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Plants
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Non-Native Plants and Their Impact on Pollinator Diversity and Function
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Non-Native Plants and Their Impact on Pollinator Diversity and Function

A Special Issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747) belonging to the section "Plant Ecology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2027 | Viewed by 499

Editors

Dr. Anna Traveset

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Global Change Research Group, Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies (IMEDEA, CSIC-UIB), Esporles, Balearic Islands, Spain
Interests: plant–animal interactions; mutualisms; ecological networks; global change; biological invasions
Dr. Alba Costa

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor Assistant
Global Change Research Group, Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies (IMEDEA, CSIC-UIB), Esporles, Balearic Islands, Spain
Interests: community ecology; ecological restoration; ecosystem functions; global change; invasion ecology; island ecology; plant–animal interactions

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

Plant invasions are reshaping plant–pollinator communities worldwide, yet their consequences for pollinator diversity and pollination function remain inadequately understood. Invasive plants can alter floral resource landscapes, disrupt phenological overlap, modify interaction networks, and shift pollinator behaviour and fitness. These changes may increase visitation frequency but reduce pollen transfer quality, plant reproduction, and the stability of native communities. At the same time, outcomes vary strongly across habitats, invasion stages, and pollinator guilds, highlighting the need for mechanistic, context-aware studies. 

This Special Issue aims to synthesize and advance research on how invasive plants influence pollinator diversity, interaction structure, and pollination function across scales. We welcome observational, experimental, and modelling contributions, including work on trait-mediated mechanisms, network approaches linking structure to function, effects on specialist vs. generalist pollinators, and management interventions (e.g., removal, restoration) evaluated through pollination outcomes. Contributions from all ecological contexts and geographic regions are welcome. 

Dr. Anna Traveset
Guest Editor

Dr. Alba Costa
Guest Editor Assistant

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. Plants 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 2700 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

  • community reassembly
  • invasive plants
  • phenological mismatch
  • pollination networks
  • pollination effectiveness
  • reproductive success
  • management and restoration outcomes

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 12855 KB  
Article
Vegetation Types and Plant Invasion Shape Pollination Interactions on a Tropical Island
by Laura Gómez-Devia, Christopher N. Kaiser-Bunbury, Anna Traveset and Alba Costa
Plants 2026, 15(18), 2845; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15182845 - 17 Sep 2026
Viewed by 91
Abstract
Understanding how habitat transformation and non-native species shape plant–pollinator interactions is important for conserving and restoring oceanic islands, where both disturbances are widespread yet rarely examined together. Here, we investigated pollination networks across six contrasting vegetation types spanning a temporal gradient of invasion [...] Read more.
Understanding how habitat transformation and non-native species shape plant–pollinator interactions is important for conserving and restoring oceanic islands, where both disturbances are widespread yet rarely examined together. Here, we investigated pollination networks across six contrasting vegetation types spanning a temporal gradient of invasion by non-native flowering plants on a tropical island. We recorded 5263 visits involving 327 unique plant–pollinator interactions over a three-month sampling period. We found that vegetation type and plant invasion intensity jointly structure different components of plant–pollinator networks at fine spatial scales. Pollinator assemblage composition differed more substantially across vegetation types than across months, although pollinators did not form distinct vegetation-type-specific assemblages. Plant–pollinator interactions also differed among vegetation types, primarily due to plant species turnover. In parallel, increasing invasion intensity was associated with pollinators visiting fewer native plant species, reducing the proportion of visits received by native plants and their importance to pollinators within the network. Moreover, non-native pollinators became more specialized with increasing invasion intensity. Flower abundance was negatively related to the contribution of both plant and pollinator species to nestedness, a structural network property associated with robustness, possibly reflecting altered pollinator visitation patterns associated with honeybee dominance. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of considering both vegetation heterogeneity and invasion intensity for understanding and conserving island plant–pollinator networks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Non-Native Plants and Their Impact on Pollinator Diversity and Function)
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