Diversity and Ecological Roles of Arthropods in Agricultural Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Agricultural landscapes represent dynamic mosaics of managed and semi-natural habitats that support an impressive diversity of arthropods. These organisms play critical ecological functions, including pollination, biological pest control, soil nutrient cycling and the maintenance of food web complexity. However, the intensification of agricultural practices such as habitat simplification, increased pesticide use and reduced crop diversity poses significant threats to arthropod communities, with cascading consequences for ecosystem services and long-term agricultural sustainability.

This Special Issue invites original research articles and reviews addressing the diversity, distribution and functional ecology of arthropods across a wide range of agricultural contexts, including arable fields, orchards, vineyards, pastures and agro-forestry systems. Contributions examining the effects of land-use change, management practices, landscape heterogeneity and climate variability on arthropod assemblages are particularly welcome. Studies employing traditional morphological identification alongside molecular, remote sensing, or citizen science approaches are encouraged. Ultimately, this collection aims to advance the integration of arthropod biodiversity data into evidence-based agricultural policy and practice.

Topics:

• Pollinator Dynamics: Plant-pollinator networks, the synergistic effects of wild and managed pollinators and pollination deficits in diverse cropping systems.
• Biological Pest Control: Trophic interactions, intraguild predation and the efficacy of natural enemies (predators and parasitoids) in pest suppression.
• Soil Arthropods and Nutrient Cycling: The functional role of soil-dwelling micro- and meso-arthropods (e.g., Collembola, Acari) in decomposition, soil health and biogeochemical cycling.
• Food Web Complexity: Multi-trophic interactions and the resilience of arthropod food webs to agricultural disturbances.
• Impact of Agrochemicals: Lethal, sub-lethal and transgenerational effects of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers on non-target arthropod communities
• Sustainable Farming Practices: The influence of organic farming, regenerative agriculture, conservation tillage and agroforestry on arthropod biodiversity.
• Crop Diversification: How intercropping, cover cropping, trap crops and complex crop rotations influence arthropod assemblages and pest-to-predator ratios.
• Semi-Natural Habitats: The ecological value of hedgerows, field margins, riparian buffers and floral strips as refuges, over-wintering sites and corridors for arthropods.
• Spillover Effects: The bidirectional movement of arthropods (pests and beneficials) between managed agricultural fields and adjacent natural or semi-natural habitats.
• Landscape Heterogeneity: How spatial configuration, patch size and landscape connectivity impact arthropod metapopulations and community structure.
• Climate-Driven Shifts: The impact of climate variability, extreme weather events (e.g., droughts, heatwaves) and warming on arthropod phenology, voltinism and geographical distribution.
• Interactive Stressors: Synergistic or antagonistic effects of combined global change drivers (e.g., climate change and habitat loss) on agricultural arthropods.
• Invasive Alien Species: The spread, establishment and ecological impact of invasive arthropod pests within changing agricultural landscapes.
• Molecular Monitoring: The use of environmental DNA, metabarcoding and genomics for rapid, large-scale arthropod biodiversity assessments.
• Precision Agroecology: Integrating remote sensing, GIS, machine learning and automated image recognition to model and predict arthropod distributions and pest outbreaks.
• Participatory Science: The role and reliability of citizen science programs in monitoring arthropod biodiversity and ecosystem services across vast agricultural regions.
• Agri-Environmental Policy: Translating arthropod biodiversity data into actionable indicators for designing, evaluating and improving agri-environmental schemes.
• Economic Valuation: Assessing the direct and indirect economic benefits of arthropod-mediated ecosystem services (or the costs of their loss) to farmers and society.

Dr. Ioan Tausan
Dr. Ion Brinza
Dr. Ionuț Ștefan Iorgu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• arthropod diversity
• agricultural landscapes
• ecosystem services
• biological control
• pollinators
• land-use intensity
• agroecosystem management
• invertebrate conservation