Special Issue "Role of Animals in Ecosystem Health and Maintenance"

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Ecology and Conservation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 December 2021.

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Camilla Bertolini
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 30123 Venice, Italy
Interests: marine biology; coastal ecology; benthic ecology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues

The pivotal role of certain organisms towards the maintenance of ecosystem health and functionality has been the object of studies in ecology for many years.

These species are often considered to be ‘foundation species’; however, this term can have multiple meanings and includes, amongst others, habitat formers, allogenic ecosystem engineers, and top predators.

In recent years, there has been some debates as to what should be considered a foundation species and what is the role of many other species towards maintaining a resilient, resistant, and functioning ecosystem.

We therefore propose a Special Issue aiming to bring together the latest body of research on the role of specific traits of animals to maintain a functional and healthy ecosystem. Submitted manuscripts should advance the field by furthering our understanding of what constitutes ‘foundation species’ and help to further elucidate their role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem, but we encourage broader submissions that help us in furthering knowledge in this direction.

Dr. Camilla Bertolini
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 papers will be 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. Animals 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 1800 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

  • functional ecology
  • foundation species
  • ecosystem services
  • resilient ecosystems
  • top predators
  • autogenic ecosystem engineers
  • allogenic ecosystem engineers

Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission, see below for planned papers.

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.

1. The evolution of the ‘foundation species’ concept

Bertolini1DAIS; Ca’ Foscari University, 30170 Venice, Italy

The pivotal role of certain organisms towards the maintenance of ecosystem health and functionality has been the object of studies in ecology for many years. These species are often considered to be ‘foundation species’; however, this term can have multiple meanings and includes, amongst others, habitat formers, allogenic ecosystem engineers, and top predators. This study is a literature review, done combining manual with automated, unbiased, analyses (e.g. bibliometrix),  which aims  to (i) gather an historical perspective on the evolution of ‘foundation species’ concept, (ii) identify the main topics of research associated with ‘foundation species’ and their evolution through time. (iii) understand the role of animals vs plants as foundation species. The results of this review will be useful to understand the state of the art and the future directions this research should take, especially in the face of ecosystem changes likely to influence these ‘structuring’ species.

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