Wildlife, Biological Invasions, and Wildfire Risk in Anthropogenic Landscapes: Conservation Challenges and Solutions

Land use change is one of the major threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services worldwide. The expansion of anthropogenic landscapes, including urban, agricultural, peri-urban, and managed forest systems, has fragmented habitats and altered ecological processes, while increasing wildfire activity and biological invasions further intensify these pressures. Maintaining a balance between anthropogenic and natural landscapes is therefore essential to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem functions while supporting human needs. In this context, the land-sharing approach, which integrates productive land use with conservation objectives, has emerged as a promising strategy to reconcile management and biodiversity conservation. However, ecological responses vary among regions and ecosystems, highlighting the need for further research on wildlife conservation, invasive species dynamics, wildfire risk, and sustainable management practices that can enhance ecosystem resilience and reduce biodiversity loss in a rapidly changing world.

This Research Topic aims to advance scientific understanding of wildlife conservation, biological invasions, and wildfire risk across anthropogenic and natural landscapes. We seek contributions that examine the ecological consequences of land use and management practices, explore the interactions between biodiversity, disturbance processes, and climate change, and develop strategies that support ecosystem resilience and conservation. We welcome theoretical, experimental, and applied studies from diverse regions and ecological contexts, particularly those addressing wildlife responses to anthropogenic environments, the mechanisms and impacts of biological invasions, fire ecology and risk assessment, post-disturbance recovery, and the effects of land management on ecosystem dynamics. Studies on related topics, such as soil processes, forest structure, microbial communities, and sustainable land-use planning, are also encouraged when they contribute to a better understanding of biodiversity conservation in changing landscapes.

To gather further insights into the relationships among land use, biodiversity, and disturbance processes, we welcome studies exploring anthropogenic systems across spatial scales and ecological contexts. Submissions may address theoretical, experimental, or applied dimensions of these relationships. We encourage contributions in, but not limited to, the following areas:

o Ecological responses of wildlife to agricultural, urban, peri urban development and other anthropogenically disturbed environments
o How invasive species capitalize on landscape modification
o Mechanisms and impacts of biological invasions in managed landscapes
o Fire ecology, wildfire risk assessment, and post disturbance recovery
o Affects of different land use practices on fire regimes and ecological recovery.
o Interactions between climate change, land management, and ecosystem resilience
o New frameworks for sustainable land use planning and conservation policy
o Cross regional comparisons of biodiversity outcomes in land sharing vs. land sparing systems

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Registered Report
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Biological invasions, Fire Land use change, Management and conservation, Biodiversity loss

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.