Long-Term and Seasonal Population Dynamics of Forest Insects at Climate Change

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2025 | Viewed by 690

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Entomology, Phytopathology and Physiology, Ukrainian Research Institute of Forestry and Forest Melioration, Kharkiv, Ukraine
Interests: forest entomology; seasonal development of insects; insect population dynamics; habitat preferences; alien forest insects; climate change; forest protection
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, 16501 Praha, Czech Republic
Interests: conservation biology; forest ecology; invasive species; IPM; sawflies; pathogens of bark beetles
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Forestry Faculty, ”Stefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, Universității Street 13, 720229 Suceava, Romania
Interests: integrated forest management; forest health; forest protection; forest ecology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate indicators affect the timing and rate of the seasonal development of trees, insects, and other poikilothermic organisms, and their survival, fertility (yield), and interaction with species of their own, and with other trophic levels. Phenological asynchrony between host trees, and herbivorous and entomophagous insects, may be of great importance in changing the dynamics of populations. These changes may depend on the biology of individual species (sites of hibernation, the presence of obligate or facultative diapause, and the ability to increase the number of generations). Changes in the seasonal dynamics of species may also affect the long-term dynamics of their outbreaks and the injuriousness of certain pests.

This Special Issue welcomes novel research focused on various aspects of phytophagous insect interaction with the forest environment, host trees, entomophagous insects, and other components of the forest ecosystem, which increase or decrease the probability of outbreaks, the frequency, duration, and intensity of these outbreaks, and the change in the role of individual species in complexes.

Potential topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Phenological resistance of trees to phytophagous insects;
  • Phenological asynchrony between host trees, herbivorous and entomophagous insects, and vectors of pathogens;
  • Probability, frequency, duration, and severity of forest insect outbreaks in new climate.

Prof. Dr. Valentyna Meshkova
Prof. Dr. Jaroslav Holuša
Dr. Mihai-Leonard Duduman
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

  • climate change
  • biotic risks in the forest
  • phenological asynchrony between trophic levels
  • population dynamic
  • phytophagous forest insects

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

25 pages, 2582 KiB  
Article
Climate-Induced Shift in the Population Dynamics of Tortrix viridana L. In Ukraine
by Valentyna Meshkova, Serhij Stankevych, Yana Koshelyaeva, Volodymyr Korsovetskyi and Oleksandr Borysenko
Forests 2025, 16(6), 1005; https://doi.org/10.3390/f16061005 (registering DOI) - 14 Jun 2025
Abstract
Tortrix viridana (Linnaeus, 1758) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) (TV) is a serious pest of oaks in the West-Palearctic. In Ukraine in the 50–70s of the 20th century, the area of TV outbreaks reached 140–180 thousand hectares. Since the late 1980s, outbreaks have become rarer and [...] Read more.
Tortrix viridana (Linnaeus, 1758) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) (TV) is a serious pest of oaks in the West-Palearctic. In Ukraine in the 50–70s of the 20th century, the area of TV outbreaks reached 140–180 thousand hectares. Since the late 1980s, outbreaks have become rarer and have occurred in a smaller area. This research aimed to assess the main parameters of TV outbreaks in Ukraine, considering its prevalence in flush feeders’ complex, the suitability of forest structure for this insect, and the phenological mismatch between bud-flushing and TV hatching. Historical data on TV outbreaks in Ukraine since 1947, data for 1978–2025 by regions, field and climate data, and forest management databases as of 1996 and 2017 from the Kharkiv region were analyzed. Since 1985, the incidence, severity, and duration of TV outbreaks have decreased in all regions of Ukraine. It was explained by: (1) TV decrease in the flush feeding complex due to monophagy; (2) decrease in the suitable area due to a change in the forest age composition, proportion of pure oak stands, and stands with low relative stocking density; (3) the shift of oak bud-flushing and TV hatching to earlier dates with the tendency of earlier bud-flushing than egg-hatching. Full article
Back to TopTop