Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change

Dear Colleagues,

Adaptive silviculture represents a paradigm shift that integrates evolutionary considerations into forest management practice. This evolution-oriented approach recognizes that effective climate adaptation requires combining short-term operational objectives with long-term evolutionary processes. Rather than simply maintaining current forest conditions, adaptive silviculture actively works to build resilience and adaptive capacity within forest ecosystems, preparing them for future climatic uncertainties while meeting present-day management objectives.

Active adaptation has become a necessity given the rapid pace of climate change, which far exceeds the natural ability of most tree species to migrate into new suitable habitats. This approach uses silvicultural methods such as tending, thinning, stand conversion, and tree species enrichment by assisted migration to change stand structures and species composition, making forests better adapted to future climate conditions. The overarching goals of adaptive silviculture are to enhance species and structural diversity, maintain or increase genetic diversity, ensure the stability of individual trees, facilitate the conversion of high-risk stands, and maintain an optimal, low-level stand growing stock.

This Special Issue calls for a global network of collaborative experimental trials and aims to gather knowledge and experience on adaptive silviculture globally through a collection of research and review papers.

Prof. Dr. Vladan Ivetic
Prof. Dr. John Stanturf
Dr. Branko Kanjevac
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.