Insect Ecology: New Agroecosystem Design and Management for Ecosystem Services

Dear Colleagues,

In their natural habitats, insects interact with plants, other insects and animals, and microorganisms. They are sensitive to soil properties and (micro)climate conditions. In agroecosystems, these biotic and abiotic factors, which affect insect abundance and behavior and determine their fitness, are highly dependent on the spatial and temporal design and management of crop and non-crop plants, as well as of the management of soil.

Important research over the last few years has shown that diversification practices such as complexifying crop successions, mixing crops, associating crops with trees (agroforestry) and implementing semi-natural habitats at field margins, but also the type of soil management, can affect the regulation of pests, the pollination of crops and the recycling of nutrients. Nonetheless, recent overviews of these studies showed a high variability in these effects, highlighting the importance of the local conditions and suggesting complex mechanisms which remain partly unclear to date.

In this context, the present Special Issue invites contributions which aim at better understanding the ecology of insects in complex agroecosystems and/or test novel agroecosystem design and management strategies on the basis of insect ecology to enhance the delivery of ecosystem services. We invite the submission of high-quality original research papers and short communications, and encourage the submission of reviews and perspective or discussion papers. Great interest will be given to research exploring original field and landscape design and management strategies, identifying and/or discussing the mechanisms at play in such novel agroecosystems, and quantifying their performance in terms of ecosystem service delivery. Studies on new methods and tools serving to improve our understanding of the ecology of insects and helping in designing and managing novel agroecological systems are also especially welcome.

We expect this Special Issue to be a fascinating forum conveying results of very original studies and a springboard for future agroecological developments.

Dr. Séverin Hatt
Prof. Dr. Thomas F. Döring
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. 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.