Forest covers approximately one-third of the world’s land surface area. Extensive forest area loss and gain have occurred under diverse human activities and climate change, which have substantial impacts on terrestrial carbon and water cycles, soil erosion, weather, climate, and other ecosystem services. The increased data availability from field surveys and remote sensing and the progress in models and analytics have substantially improved the knowledge of forest cover dynamics, driving factors, and impacts. This special issue aims to highlight recent advancements in forest cover dynamics, driving factors, and impacts. We welcome submissions covering a variety of topics, including, but not limited to:

1) Novel algorithms for mapping forest cover and forest cover dynamics, such as the application of artificial intelligence, machine learning, remote sensing data analysis, and model-data fusion techniques in forest cover and forest cover dynamics.

2) Forest cover dynamics in the last few decades using multiple-source datasets, such as optical satellite images, microwave satellite images, LiDAR, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) data, and field inventory plots.

3) Driving factors for forest cover dynamics, such as climate, fires, insects, socio-economic factors, environmental policies, and management; and

4) The broad impacts of forest cover dynamics on the socio-environment sustainability, such as terrestrial carbon and water cycle, climate, weather, soil erosion, and biodiversity.

Guest Editors: 

Yuanwei Qin

Professor

College of Geography and Remote Sensing, Hohai University

Senior Researcher

School of Biological Sciences, University of Oklahoma

Email: qinyuanwei001@163.com; yuanwei.qin@ou.edu

Jia Wang

Professor

College of Forestry, Beijing Forestry University

Email: wangjia2009@bjfu.edu.cn

Jun Ma

Associate Professor

School of Life Sciences, Fudan University

Email: ma_jun@fudan.edu.cn

Fang Liu

Senior Research Scientist

College of Surveying and Geo-Informatics, Tongji University

Email: fang.liu@ou.edu

Xiangming Xiao

Professor

School of Biological Sciences, University of Oklahoma

Email: xiangming.xiao@ou.edu

Important Dates 

Submission Deadline: December 30, 2025

Expected Publication: June 30, 2026

Submission Guidelines

To submit to the special issue, please visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/fesci and select the “Type” as “Special Issue: Forest cover dynamics, drivers, and impacts under diverse human activities and climate change” while submitting your manuscript.

Please visit https://www.springer.com/journal/11707/submission-guidelines for submission guidelines.

Contacts

If you have any questions regarding submission, please feel free to contact the Editorial Office of Frontiers of Earth Science via: fesci@re.ecnu.edu.cn.