Conservation and Restoration of Forest Biodiversity

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 483

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Sichuan Academy of Forestry, Chengdu, China
Interests: biodiversity conservation; forest management; plant species diversity

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Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Plateau Ecology and Agriculture, Qinghai University, Xining, China
Interests: ecological restoration; alpine ecology; biodiversity conservation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Forest biodiversity provides multiple ecosystem functions and services around the world. However, high biodiversity extinction risks exist widely in different forest biomes due to global changes in climate and land use. Therefore, effective tools are required to address the issues of species diversity and ecosystem loss depending on different biomes, e.g., tropical, temperate, and boreal biomes. We should systematically evaluate the impact of environmental changes on forest biodiversity across different spatial scales, from community to global scales, and provide new insights for guiding the protection of forests. Furthermore, conserving and restoring forest biodiversity is critical for environmental management and global assessment.

This Special Issue aims to comprehensively explore the effects of environmental changes on vascular plants in forest biomes across different spatial scales, from global to local scales.

We invite submissions of original research articles, reviews, short communications, brief reports, and meta-analyses. We welcome studies utilizing interdisciplinary approaches, field experiments, modeling, and novel methodologies to advance our understanding of the conservation and restoration of forest biodiversity.

Dr. Chunjing Wang
Dr. Chunhui Zhang
Prof. Dr. Tomasz Oszako
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • biodiversity
  • biological conservation
  • conservation planning
  • forest biodiversity
  • ecological restoration
  • environmental management

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 2323 KiB  
Article
Tree- and Stand-Scale Roost Selection and Partitioning by Bats Barbastella barbastellus Schreber, 1774 and Pipistrellus pygmaeus Leach, 1825 in a European Lowland Forest
by Alek Rachwald, Grzegorz Apoznański, Tomasz Oszako, Sandra Krzemińska, Ireneusz Ruczyński, Ewa Komar, Marcin Zegarek and Andrew Carr
Forests 2025, 16(7), 1189; https://doi.org/10.3390/f16071189 - 19 Jul 2025
Viewed by 324
Abstract
Our research focused on the roost preferences of two bat species in a forest environment. Throughout the Anthropocene, people have heavily altered the landscape. Forested habitation has declined, with remaining forests becoming fragmented and often deprived of old trees that provide shelter opportunities [...] Read more.
Our research focused on the roost preferences of two bat species in a forest environment. Throughout the Anthropocene, people have heavily altered the landscape. Forested habitation has declined, with remaining forests becoming fragmented and often deprived of old trees that provide shelter opportunities for bats. TReMs (tree-related microhabitats) are essential for forest-dwelling bat species as they provide an opportunity to roost and shelter. Following an infestation of Ips typographus L., the Białowieża Forest is saturated with dead spruce trees. We investigated roost selection in two forest-dwelling species, Barbastella barbastellus and Pipistrellus pygmaeus. To examine similarities or differences in roost selection between species, we radio-tracked 24 barbastelles and 13 soprano pipistrelles over three breeding seasons. We located a total of 48 barbastelle roosts and 15 pipistrelle roosts, together with the characteristics of the surroundings. We found that barbastelles select roosts almost exclusively in dead spruce trees (43/48), while pipistrelles selected roosts predominantly in live (n = 8) and dead (n = 5) broadleaved trees. Our results show that both bat species have clear differences in roost tree preference. In our study area, with an abundance of exfoliating bark, barbastelles showed a preference for roosting under flaking bark despite the availability of crevices within broadleaved trees. Our findings provide useful insight into forestry practices, highlighting the importance of standing dead trees. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conservation and Restoration of Forest Biodiversity)
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