The 24th IUFRO World Congress: Session 13 Salamanders: World Icons of Aquatic Biodiversity in Forests

Dear Colleague,

Salamanders are well-known denizens of northern hemisphere forests, with bi-phasic life histories bridging aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Today, we are still discovering the extent of forest salamander biodiversity, and charting their losses simultaneously. With close ties to forest, water, and climate, salamanders are emerging as contemporary symbols of world forestry sustainability, and its complexity over the next millennia as we strive for wise stewardship inclusive of both water and land resources. 2014 is designated as "Year of the Salamander" by Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (PARC; http://parcplace.org/). In collaboration with PARC and international salamander scientists, this Special Issue of Forests aims to showcase forest salamander research. Manuscript themes may span forestry practices, reserve designs, riparian buffer efficacy, population ecology, climate change models, and genetic tools for connectivity pathway planning and inventory/monitoring (e-DNA). Submissions are encouraged on all forest-occurring taxa, and especially the iconic "giant salamanders," Eurasian salamandrids, and the ecologically important terrestrial plethodontid salamanders, some of which are threatened from forest habitat loss, stream siltation, damming, overexploitation, and chemical and disease effects. In all, salamanders integrate threats to world forest biodiversity, and this Special Issue is intended to showcase the diversity of taxa and issues.

Dr. Deanna H. Olson
Guest Editor

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-anonymized 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.