Landscape Ecology - Pandemics and landscape ecology in a post-COVID world
Guest Editor
Yolanda F. Wiersma, Department of Biology, Memorial University, St. John’s, NL, Canada
Theme & Objective
The COVID-19 pandemic has had dramatic effects on many aspects of our lives. The most acute effects have been on individual health, with over 4.6 million deaths globally. Global and regional maps of COVID hotspots and total deaths display variation in both space and time that reflect a combination of demographics, differences in public health policies, along with other attributes of location that are familiar to landscape ecologists. Assessing COVID spread, as well as the impacts of various mitigation strategies (vaccinations, public health guidelines) can also help epidemiologists understand the efficacy of these strategies that can inform future pandemics.
In addition to health and mortality impacts, COVID has changed the way we go about our daily lives, affecting how we work, learn and recreate. Impacts on global supply chains have been evident in retail stores and food security. Increases in work-from home, and in home delivery of everything from food to goods and services have impacted transportation networks, and closures of recreational facilities have highlighted the importance of (and sometime uneven access to) public parks and green spaces.
What can landscape ecology bring to our understanding of the impact of this pandemic as well as past and future pandemics? As a zoonotic, COVID represent an intersection of the human and natural world. Human-landscape interactions is a topic that occupies this discipline as well. This collection brings together many of the interdisciplinary strands that constitute landscape ecology to various dimensions of the post-pandemic world.
We are interested in papers that examine the spatial dynamics of pandemics, including (but not limited to COVID-19) spreading, forecasting, management and mitigation, and that also look at the ecological impacts of the “anthropause” due to COVID-19, as well as challenges to research during the first years of the pandemic and continuing on as we learn to “live with COVID”. Submissions that support and amplify United Nation Sustainable Development Goals 3: Good Health & Well-Being and 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, specifically Target 11.5 and Target 11.7 are especially welcome.
Papers of all types (research, correspondence, review, perspectives) that discuss professional impacts of COVID, including research adaptations/innovations, teaching and conference participation are welcome. Students and Early Career Researchers1 and researchers from low- and middle-income countries where pandemic impacts may be especially acuter, are encouraged to submit.
Papers will be sent for peer review and published as they are submitted, and gathered together online as part of this collection.
Pre-submission enquiries are welcome.
1 Cannot be combined with an APC token.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: May 1, 2024
- Please follow the submission guidelines and our checklist.
- Please submit online via SNAPP and select article type “Topical Collection: Pandemics and landscape ecology in a post-COVID world”.
Landscape Ecology is an open access journal in which an article processing charge applies. Please see our Journal Pricing FAQs for general APC information and our APC Funding & Support Services for assistance.
Members of the International Association for Landscape Ecology are entitled to a discount off the APC of their accepted paper in Landscape Ecology. Members should send their APC token2 request directly to the IALE Vice-Secretary General.
2 Cannot be combined with the SERC incentive.
About the Guest Editor
Dr. Yolanda F. Wiersma researches landscape ecology in the boreal forest. Her current foci are ecological stoichiometry, lichens as models systems for landscape ecology. She is author of Landscape Series textbook “Experimental Landscape Ecology”. Dr. Wiersma’s research activities can be viewed here.
Contact Information
Yolanda F. Wiersma
Department of Biology
Memorial University
St. John’s, NL
Canada
ywiersma@mun.ca
@YolandaWiersma
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