Wetland Plant Diversity and Ecosystem Function

Dear Colleagues,

This is a call for papers for a Special Issue focused on the crucial role plant diversity and vegetation health play in the evolution, stabilization, conservation, and functioning of wetland ecosystems. This Special Issue seeks to publish articles focused on methodological, substantive, practice-based, and theoretical intersections that will reveal the ways in which plant species diversity (e.g., dominance, richness, evenness, and divergence) and vegetation characteristics (e.g., density, biomas production, and canopy architecture) relate to the vital benefits that both coastal and inland wetlands can offer to society.

This Special Issue invites manuscripts exploring the aspects of feedback between plant species richness, vegetation development, and wetland functioning. It is argued that wealthy marsh vegetation significantly enhances fundamental ecosystem functions such as shoreline protection and stabilization, carbon sequestration, nutrient retention and primary productivity, and it is known that the origin and viability of marshes—as well as their ability to provide high-value ecological benefits—depend on the delicate equilibrium of abiotic and biotic factors that act at local scales, among which the climate, relative sea level, erosion, sediment availability, and vegetation dynamics are highly important.

Examples of topics for this Special Issue may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The key physical processes involved in marsh development, stabilization, and functioning (e.g., sediment transport and deposition or hydrodynamic regimes) that are decisively affected by vegetation development (communities of dominant plant species), which in turn is governed by numerous physical factors (e.g., flooding regime, soil properties, and oxygen availability).
• The coupled interaction of the biotic, morphological, and physicochemical components of marshes that govern a) plant species diversity and spatial distribution, and b) the zonal organization of plant communities along environmental gradients as well as the provided ecosystem services.
• The effect of human interference on plant diversity and ecological functions in wetland ecosystems.
• The significant stress that climate change (rising temperatures, changes in rainfall intensity and frequency, extreme climatic effects such as drought, flooding, and storm frequency) can potentially inflict upon the structure and functioning of ecosystems through disturbances of native wetland plant communities and changes to vegetation coverage.
• Practical recommendations for wetland restoration projects based on the general acceptance of the important relationships between plant diversity, vegetation dynamics, and ecosystem function.

Dr. Maria Sarika
Dr. Anastasios Zotos
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. Land 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.

• marshes
• vascular flora
• vegetation dynamics
• climate change
• threats
• human impact
• conservation
• habitat loss