Tropical Insect Diversity, Ecology and Behavior

Tropical insects represent the most diverse component of terrestrial biodiversity and play fundamental roles in ecosystem functioning and the lives of human. They contribute to pollination, decomposition, nutrient cycling, biological control, and food-web dynamics, while also serving as sensitive indicators of environmental change. Further, many are vectors of wide spread diseases and pests of major crops. Despite their ecological and societal importance, tropical insect diversity, ecology and behavior remains insufficiently studied, poorly sampled, undescribed and incompletely documented, particularly in the Global South. Rapid habitat loss, land-use change, climate change, invasive species, and other natural causes such as climate change and anthropogenic pressures are altering global insect communities at unprecedented rates. At the same time, advances in molecular techniques, remote sensing, ecological modeling, and biodiversity informatics are creating new opportunities to better understand tropical insects, although these are not always available to scientists from these regions. As such expanding knowledge of tropical insect biodiversity, behavior, and their ecology as well as enabling equitable research partnerships is critical for sustainability and improving our understanding of global biodiversity patterns.

This Research Topic aims to advance our understanding of insect biodiversity, ecology and behavior by bringing together studies that address key knowledge and gaps across tropical ecosystems. Although tropical regions harbor the majority of the world's insect species, many taxa remain undescribed, poorly sampled, or insufficiently studied. Furthermore, the ecological and behavioral processes that structure insect communities and determine their responses to environmental change, are often poorly understood. We seek contributions that investigate the diversity, distribution, evolution, behavior, and ecological roles of insects in tropical environments. Particular emphasis is placed on studies on science equity, integrated ecological approaches, species distribution modeling, insect monitoring including automated monitoring systems, and biodiversity informatics. We are also looking for research exploring insect-plant interactions, pollination and pest ecology, vector diversity and ecology, trophic relationships, ecosystem services, responses to natural and anthropogenic driven habitat disturbance and climate change. By bringing together interdisciplinary ideas conservation priorities can be identified and can provide insights that support biodiversity assessment, ecosystem resilience, and sustainable development.

This Research Topic invites original research articles, reviews, methods papers, and case studies addressing tropical insect biodiversity, behavior and ecology. Relevant themes include, but are not limited to:

•Taxonomy and systematics;
•Insect community ecology, biodiversity patterns and behavioral ecology;
•DNA barcoding, genomics, and molecular ecology;
•Creating reference libraries;
•Insect-plant, pollinator-plant, pest-plant, and multitrophic interactions;
•Behavioral and evolutionary ecology;
•Ecosystem services provided by insects ;
•Insects as bioindicators ;
•Vector and urban pest biodiversity and ecology ;
•Impacts of habitat loss, fragmentation, land-use change and climate change on tropical insect communities ;
•Conservation biology and biodiversity assessment and monitoring.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Registered Report
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: neotropical, pollinators, insects, bioindicators, forest, savannah, vector, pest

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.