Biodiversity Under Pressure: Vertebrates Diversity, Function and Conservation in Human-Modified Landscapes
A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2026 | Viewed by 13
Special Issue Editors
Interests: amphibians; herpetoly; ecology; conservation; natural history
Interests: batrachuperus; earthquake; spatial; gongga mountain national nature reserve; habitat; MaxEnt
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Human-modified landscapes are increasingly reshaping biodiversity patterns, often leading to habitat fragmentation, altered species interactions, and biodiversity loss. Vertebrates play a key role in ecosystem functioning, acting as pollinators, seed dispersers, predators, and indicators of environmental health. Furthermore, wildlife inhabiting human-dominated environments tends to improve the quality of life of city dwellers by providing opportunities for recreation, education, and the enhancement of psychological well-being, thus driving conservation initiatives in these environments.
Given this background, this Special Issue aims to explore how anthropogenic changes—such as urbanization, agriculture, cattle raising, deforestation, and pollution—impact vertebrate diversity, ecological functions, and conservation status across terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. We welcome original or review articles that address the following topics:
- Spatial patterns of vertebrates in human-dominated environments;
- Ecological traits in vertebrates linked to changes in land use in their habitats;
- Vertebrate adaptive responses to human–wildlife conflicts in anthropized environments.
We also seek papers on advances in conservation strategies that adopt a holistic perspective, combining the development of human activities with the preservation of biodiversity in the short, medium, and long term, and address the use of vertebrates as bioindicators in human-impacted environments. Interdisciplinary contributions and studies from under-represented regions are especially encouraged.
Dr. Javier Alejandro Lopez
Dr. Romina Ghirardi
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. Diversity 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 2100 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
- vertebrate diversity
- anthropogenic impact
- ecological function
- conservation
- bioindicators
- environmental stressors
- landscape changes
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