Forest Structural Dynamics in the 21st Century

Dear Colleagues,

Forest structure, the complex, three-dimensional arrangement of trees and vegetation, both vertically and spatially, is a foundation and driver of ecosystem processes and biodiversity. Some key structural attributes, such as leaf area and tree density, profoundly affect forest functioning and are crucial to forest productivity and carbon budgets. On landscape scales, forest structures are diverse and dynamic, subject to natural and human-induced disturbances which alter structural features and create different legacies affecting subsequent forest development. In temperate regions, for instance, most forest structures have been substantially modified on various scales of landscapes by human activities over the last few centuries. Upon entering the 21st century, we may anticipate even greater dynamics in forest structure because of increasing impacts of environmental changes and pressure. Shifts in forest structure can be caused by direct disruptions such as deforestation or land-use change; by consequences of intensified natural disturbances as in the case of wildfires or droughts, and even by subtle modifications through changes in tree physiology or species composition. Here, we invite papers addressing broad issues regarding forest structural dynamics in the recent decades and perspectives for the future. We welcome studies from all relevant fields; studies detecting forest structural attributes and dynamics and exploring causes and consequences of change based on ground measurements, monitoring networks, remote sensing, modeling, or analytic methods. We hope the information and knowledge gathered through this Special Issue will improve our understanding of future forest structural and functional dynamics and prove useful to forest management under increasing environmental challenges.

Dr. Yude Pan
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.