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Forests
Special Issues
Biodiversity Patterns and Ecosystem Functions in Forests
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Biodiversity Patterns and Ecosystem Functions in Forests

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 February 2026 | Viewed by 126

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Zuoqiang Yuan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Ecology and Environment, Northernwest Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710129, China
Interests: biodiversity and ecosystem functions; forest multifunctionality; plants and microbes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue, titled "Biodiversity Patterns and Ecosystem Functions in Forests", explores the intricate relationships between forest biodiversity and the processes that sustain ecological services. Forests, as globally vital ecosystems, host immense biological diversity and underpin critical functions such as carbon sequestration, water regulation, and habitat provision. The Issue seeks research that uncovers spatial and temporal patterns of biodiversity (e.g., species richness, phylogenetic and functional diversity) across forest types (tropical, temperate, boreal, and fragmented landscapes) and links these patterns to ecosystem processes like productivity, nutrient cycling, resilience to disturbances, and climate change adaptation. Contributions may address how biodiversity loss or compositional changes affect forest functioning, including mechanisms driving tree community dynamics, the role of keystone species, and interactions between aboveground and belowground biodiversity. Studies employing observational, experimental, or modeling approaches—at scales ranging from plot-level experiments to landscape or global analyses—are welcome. The goal is to advance our understanding of how forest biodiversity supports ecosystem stability and services, informing sustainable management, conservation, and restoration strategies amidst accelerating environmental changes.

Prof. Dr. Zuoqiang Yuan
Guest Editor

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

  • forest biodiversity
  • ecosystem function
  • functional diversity
  • carbon sequestration
  • forest dynamics

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

26 pages, 4023 KiB  
Article
Forest Habitat and Substrate Interactions Drive True Slime Mould Diversity Across Poland
by Tomasz Pawłowicz, Tomasz Oszako, Konrad Wilamowski, Monika Puchlik, Krzysztof Sztabkowski, Igor Żebrowski, Gabriel Michał Micewicz, Gabriel Kacper Malej and Oliwia Kudrycka
Forests 2025, 16(8), 1307; https://doi.org/10.3390/f16081307 - 11 Aug 2025
Abstract
True slime mould assemblages respond acutely to microhabitat structure, which may constitute potential indicators of forest dynamics; however, large-scale syntheses integrating habitat scale and substrate specificity remain exceedingly scarce. By collating 3085 occurrence records into eight ecologically coherent habitats and ten substrate guilds, [...] Read more.
True slime mould assemblages respond acutely to microhabitat structure, which may constitute potential indicators of forest dynamics; however, large-scale syntheses integrating habitat scale and substrate specificity remain exceedingly scarce. By collating 3085 occurrence records into eight ecologically coherent habitats and ten substrate guilds, we quantified richness, entropy, turnover and indicator strength via rarefaction, Chao1/ACE, Shannon–Simpson indices, β-diversity partitioning, NMDS, PERMANOVA and IndValg analysis. Broadleaved deciduous forests accounted for 37.9% of observations and hosted the most taxa, while lignicolous samples in both deciduous and bog–mire contexts dominated species counts; open grasslands were compositionally depauperate. Species replacement, not nestedness, structured assemblages (βSIM/βSOR≈0.82), and habitat plus substrate explained two-thirds of variance. Indicator analysis isolated six habitat-diagnostic genera (notably Cribraria, Hemitrichia and Licea) and, at species resolution, highlighted Diderma niveum, Fuligo septica and Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa as high-fidelity bioindicators of montane grassland, bog–mire and broadleaved forest conditions, respectively. Taken together, our findings lay the groundwork for employing true slime moulds to identify habitat types and assess their ecological condition, while underscoring the conservation value of dead wood retention and structural heterogeneity. The benchmarked indicator set we provide enables rapid assessments and establishes a temporal baseline for tracking climate- and management-driven change in Central European Eumycetozoa diversity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biodiversity Patterns and Ecosystem Functions in Forests)
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