Climate and Land-Use Change Effects on the Biogeography of Woody Plant Species and Biodiversity Conservation
A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Meteorology and Climate Change".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 December 2025 | Viewed by 3784
Special Issue Editor
Interests: biogeography; biodiversity; extinction risk; island biodiversity; island biogeography; conservation biogeography; conservation biology; conservation ecology; plant diversity; species distribution modelling; plant systematics; biodiversity and climate change
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Plant biodiversity, encompassing over 400,000 known taxa with approximately 2000 new species described annually, faces unprecedented challenges in the Anthropocene. This remarkable diversity, distributed heterogeneously across the globe, is experiencing accelerated decline due to human activities. Since the Industrial Revolution, biodiversity loss has been documented across all levels—taxonomic, phylogenetic, functional, and genetic—primarily due to habitat degradation and fragmentation. Contemporary pressures, including climate change, land use transformation, and elevated extinction rates, are reshaping ecosystem dynamics, promoting biotic homogenization, and disrupting established species interactions.
The Mediterranean region, recognized as the world's second largest biodiversity hotspot, stands at a critical juncture. This region harbors an exceptional concentration of vulnerable taxa and is projected to experience some of the most severe impacts of climate and land use change. Despite numerous conservation initiatives aimed at addressing the ongoing extinction crisis, significant knowledge gaps persist regarding which plant species are most threatened, their geographic distribution, and the underlying causes of their vulnerability.
This Special Issue seeks to advance our understanding of plant diversity patterns and conservation challenges in the Mediterranean basin. We welcome contributions addressing various aspects, including but not limited to, the following:
- Species distribution modeling under climate change scenarios;
- Impact assessment of land use changes on plant communities;
- Conservation genetics and population dynamics;
- Ecosystem service evaluation of threatened plant species;
- Novel conservation strategies and management approaches;
- Historical biogeography and phylogenetic studies;
- Ethnobotanical research on socio-economically important taxa;
- Restoration ecology and habitat rehabilitation;
- Policy implications for biodiversity conservation.
By bringing together cutting-edge research across various scales—from molecular to ecosystem levels—this Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive framework for understanding and preserving Mediterranean plant diversity in an era of rapid environmental change.
Dr. Kostas Kougioumoutzis
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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 patterns
- conservation biology and prioritization
- ecosystems services
- ethnobotany
- extinction risk
- genetic, taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional diversity
- plant–pollinator networks
- phylogeography
- physiology
- species distribution modelling
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