Special Issue "Conservation and Management of Forest Wildlife"
A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2023 | Viewed by 4273
Special Issue Editor
Interests: hoofed, semi-aquatic, carnivore and small mammal ecology; threatened and invasive mammal species; large carnivores; spatial distribution; population management and computer modeling; biodiversity and ecological diversity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
As shown in M.L. Hunter (Jr.)'s seminal book Wildlife, Forests and Forestry: Principles of Managing Forests for Biodiversity, published in 1990, and Forest Wildlife Management and Conservation, by D. B. Lindenmayer, published in 2009, forests are essential habitats for biodiversity. Understanding forest wildlife ecology is key to the successful conservation and management of species and communities, balancing conservation, human interests, wildlife use and wildlife appreciation. Any forest management action can affect the availability and quality of resources for forest wildlife populations, and scientific knowledge will therefore improve wildlife management and conservation strategies.
This Special Issue aims to gather articles and reviews on the following topics:
- The conservation and management of forest wildlife (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrate species and communities);
- Forest as a wildlife habitat (fragmentation, degradation, specialized species);
- Changes in afforestation in relation to wildlife;
- The monitoring of forest fauna and flora (long-term results are desirable);
- Human conflicts with forest fauna and increasing wildlife acceptance;
- The impact of climate change, forestry activities, hunting and other factors on forest species and communities.
Dr. Linas Balčiauskas
Guest Editor
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
- forest wildlife
- conservation
- management
- conflict analysis
- wildlife acceptance
- influencing factors
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: Comparison of Two Survey Methods of Demographic Structure in Cervid Populations Suggests Opportunities for Prediction of Increasing Forest Damages – A Case Study in Latvia
Authors: Gundega Done; Jānis Ozoliņš; Guna Bagrade; Jurģis Jansons; Jānis Baumanis; Alekss Vecvanags; Dainis Jakovels
Affiliation: Latvian State Forest Research Institute ‘Silava’, Riga street 111, Salaspils, LV-2169, Latvia
Institute for Environmental Solutions ‘Lidlauks’, Cēsis, LV-4126, Latvia
Abstract: The overall increase of ungulate populations in modern Europe has also contributed to conflicts in national economies, particularly between game management and the forestry sector. A two-level spatial scale study was launched to identify signs of increasing damage risk to young pine stands – one for assessing the interaction between sex-age structure of cervid population, measured as the pellet group density, and forest damages, measured as the percentage of heavily browsed trees in 1006 pine stands distributed evenly throughout the country, and the second for comparison between pellet count and trail-camera-based records of moose and red deer presence in a pilot study area. We examined whether 1) there is a correlation between damage amount and ungulate population structure and 2) are the data from trail cameras suitable for wider use in monitoring ungulate population structure. The study confirmed that pine damages were significantly higher in stands with higher moose pellet group density regardless sex or age, but in red deer populations, a significant predominance of females and juveniles was found in the most highly damaged stands. There were no statistically significant differences between the two survey methods in the pilot territory of ungulate population structure by using pellet count transects and trail camera fixations, thus both pellet group counts and trail cameras provide comparable data on sex and age structure in moose and red deer populations, however, trail cameras are more widely applicable and easier to use by hunters than pellet counts.
