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Forests
Special Issues
Pollen Monitoring of Forest Communities
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Pollen Monitoring of Forest Communities

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 December 2025 | Viewed by 540

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Federico Di Rita

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Interests: palynology; vegetation history; paleoclimate; human impact on forests; coastal environments; quaternary
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Roberta Pini

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Palynology and Palaeoecology, CNR-IGAG Institute of Environmental Geology and Geoengineering, Milan, Italy
Interests: quaternary paleoecology; paleobotany and paleoclimatology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Juan Ochando Tomás

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor
Research Group ECCE HOMO, Department of Plant Biology, University of Murcia, Campus de Espinardo, Murcia, Spain
Interests: palaeobotany; palynology; ecosystem ecology; conservation biology
Dr. Fabrizio Michelangeli

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Interests: palynology; palaeoecology; paleobotany; vegetation ecology; plant ecology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Forest plant communities are plant species that coexist within specific forested environments. These communities share common ecological conditions, including soil type, climate, and topography, which influence their composition and interactions. Their role in ecosystem functioning is crucial, supporting biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and other essential services.

However, the stability of forest plant communities worldwide is currently under significant threat due to a combination of rapid climate change and over-exploitation. Climate change leads to increased tree mortality and limits forest regeneration, resulting in changes to structure and species composition. Large-scale deforestation and intensive land use further exacerbate the situation by modifying habitats, introducing invasive species, and disrupting forest ecosystems.

Despite these challenges, it is essential to recognize that the current state is just a snapshot of the millennial history of forest plant communities’ vulnerability, adaptation, and resilience to external stressors. In this context, palynology plays a pivotal role. By examining pollen data, we bridge the temporal gap, connecting ancient landscapes to our present-day environment. Palynology provides baseline information for conservation efforts and informs models predicting how vegetation will respond to climate change, human activities, and geomorphic processes.

In this Special Issue, we explore how pollen data can help monitor forest plant communities and shed light on their historical changes. This knowledge empowers us to learn from the past, adapt to the present, and make informed decisions for sustainable future forest ecosystems.

Dr. Federico Di Rita
Dr. Roberta Pini
Guest Editors

Dr. Juan Ochando Tomás
Dr. Fabrizio Michelangeli
Co-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.

Keywords

  • pollen
  • palynology
  • forest communities
  • ecosystems
  • land use changes
  • historical ecology

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 1887 KiB  
Article
Burn Severity Does Not Significantly Alter Pollen Abundance Across a Burn Matrix Four Years Post Wildfire in Sub-Boreal Forests of British Columbia, Canada
by Laurel Berg-Khoo, Stephanie Wilford and Lisa J. Wood
Forests 2025, 16(7), 1051; https://doi.org/10.3390/f16071051 - 24 Jun 2025
Viewed by 106
Abstract
Wildfires have had measurable impacts on pollen dispersal in some areas; both facilitation and potential barriers to pollen movement have been reported. These dispersal dynamics in turn affect population genetics and reestablishment of seed-producing plants, at times significantly impacting the successional trajectory of [...] Read more.
Wildfires have had measurable impacts on pollen dispersal in some areas; both facilitation and potential barriers to pollen movement have been reported. These dispersal dynamics in turn affect population genetics and reestablishment of seed-producing plants, at times significantly impacting the successional trajectory of the area in question. However, research on post-fire pollen distribution and occurrence is lacking for the boreal and sub-boreal forests of western Canada, and many communities that have been heavily impacted by wildfire remain concerned about the future forest landscape of these areas. We analyzed post-fire pollen samples from unburned and severely burned sub-boreal spruce stands in north-central British Columbia four years after a major wildfire. We used pollen traps to measure the occurrence and abundance of pollen types from four important plant families: Asteraceae, Ericaceae, Onagraceae, and Pinaceae families, to address specific concerns of the First Nation communities with territories overlapping the Shovel Lake wildfire burned area. Pinaceae pollen was found across all traps and was observed as the most dominant pollen type at all study sites, while pollen belonging to other families was found less frequently. No significant differences in pollen occurrence or abundance were found between burn severities, despite differences in the plant communities; however, plant and pollen abundance were found to be positively correlated to one another. These results may indicate that, as previously noted in other conifer-dominated forests, openings of the forest landscape by wildfire may facilitate rather than hinder pollen movements. Understory species should be studied in more detail as the effect of wildfire on pollen transport may vary between taxa and pollination syndromes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pollen Monitoring of Forest Communities)
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