Polar regions and their extreme environment have deeply fascinated naturalists for centuries. Surrounding the two poles of the globe, the Arctic and the Antarctic share many features and at the same time have a contrasting biogeographical constitution. Contemporary biological research ongoing in these unique areas covers a wide range of topics such as biodiversity patterns, biogeographical dynamics, persistence and dispersal capacities of organisms, evolutionary adaptations to extreme habitats. All these aspects become especially pertinent in the context of fragile polar ecosystems’ resilience to climate change.

The polar research is marked in 2017 by two important anniversaries: 60th Anniversary of the Polish Polar Station in Hornsund, Svalbard, Arctic and 40th Anniversary of the Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station, South Shetland Islands. As meaningful landmarks in the Polish Arctic and Antarctic studies, they provide an excellent motive to launch a special issue of the Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae focused on accomplishments, advances and perspectives in biological exploration of cold ecosystems. Therefore, we cordially invite contributions (original articles, review articles, and short communications) focused on polar biology studies including, but not limited to, the following areas:

• biodiversity assessment
• ecological processes and drivers of assemblages
• biogeographical patterns
• historical biogeography and phylogeography
• vegetation description and changes
• consequences of global environmental changes
• evolution of adaptations to extreme environment
• ecosystem resilience
• environmental pollution
• biological conservation.

The issue timetable:

• submission deadline: June 29, 2018
• reviews till: August 31, 2018
• post-review revisions till: October 31, 2018
• editing ends: December 21, 2018
• publication: December 28, 2018.

Journal policies (including guidelines for manuscript preparation, fees) are available at: https://pbsociety.org.pl/journals/index.php/asbp/about

Manuscripts submission starting point: https://pbsociety.org.pl/journals/index.php/asbp/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions

Please submit a manuscript to a dedicated section – “Polar terrestrial ecosystems: ecology, evolution, and biogeography”.

Guest editors of the issue:

Prof. dr hab. Bronisław Wojtuń
University of Wrocław
bronislaw.wojtun@uwr.edu.pl

Dr hab. Michał Ronikier, prof. PAN
W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences
m.ronikier@botany.pl

Photograph: Dryas octopetala community in the Western Spitsbergen (high Arctic). Author: M. Ronikier.