Landscape Ecology and Ecosystem Resilience: Patterns, Processes and Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue explores how the spatial configuration of landscapes governs ecological functioning, resilience, and long-term sustainability across terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems. Landscape ecology provides a powerful framework for understanding the interactions between spatial patterns and ecological processes under accelerating environmental pressures, such as land-use change and urbanization, habitat fragmentation, climate change, climate extremes, and biodiversity loss.

We invite authors to submit original research and reviews that address how landscape composition, configuration, and connectivity influence species persistence, ecosystem functioning, and the capacity for species and ecosystems to adapt to disturbances. Emphasis is placed on studies that integrate spatiotemporal modeling, remote sensing, or landscape-level metrics to unravel feedback between patterns and processes across multiple ecological scales.

While the central disciplinary focus is ecology, we also welcome contributions grounded in spatial ecological theory and mechanisms that explore how landscape-driven ecological dynamics (e.g., vector ecology, zoonotic risk emergence, or water regulation) relate to population- or ecosystem-level resilience.

This Special Issue aims to improve the current systems-level understanding of how landscapes support or constrain ecosystem services, biodiversity, and resilience, offering insights into ecological restoration, conservation planning, and sustainability transitions.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Landscape pattern–process relationships and their influence on ecosystems’ resilience to climate extremes and disturbances, as well as the effects of landscape pattern changes in blue carbon ecosystems (e.g., mangroves, salt marshes, seagrass beds) on carbon sequestration.
• Impacts of habitat fragmentation, land-use change, and connectivity loss on species persistence and biodiversity dynamics.
• Spatiotemporal modeling of landscape ecological security, ecosystem service values, and sustainability under multiple future scenarios of urbanization and climate change, as well as identification of the geographical determinants of spatio-temporal changes in landscape patterns.
• Application of remote sensing and GIS to quantify landscape patterns and their ecological consequences across terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems, as well as assessing the spatio-temporal dynamics and vulnerability of blue carbon ecosystem landscape patterns under pressures such as coastal development and rising sea-levels.
• The role of landscape configuration in modulating vector ecology, zoonotic risk emergence, and disease regulation services.
• Ecological networks and green infrastructure as tools for enhancing landscape connectivity and adaptive capacity.
• Landscape-level feedback mechanisms between spatial heterogeneity, biogeochemical cycles, and ecosystem functioning.
• Development and application of landscape metrics for assessing ecological resilience and guiding restoration planning.

Dr. Jing Gao
Dr. Chutian Zhang
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Biology 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 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.

• landscape patterns
• ecological resilience
• blue carbon ecosystems
• habitat fragmentation
• spatiotemporal modeling
• landscape connectivity
• ecosystem services