Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
5.4
4.5
Journals
Plants
Special Issues
Forest Management and Biodiversity
share announcement

Forest Management and Biodiversity

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Ecology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 November 2022) | Viewed by 7056

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. José Javier Corral-Rivas

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Forest Sciences, Universidad Juárez del Estado de Durango, Rio Papaloapan y Bulevar Durango s/n, col. Valle del Sur, Durango 34120, Mexico
Interests: forest management; natural resource management; carbon cycle; silviculture; ecosystem ecology; forest ecology; forest and stand structure modeling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Jesús Aguirre-Gutiérrez

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Geography and the Environment, Somerville College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Interests: plant functional traits; impacts of climate change on biodiversity of natural forest ecosystems; remote sensing
Dr. Minhui Hao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Research Center of Forest Management Engineering of State Forestry and Grassland Administration, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: forest ecology; forest management; biodiversity and ecosystem functions; functional traits

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

An increasingly large area of forest ecosystems around the world is managed for several purposes, such as timber production, which often conflicts with forest biodiversity conservation goals. Enhancing stand structural complexity is widely recognized as a general objective of forest management to promote habitat richness.

In recent decades, forest management methods such as close-to-nature forestry or retention forestry have been recommended to improve habitat provision for flora and fauna through an increase in the quantities of stand structural elements such as deadwood, large old trees and key species. For practical implementation, this means extending rotation periods, retaining trees of key species or with microhabitat features and increasing deadwood volume artificially. While the advantages of maintaining stand structural complexity are obvious, translating this ideal into specific management prescriptions represents a non-trivial challenge. Accordingly, there is a need to a) review the effectiveness of contemporary forest management approaches used in different regions of the world with the aim of promoting key structural attributes associated with the maintenance of biodiversity, and b) present practical examples of indicators and metrics to quantify stand structural complexity and to monitor the impact of forest management on biodiversity.

We trust that this Special Issue of Plants will contribute to a better understanding of effective approaches to describe and monitor stand structural complexity as an indicator of biodiversity in routine forest management.

Dr. José Javier Corral-Rivas
Dr. Minhui Hao
Dr. Jesús Aguirre-Gutiérrez
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. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2700 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 management approaches
  • Stand structural complexity metrics
  • Habitat richness
  • Biodiversity indicators
  • Plant functional diversity

Published Papers (4 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

15 pages, 3925 KiB  
Article
Environmental Factors Driving the Spatial Distribution Pattern of Venerable Trees in Sichuan Province, China
by Chunping Xie, Meng Li, C. Y. Jim and Dawei Liu
Plants 2022, 11(24), 3581; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11243581 - 19 Dec 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1944
Abstract
Venerable trees are important natural resources and cultural heritage, offering historical, ecological, social and economic value. However, global warming and anthropogenic activities have threatened their welfare and survival. A comprehensive understanding of their current and future spatial patterns, vis-á-vis environmental conditions, can inform [...] Read more.
Venerable trees are important natural resources and cultural heritage, offering historical, ecological, social and economic value. However, global warming and anthropogenic activities have threatened their welfare and survival. A comprehensive understanding of their current and future spatial patterns, vis-á-vis environmental conditions, can inform the co-management of sustainable resource use and conservation. We employed the existing spatial occurrence data and environmental variables (bioclimate and elevation) to simulate the optimal habitats for venerable trees in China’s Sichuan Province. We evaluated the current and future climate scenarios of 2100 with double CO2 concentration. The BIOCLIM and QGIS spatial analyses assessed the primary factors of geographical distribution. The results identified 10,720 venerable trees from 123 species, 81 genera and 42 families. Cupressus funebris dominated, with the maximum importance value, followed by Ginkgo biloba, Ficus virens var. sublanceolata, and Phoebe zhennan. The elevation distribution of tree abundance and species richness demonstrated a unimodal pattern, skewing to the low-elevation end, with a concentration in the 600–1500 m low-medium altitude. The majority of trees and excellent habitats were found in eastern Sichuan with a less harsh terrain and climate. The bio3 (isothermality) and bio7 (temperature annual range) factors significantly influenced tree occurrence. Temperature imposed a greater effect on distribution than moisture under the current climate scenario. For the future climate-change scenario, the suitable habitats were predicted to maintain an overall stable pattern, with largely contiguous expansions of better habitats. However, climate warming would shrink the excellent habitats on the plains. The findings can inform strategies and guidelines for venerable-tree conservation in Sichuan. Furthermore, vulnerable areas could be identified. The future range expansion sites could be enlisted to cultivate new trees to replenish the venerable-tree pool. Habitat patches that remain sustainable could provide refugia with the potential for protected-area designation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Management and Biodiversity)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 1820 KiB  
Article
Plant-Community Vulnerability in Highly Fragmented Landscapes Is Higher in Secondary Forests Than in Old Growth Forests in the Andean–Amazonian Transition
by Carlos H. Rodríguez-León, Lilia L. Roa-Fuentes, Armando Sterling and Juan Carlos Suárez
Plants 2022, 11(23), 3284; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11233284 - 29 Nov 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1489
Abstract
Increasing biodiversity in highly diverse plant communities can jointly increase ecosystem function and ecosystem vulnerability. This paradox requires further attention. This study analyzed the functional response of plant communities to above- and below-ground parameters along the chronosequence (degraded pastures (DP), early forests (EF), [...] Read more.
Increasing biodiversity in highly diverse plant communities can jointly increase ecosystem function and ecosystem vulnerability. This paradox requires further attention. This study analyzed the functional response of plant communities to above- and below-ground parameters along the chronosequence (degraded pastures (DP), early forests (EF), intermediate forests (IF), and old-growth forests (OF)) in two highly fragmented landscapes of the Colombian Amazon as an estimate of the level of functional vulnerability. Three sets of functional attributes were evaluated: (i) functional composition based on the community-weighted mean (CWM) of five traits; (ii) functional diversity based on the multi-trait indices and functional dispersion (FDis) of each individual trait; and (iii) the functional vulnerability at the community-level and species-level. The individual traits did not show a clear pattern along the chronosequence. However, the trend indicated an increase in the values of resource conservation traits with the age of abandonment. The functional response of the community did not vary between landscapes. Between DP and OF, there was a significant increase in functional diversity and a decrease in functional redundancy, which increased community-level vulnerability. Consequently, the more vulnerable species were observed in the IF and OF plots. In addition, a decrease in environmental parameters, such as penetration resistance, bulk density and Ca content, and an increase in slope, precipitation, electric conductivity, pH, clay, organic material, and P and N contents increased the vulnerability. We elucidated the need for secondary forest management in terms of conservation and restoration to maintain the capacity to respond to changing environmental conditions in highly fragmented landscapes in the Andean–Amazonian transition. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Management and Biodiversity)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

