Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
7.6
4.1
Journals
Plants
Special Issues
Conservation of Plant Diversity and Vegetation in Island Ecosystems
share announcement

Conservation of Plant Diversity and Vegetation in Island Ecosystems

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Ecology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2026 | Viewed by 878

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Mingjian Yu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
MOE Key Laboratory of Biosystems Homeostasis & Protection, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Interests: community ecology; vegetation ecology; biodiversity; island biogeography
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Jinliang Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Life and Environmental Science, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China
Interests: island biogeography; biodiversity and conservation; habitat fragmentation; community ecology; vegetation ecology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Understanding the mechanisms that sustain biodiversity on islands has long been a central focus in community ecology and conservation biology. In 1967, MacArthur and Wilson’s Equilibrium Theory of Island Biogeography (ETIB) established a foundational framework for understanding island biodiversity. Ecologists have since found support for ETIB across various archipelagos and habitat islands. However, in today’s increasingly globalized world, conservation biologists have identified additional factors influencing biodiversity on islands, including anthropogenic activities, biological invasion, and global climate change. Thus, disentangling the complex factors that shape biodiversity on islands remains a significant challenge in ecology.

This Special Issue focuses on the conservation of plant diversity in island ecosystems. The scope includes marine islands, lake islands, and habitat islands. Relevant research topics may cover monitoring plant diversity and vegetation on islands, identifying factors that influence its distribution and maintenance, investigating plant–animal interaction networks on islands, exploring applications of island biogeography theory for plant conservation, and employing new technologies for plant species and vegetation monitoring and conservation. Contributions may also address the impact of human activities, such as urbanization and land use, habitat loss and fragmentation, biological invasion and climate changes on plant diversity on islands.

We invite prospective authors to submit original research articles, reviews, or short communications that specifically address scientific questions related to the plant diversity conservation and basic scientific findings in island ecosystems.

Prof. Dr. Mingjian Yu
Dr. Jinliang Liu
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-blind 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

  • island biogeography
  • plant diversity
  • vegetation
  • community assembly
  • functional trait
  • plant-animal interactions
  • habitat loss and fragmentation
  • biological invasion
  • climate change
  • urbanization and land use

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

17 pages, 4282 KB  
Article
Host Range Expansion and Dual Ecological Roles of an Invasive African Seed Predator on Native and Introduced Plants in Hawai‘i
by Mohsen M. Ramadan and Midori Tuda
Plants 2025, 14(23), 3620; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14233620 - 27 Nov 2025
Viewed by 343
Abstract
Invasive seed predators can severely affect the reproduction of long-lived trees, especially when host range expansion occurs. The beetle Specularius impressithorax (Chrysomelidae: Bruchinae), native to Africa, has become established in Hawaiʻi where it attacks the endemic coral tree (Erythrina sandwicensis; Wiliwili). [...] Read more.
Invasive seed predators can severely affect the reproduction of long-lived trees, especially when host range expansion occurs. The beetle Specularius impressithorax (Chrysomelidae: Bruchinae), native to Africa, has become established in Hawaiʻi where it attacks the endemic coral tree (Erythrina sandwicensis; Wiliwili). Here, we report the infestation of an African coral tree (E. livingstoniana) by this beetle and assess its performance and oviposition patterns on native and non-native hosts. Field surveys showed that eggs were aggregated on both hosts but more abundant on E. sandwicensis than on E. livingstoniana. Laboratory assays revealed no difference in larva-to-adult survival between the two hosts, although adults emerging from E. sandwicensis were larger. Choice tests indicated no oviposition preference between the two Erythrina species, despite the larger seed size of E. sandwicensis. To explore potential host range expansion, trials were run on economic legumes with varying phylogenetic distance from Erythrina, which showed oviposition on peanut (Arachis hypogaea) with low but successful survival (10.3%), while no development occurred on broad bean or pigeon pea. More E. sandwicensis seeds germinated when infested by a single early-stage larva (70% germination) than when uninfested (20%), suggesting that minimal seed predation may facilitate germination because previously reported greater damage induced by infestation through adulthood reduces germination. Our findings highlight the ecological flexibility of an invasive bruchine, its potential to exploit other Faboideae plants, and the dual role of seed predators as both threats and facilitators of seed germination. These results have implications for conservation of endemic coral trees and for understanding invasion dynamics of shared seed predators. Additionally, we examined non-botanical substrate filled with seed powder for oviposition and compiled global host records of S. impressithorax to contextualize its host range expansion. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conservation of Plant Diversity and Vegetation in Island Ecosystems)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-1
Back to TopTop