Enhancing Forest Productivity, Value, and Health through Silviculture in a Changing World

Dear Colleagues,

Global change is inducing important stresses to forests worldwide. For example, increases in the frequency and intensity of drought events and invasions by new exotic invasive plants and insects have started to modify forest dynamics, including regeneration, recruitment, and growth, with significant effects on the provision of ecosystem services. Meanwhile, the world population is exerting a growing pressure on forest ecosystems as a source of materials supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy. Silviculture, the art and science of controlling the establishment, growth, composition, and quality of forest vegetation to achieve management objectives, offers the opportunity to create and maintain forest ecosystems that can meet these challenges. There is a vibrant need to conduct and disseminate silviculture research that provides the knowledge required to favor the resistance, resilience, or transition of forest ecosystems in the face of climate change.

This Special Issue of Forests is focused on silviculture. We invite the submission of review papers or research articles that focus on any functions of silviculture (regeneration, stand tending, and harvesting) or their combinations, including, but not restricted to the development of new silviculture treatments that will help to adapt forests to climate change, interactions between silviculture and climate, site characteristics, genetics, and biotic pressures, such as browsing or diseases. Studies with a focus on the development of planting material (e.g., species, stock type) or other aspects of forest management (e.g., enhanced forest inventories, wood quality, social license, modeling) should include interactions with silvicultural treatments or systems (e.g., site preparation, fertilization, vegetation management, partial harvest).

Dr. Nelson Thiffault
Dr. Brad Pinno
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 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.