Succession and Management of Forests after Fire Disturbances

Dear Colleagues,

There is clear evidence that climate change increases the frequency and severity of fire weather around the world. Despite the unfortunate abundance of opportunities for research in post-fire succession and management, forest response to fire remains little understood. On one hand, it is important to analyze the effects of fire on forest biodiversity and structure using old-growth forests as reference ecosystems and under the perspective of different types of species (native, endemics, invasive, ruderals). This will likely offer new insights into this topic. On the other hand, different phylogenetic and ecological groups of organisms, such as bryophytes, lichens, invertebrates, and soil microbes, which are not commonly used to evaluate the effects of fire can also introduce new points of view on the forest’s responses to fire.

Wildfires produce a great impact in the short, medium, and long term on the whole forest ecosystem, and understanding these processes in the broadest possible sense can offer better post-fire management options. Fire response is influenced by a range of other factors, including land management practices, which might also be re-evaluated under new knowledge from multiple lines of research.

This Special Issue should bring one important contribution to the mosaic of forest fire response biodiversity understanding—a point of view of different perspectives from different ecological and phylogenetic groups and under the reference of mature ecosystems. This could be an important collection to understand how to manage burnt forests to best preserve them from future disturbances.

Prof. Dr. Juana Maria Gonzalez Mancebo
Dr. Víctor Bello-Rodríguez
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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.

• Biodiversity conservation
• Disturbance regimes
• Post-fire management
• Forest structure
• Habitat heterogeneity
• Species diversity
• Invasive species
• Endemic species
• Threatened species
• Microclimate
• Microhabitat
• Soil microbiome
• Climate change