Conservation and Dynamics of Forest Biodiversity

Dear Colleagues,

Global biodiversity is declining at unprecedented rates due to overpopulation causing deforestation, pollution, overexploitation, fragmentation, and climate change. Forest biodiversity is among the most affected, suffering furthermore from forest fires and cascading intensification. Effects might be relevant at intraspecific scale as well as for species and structural or ecosystem richness. The high diversity of forests is bound to their stable conditions and consequently is most sensitive to changing environments. Due to the complex structure of forests and high speciation, forests are inhabited by many elusive species complicating their evaluation.

Despite their stable nature in general, rare dynamic events such as storms, forest fires, and gap dynamics have detrimental effects on forest biodiversity. Unnatural increases of these disturbances, like increased rotation cycles, lead to the impoverishment of biodiversity. Due to the long time scales, often outrunning the human life span, their effects are difficult to assess due to shifting baselines and are difficult to discriminate from natural dynamics.

Our aim is to compile works dealing with the causes, effects, and solutions, as well as the assessment of forest biodiversity in natural or managed forests. Furthermore, we deal with the effects of natural and increased disturbances on the dynamics in forest biodiversity.

Dr. Arno Thomaes
Guest Editor

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