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Forests
Special Issues
Effects of Forest Structure Management on Species Richness and Diversity
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Effects of Forest Structure Management on Species Richness and Diversity

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 1327

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Irena Šapić

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: phytosociology; vegetation and plant ecology; forest vegetation
Dr. Damir Ugarković

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: forest ecology; ecological monitoring
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Igor Poljak

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, University of Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: population genetics; molecular ecology; microsatellites; morphological variability; conservation genetics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Forest structure is determined by synergy of biotic and abiotic factors. It is a product as well as a driver of ecosystem processes and biodiversity. Essential attributes of forest structure include structural type, size, shape, and vertical and horizontal spatial distributions of components. Forest structure management affects the entire set of factors and components of the ecosystem, as well as species richness and diversity. It is known that the biodiversity of managed forests is reduced in comparison to natural forests and that the research looking into forest management has mainly been focused on simple comparisons between managed and unmanaged forests and on aggregated community metrics such as the species richness of individual taxa.

The local biodiversity of forests depends on a complex set of factors that characterize the habitats of individual species. These factors include components such as structural complexity, species composition, phenology timing, and horizontal patterning of the vegetation, which in turn depend on environment and the history of disturbances. Since managed forests have an important role to play in conserving global biodiversity, this Special Issue aims to achieve a better understanding of how changes induced by management on the composition of forests, and their structural and horizontal pattern of the dominant vegetation, define the diversity of the composition and the richness of associated organisms.

Dr. Irena Šapić
Dr. Damir Ugarković
Dr. Igor Poljak
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

  • biodiversity
  • forest structure
  • managed forests
  • habitat change
  • species composition
  • species richness
  • species diversity
  • ecosystem disturbance

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

33 pages, 1966 KiB  
Article
Effects of Forestry Transformation on the Species Level of Biodiversity in Poland’s Forests
by Ewa Referowska
Forests 2025, 16(1), 151; https://doi.org/10.3390/f16010151 - 15 Jan 2025
Viewed by 914
Abstract
Forest biodiversity is of particular importance for the world’s natural resources and for humans, so it is essential to observe the impact of forest management on its state. In this paper, the effects of Poland’s forestry evolution after 1945 on the forest biodiversity [...] Read more.
Forest biodiversity is of particular importance for the world’s natural resources and for humans, so it is essential to observe the impact of forest management on its state. In this paper, the effects of Poland’s forestry evolution after 1945 on the forest biodiversity at the species level are interpreted based on four indicators (deadwood, species composition of forest stands, introduced tree species, and common forest bird species) and considering the two politically and economically different eras. In the era of socialism (1945–1989), the area share of broadleaved tree species increased intensively, with a steady predominance of single-species stands, the ongoing removal of deadwood, and a relatively slow increase in the area occupied by alien tree species. In the era of democracy (ongoing since 1990), there was a less intensive increase in the proportion of broadleaved species, an intensive increase in the stock of deadwood, an increase in the area of multi-species stands over that of single-species stands, as well as an increase in the value of the Forest Bird Index. However, an intensive increase in the area occupied by alien tree species, especially invasive ones, which negatively impact native wildlife, was also noticeable in the era of democracy. The dilemmas and problems related to the amount of deadwood in forests; the continued conversion of stands towards more complex ones; the presence of other invasive species; the consequences of climate change; the reduction in migration barriers for forest animals; and the provision of funding for biodiversity conservation activities need to be discussed and resolved or implemented further. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of Forest Structure Management on Species Richness and Diversity)
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