Dear Colleagues,

Background: Forests are essential in providing many ecosystem services and timber and non-timber products for human use; they guarantee a habitat for the conservation of biodiversity. In this way, many studies have been carried out to understand forests from multiple areas of knowledge.

Aim and scope: This Special Issue aims to disseminate knowledge about the genetic variation and adaptation of forest species to the environment in the context of ancient, historical, and contemporary changes in climate, soil, nutrition, and water.

History: Genetic studies are based on multiple methodological strategies, ranging from the analysis of endogenous plants (physiology, molecular polymorphism, and genomics) to external phenotypic evaluations (morphology, growth, development, and phenology). All of these aspects reveal the influence of the environment, either by natural phenomena from ancient times or by recent human actions, actions which cause accelerated environmental and climate changes. We expect that the greater the genetic variability in a tree population in the forest, the greater the chances of its adaptation to changes in the climate and environment. Thus, different studies have sought to understand the effects of these changes on the diversity and genetic structure of different forest species and their adaptation to the environment.

Cutting-edge research: In the current context of accelerated environmental changes, genetic studies help conservation strategies for tree species and their sustainable use. Currently, the use of multiple research strategies has accelerated research on tree species. Thus, both classical (molecular markers, phenology, biostatistics, etc.) and recent methodologies (phenomics, genomics, artificial intelligence, etc.) are becoming combined. These different research strategies integrate multiple areas of knowledge (bioinformatics, ecology, forest engineering, physiology, genetics, etc.) to better understand the variability and adaptation of trees.

The kind of papers we are soliciting: We are looking to receive research papers and systematic or integrative reviews. The potential topics include, but are not limited to:

1. The diversity and genetic structure of a species of tree: case studies.
2. Agroforestry systems and the conservation of species and habitats.
3. The methods and strategies for assessing tree variation and adaptation.
4. The variation and adaptation of tree species in the context of environmental changes.
5. Timber and non-timber products as allies of genetic conservation.
6. The training of researchers in the area of genetics and evolution of tree species.

Prof. Dr. Ronan Xavier Corrêa
Prof. Dr. Andrei Caíque Pires Nunes
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.

• agroforest systems
• climate, soil, and water changes
• conservation genetics
• genetic diversity
• native trees
• non-native trees
• evolution
• genomics
• ecology
• sustainable developing goals