uneven-aged stands favors advancement from juveniles to more developed stages (seedling to sapling) in places with higher aridity. A denser stand layer (higher stand total basal area) leads to a lower density of natural regeneration for all the present species, except silver fir if considered separately, signifying that, by regulating the stand growing stock, we can selectively promote silver fir. A higher admixture of broadleaf species generally decreases the regeneration density across all the species, except in a water-rich site in the Bavarian Alps, where it had a strong positive impact. These findings underscore the complex interactions of forest ecosystems and provide a better understanding required for promoting silver fir regeneration, which is essential for a close-to-nature silviculture under climate change. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecosystem-Disturbance Interactions in Forests)
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14 pages, 2913 KiB  
Article
Monitoring Changes in Composition and Diversity of Forest Vegetation Layers after the Cessation of Management for Renaturalization
by Yuhua Ma, Jingya Wei, Wenjing Wang, Cheng Huang, Chun Feng, Duanyang Xu, Fasih Ullah Haider and Xu Li
Forests 2024, 15(6), 907; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15060907 - 23 May 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 871
Abstract
Overstory and understory vegetation play a vital role in forest ecosystem functionality. However, it is necessary to enhance the knowledge of their diversity and compositional dynamics following cessation of disturbance, which is required to inform restoration approaches and the mechanisms required for maintaining [...] Read more.
Overstory and understory vegetation play a vital role in forest ecosystem functionality. However, it is necessary to enhance the knowledge of their diversity and compositional dynamics following cessation of disturbance, which is required to inform restoration approaches and the mechanisms required for maintaining disturbance cessation. We conducted a chronosequence spanning 0–1, 5–6, 11–12, 20–24, and 28–34 years since disturbance cessation, and old-growth forests to investigate the dynamic changes in overstory and understory vegetation diversity and composition, as well as maintenance mechanisms following the cessation of anthropogenic disturbances in subtropical regions of Eastern China. The current study results indicated a decrease in understory cover and periodic fluctuations in the diversity of overstorey and understory vegetation following disturbance cessation efforts. Specifically, the shrub layer exhibited the highest richness in 28–34 years, while the herb layer showed the lowest evenness. Multivariate analysis using multiple-response permutation procedures indicated that the species composition and interspecific quantity ratio of understory plants in the forest at 28–34 years significantly differ from those in the early closure stage. An indicator species analysis revealed that more support was given to sun-loving plants after 0–1 years of the enclosure, while species with shade tolerance and low nutrient requirements were supported after 28–34 years. The structural equation model results show that 38.8% of the impact on herb evenness was related to light and substrate diversity. The ecological restoration time mainly indirectly affects understory vegetation by influencing the upper vegetation, light availability, and substrate heterogeneity. Overall, this study revealed that cessation of anthropogenic disturbance can maintain and care for understorey plant diversity and contribute to the sustainable management of forests. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecosystem-Disturbance Interactions in Forests)
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19 pages, 2670 KiB  
Article
A Study of the Influence of the Type of Land Use on the Enzymatic Activity of Soils in Southwestern China
by Zhiliang Ma, Wenjuan Xu, Yamei Chen, Mei Liu and Jiahao Wen
Forests 2024, 15(4), 581; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15040581 - 22 Mar 2024
Viewed by 1220
Abstract
Although soil enzyme activity can act as an effective indicator of soil nutrient status, there is some uncertainty about its accuracy within soil depth across different land uses. To assess the effects of different land uses on the interactions between soil enzyme activity [...] Read more.
Although soil enzyme activity can act as an effective indicator of soil nutrient status, there is some uncertainty about its accuracy within soil depth across different land uses. To assess the effects of different land uses on the interactions between soil enzyme activity and nutrient status within different soil horizons, in this study we examined soil total carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) concentrations, pH, and the activities of five hydrolytic (i.e., amylase, invertase, cellulase, acid phosphatase, and urease) and three oxidative enzymes (i.e., catalase, dehydrogenase, and phenol oxidase) involved in C, N, and P acquisition and evaluated their interactions within the topsoil (0–10 cm), subsoil (10–20 cm), and deeper soil layer (20–30 cm) under various land uses (i.e., rice field, cultivated land, bamboo plantation, forest land, and barren land). We found that the levels of hydrolytic enzyme activities and nutrient concentrations were higher in the topsoil than the deeper layer. The hydrolytic enzyme activities were positive correlated with soil C, N, and P concentrations, while the activities of oxidative enzymes showed strong associations with soil pH. Furthermore, the results of fuzzy comprehensive evaluation models suggest that the overall enzyme activity can serve as an indicator of soil nutrient status in the topsoil and subsoil, but not in the deeper layer. The depth-specific nature of soil enzyme–nutrient relationships may be attributed to different land-use management practices. Our study highlights the complex interactions between soil nutrients, pH, and enzyme activities within soil profiles, and soil enzyme activity as an indicator of soil nutrient status is depth-dependent across the different land uses. The specific functional groups of enzymes and the gradients of resources and environmental conditions within the soil profile that is partly mediated by land use play crucial roles in shaping these relationships. Our results can also provide some new insights into sustainable soil management practices under the background of intense anthropogenic activities and global change. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecosystem-Disturbance Interactions in Forests)
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