14 pages, 2877 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of the Site Form as a Site Productive Indicator in Temperate Uneven-Aged Multispecies Forests in Durango, Mexico
by Jaime Roberto Padilla-Martínez, Carola Paul, José Javier Corral-Rivas, Kai Husmann, Ulises Diéguez-Aranda and Klaus von Gadow
Plants 2022, 11(20), 2764; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11202764 - 19 Oct 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1407
Abstract
Even though the site index is a popular method for describing forest productivity, its use is limited in uneven-aged multispecies forests. Accordingly, the site form (SF) is an alternative measure of productivity to the site index based on the tree height–diameter relationship. Our [...] Read more.
Even though the site index is a popular method for describing forest productivity, its use is limited in uneven-aged multispecies forests. Accordingly, the site form (SF) is an alternative measure of productivity to the site index based on the tree height–diameter relationship. Our study aims to evaluate SF as a measure of productivity in the temperate uneven-aged multispecies forests of Durango, Mexico, applying three methods to estimate SF: (i) as the mean height of dominant trees at a reference diameter (SFH-D); (ii) as the expected mean height of dominant trees at a reference mean diameter (SFMH-MD), and (iii) as the expected height at a reference diameter for a given site (SFh-dbh). We assess the effectiveness of the SF based on two hypotheses: (i) the SF correlates to the total volume production, and (ii) the SF is independent of stand density. The SFH-D and the SFh-dbh showed a high correlation with productivity. However, they also did so with density. Contrary to this, the SFMH-MD had a weak correlation with density and productivity. We conclude that the SF is a suitable approach to describe site quality. Nonetheless, its effectiveness as a site quality indicator may be affected according to the method used. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Management and Biodiversity)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 2192 KiB  
Article
Effects of Forest Management on the Insect Assemblage of Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) in the Allegheny National Forest
by Craig Larcenaire, Fumin Wang, Ida Holásková, Richard Turcotte, Michael Gutensohn and Yong-Lak Park
Plants 2022, 11(19), 2596; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11192596 - 01 Oct 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1501
Abstract
Over the last decade, the Allegheny National Forest (ANF) in the USA has experienced issues with the regeneration of black cherry (Prunus serotina). This study was conducted to investigate the effects of silvicultural treatment on the insect communities that may affect [...] Read more.
Over the last decade, the Allegheny National Forest (ANF) in the USA has experienced issues with the regeneration of black cherry (Prunus serotina). This study was conducted to investigate the effects of silvicultural treatment on the insect communities that may affect black cherry pollination and regeneration. We conducted a 2-year study to compare the abundance, richness, and diversity of insects in unmanaged, shelterwood seed-tree, and shelterwood clear-cut stands. Using pan traps, we sampled insects at the ground level and in the canopies of flowering mature black cherry trees. The results of this study showed significant increases in the abundance of insects captured in shelterwood seed-tree stands and in species richness and diversity of insects captured in the canopy of black cherry in shelterwood removal stands, indicating that silvicultural treatment affected the insect community significantly. The dominant insect order was Diptera (true flies, 72.91%, n = 12,668), and Anthalia bulbosa (Diptera: Hybotidae) was the dominant species comprising 33% of all insects found in the canopy of flowering black cherry. The findings in this study could help land managers in managing black cherry for its pollination and natural regeneration. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Forest Management and Biodiversity)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-4
Back to TopTop