This is an article collection published in Ecological Processes.
Forests are key ecosystems for the maintenance of biodiversity and the sustainable provision of ecosystem services (ES). Still, there are many gaps in our understanding of the functional role of forests at ecosystem and landscape scales. At the same time, green areas play a crucial role for the healthiness of urban and periurban areas, environmental regeneration and urban resilience, reducing the heat island effect and soil, air and water pollution.
"The Green-Blue Nexus" addresses the conflict between ‘Green’ provisioning services (e.g. timber/biomass and forest by-products such as food and fodder) and ‘Blue’ regulating services (e.g. decontamination of drinking water and the regulation of flooding and erosion) in the context of impacts on biodiversity and the key ecological processes that enable the supply of these services. Moreover, design and management of open spaces and green areas are closely related with sustainability, peoples’ health and wellbeing, prevention, safety, and social inclusion in our living environments.
This collectionpresents research that identifies, quantifies and qualifies forest ecosystem services operating at the landscape scale and discusses their temporal dynamics and their importance for ecosystem-scale valuation. Implications for land use changes, management of forest ecosystems and the availability of ecosystem services at multiple scales are included as part of this scope. The relationships at the basis of the green systems-health nexus, crosscutting research and practical experiences and policies bridging the landscape and green planning, health, and urban policies fields are also considered.
Articles in this collection include (but are not limited to) contributions from the conference ‘Healthy landscapes: green, regeneration, safety’ held in Bologna in June 2018.
Submission instructions
Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you have carefully read the Submission Guidelines for Ecological Processes. The complete manuscript should be submitted through the Ecological Processes submission system. To ensure that you submit to the correct article collection please select the appropriate section in the drop-down menu upon submission. In addition, indicate within your cover letter that you wish your manuscript to be considered as part of the article collection on 'The Green-Blue Nexus: Forests, Landscapes and Services'. All submissions will undergo rigorous peer review and accepted articles will be published within the journal as a collection.
Edited by:
Christine Fürst and Patrizia Tassinari