New special issue: Frontiers in Modelling Future Forest Growth, Yield and Wood Properties

We are launching the special issue “Frontiers in Modelling Future Forest Growth, Yield and Wood Properties”.

This special issue will gather articles from presentations given at the IUFRO Meeting “New Frontiers in Forecasting Forests” held in Stellenbosch, South Africa, in September 2018.

The ability to accurately predict future forest growth and structure, and the yields and quality of diverse products from these forests, is an essential part of forest management. With changes in global climate patterns, rapid genetic gains in commercial forest sectors around the world and the serious risks posed internationally by pests and diseases, forecasting how forests will develop is increasingly challenging. New innovations in statistical modelling techniques, as well as significant advances in process-based modelling approaches are leading, however, to major improvements in modelling success.

Delegates for the IUFRO-supported New Frontiers in Forecasting Forests meeting pose for a picture outside the conference venue at STIAS on campus of the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.

New Frontiers in Forecasting Forests (NFFF) brought together 85 experts from 16 countries to present research and discuss advances in models predicting future attributes of forests. The meeting was held from 25th September to 28th September 2018, hosted by the Department of Forest and Wood Science at the University of Stellenbosch and supported by several units in IUFRO Division 4 (particularly 4.01, 4.02.07, 4.03 and 4.04) as well as by Working Party 5.01.04 (Wood Quality Modelling).

Our Guest Editors are Dr David Drew, Prof Alexis Achim and Prof Annikki Mäkelä. David Drew is Senior Lecturer in Forest Growth and Yield Science at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and led the organisation of the New Frontiers conference. Alexis Achim is Full Professor at the Department of Wood and Forest Sciences, and Director of the Centre for Research on Renewable Materials, at Université Laval, Canada. Annikki Mäkelä is a Full Professor at the University of Helsinki, Finland, where she leads the Forest Modelling Research Group which develops theories and models of tree function, structure, and growth.

More information on the meeting, including links to full presentations for most authors, can be found at http://conferences.sun.ac.za/ff2018/NFFF2018.

Deadline for online manuscript submission : 29 March 2019.

We would like to finish the reviewing and revision process of the submitted papers by August 2019 so the special issue could be completed in September 2019, one year after the conference. Earlier papers will not have to wait for others and will be published directly online after final acceptation.
Authors must follow the instructions for authors available on Springer website and may use the templates available for the Title page and the Research article. Upon submission in Editorial Manager, authors must select SI: Forecasting Forests as Article type to assign their manuscripts to the special issue.

We are looking forward to receiving your manuscript and ready to answer any questions sent to annforsci@inra.fr