Dynamics and Conservation of Arthropod Diversity on Islands: Long-Term Monitoring, Indicators and IUCN Assessments
A special issue of Insects (ISSN 2075-4450). This special issue belongs to the section "Insect Ecology, Diversity and Conservation".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2026 | Viewed by 312
Editor
Interests: macroecology; community ecology (SADs, SARs); island biogeography; conservation; beetle taxonomy; bioespeleology; termite control; insect pollination
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Islands are exceptional natural laboratories for understanding how arthropod communities assemble, diversify, and respond to environmental change. Yet the same features that generate distinctive island biotas (i.e., restricted ranges, small populations, and strong dispersal filters) also make them highly sensitive to pressures such as land-use change, invasive alien species, and climate-driven shifts. Robust conservation on islands therefore depends not only on documenting patterns, but on sustaining long-term observations that can detect trends, establish baselines, quantify uncertainty, and evaluate management outcomes.
This Special Issue, “Dynamics and Conservation of Arthropod Diversity on Islands: Long-Term Monitoring, Indicators and IUCN Assessments”, invites contributions that translate island arthropod time series into conservation-relevant evidence. We welcome studies that develop or apply standardized monitoring designs (e.g., permanent plots, repeatable protocols), derive interpretable indicators of community change (including multimetric indices), and link monitoring outputs to decision frameworks such as the IUCN Red List and related assessment approaches. Contributions addressing early detection of invasions, evaluation of restoration and biosecurity actions, and the integration of open, interoperable biodiversity data workflows are particularly encouraged.
Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Long-term, repeated sampling of island arthropods (abundance, occupancy, biomass, traits) and trend inference
- Monitoring design and comparability across islands (permanent plots, standardized protocols, effort reporting)
- Indicator development: multimetric indices, community integrity metrics, invasion/endemism-sensitive indicators
- Linking monitoring to IUCN assessments (supporting data for Red List categories, population trends, threats, and management evaluation)
- Assessing conservation actions (invasive species control, habitat restoration) using monitoring within a clear theory-of-change
- Process-based monitoring (e.g., sentinel approaches for ecosystem functions and disservices) alongside biodiversity metrics
- Synthesis and comparative analyses using harmonized datasets (e.g., global biodiversity databases).
Dr. Paulo A. V. Borges
Guest Editor
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. Insects is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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.
Keywords
- island biogeography
- long-term ecological monitoring
- arthropod community dynamics
- biodiversity indicators
- population trends
- IUCN red list assessments
- invasive alien species
- endemism
- standardized sampling protocols
- conservation management and restoration
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