Bird Functional Diversity and Ecosystem Services 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 (1 March 2023) | Viewed by 3074
Special Issue Editors
Interests: forest community ecology; ecosystem services, and conservation and restoration, with emphasis on high elevation; five-needle white pine ecosystems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: avian ecology; cancer ecology; ecosystem services; evolutionary ecology
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Forests cover 30% of the land surface globally but support the highest terrestrial biodiversity. Birds are important components of community trophic interactions, with roles ranging from apex predators to secondary producers and scavengers. In this sense, many avian species contribute significant ecosystem services to forests and to the human economic enterprise.
The term “ecosystem services” was originated by P.R. Ehrlich and H.A. Mooney in 1983, and the number of papers published on the subject since has since grown exponentially. The United Nations Millenium Ecosystem Assessment categorized ecosystem services into four categories: “provisioning services such as food, water, timber, and fiber; regulating services that affect climate, floods, disease, wastes, and water quality; cultural services that provide recreational, aesthetic, and spiritual benefits; and supporting services such as soil formation, photosynthesis, and nutrient cycling.”
For this Special Issue, we invite you to submit work highlighting the different functional roles of birds in forest communities as well as the important ecosystem services they provide to wildland, urban, and agri-forest systems. The role of birds in forest communities is at great risk due to population declines resulting from factors including habitat conversion, over-exploitation, and climate change, with implications for future community functionality and human well-being.
Dr. Diana F. Tomback
Dr. Christopher J. Whelan
Dr. Megan B. Garfinkel
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
- forest birds
- ecosystem services
- functional diversity
- agroforestry
