Dear Colleagues,

The increasing movement of people and goods around the world is facilitating the movement of alien species. Human activities in forest ecosystems have favored the arrival of alien species, both intentionally and accidentally. For instance, the use of fast-growing exotic trees in forestry has favored the spread of these species (e.g., eucalypts and pines) outside plantations into natural forests across the world, introduced insects have spread dramatically in some areas, and mycorrhizal fungi have colonized the soils of new continents. Forests have thus become the host habitat for many exotic species, which has often led to significant alterations in the biodiversity and functioning of these ecosystems. Alien species have sometimes caused significant impacts that threaten populations of forest species, or have become a new resource for native species. In either case, the establishment of new interactions with the native communities determines the ecological integration or naturalization of the alien species in the host habitat, and with it, its ability to persist and spread, and to either support biodiversity or detrimentally impact native communities.

In this Special Issue we welcome contributions on the ecology of alien species in forest ecosystems. This includes all types of organisms, functional roles, and types of interactions with the native forest communities—either antagonistic or mutually beneficial. A better knowledge of the ecology of alien species in forests is essential in order to better understand the functioning of the novel communities resulting from biological globalization.

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.

• Alien species
• Disturbances
• Novel interactions
• Biodiversity
• Invasive species
• Ecosystem functioning