Aquatic Insects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Conservation Challenges

Dear Colleagues,

The Diversity journal is launching a Special Issue dedicated to “Aquatic Insects: Biodiversity, Ecology, and Conservation Challenges”.

Freshwater habitats cover less than 1% of the Earth’s surface, yet they accommodate 10% of all known animal species. Among them, over 60% belong to aquatic insects, with approximately 100,000 described extant species. They spend one or more stages of their lifecycle in aquatic habitats, with the majority moving to terrestrial ones as adults. Almost exclusively aquatic in their immature stages are Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera, and Odonata. Several other insect orders, such as Diptera, Coleoptera, Neuroptera, Hemiptera, and Megaloptera, also have many aquatic representatives. Aquatic insects play important ecological roles in both aquatic and terrestrial habitats as primary consumers, detritivores, and predators. Moreover, as they dominate in terms of biomass and productivity, they represent an important food resource for a vast number of aquatic and terrestrial predators. Composition and structure of their communities are closely related to habitat type, abiotic parameters (e.g., water temperature, water level, and velocity), predation, microhabitat (substrate) composition, and available food resources. Many aquatic insects, such as mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies, have been shown to be highly sensitive to anthropogenic alterations of their habitats and have been widely used as valuable taxonomic groups for biomonitoring programs worldwide. Some aquatic insects are ecologically well studied due to their role as disease vectors.

Although the efforts of aquatic entomologists have tremendously increased during the 21st century, much remains to be discovered. Our knowledge regarding aquatic insects is still far from complete, both in natural systems, such as springs, rivers, streams, lakes, and in artificial habitats, such as irrigation canals and human-made lakes (e.g., reservoirs, gravel pits, recreational lakes). For this Special Issue, we invite submissions that address all aspects of biodiversity of aquatic insects, from genetic through taxonomic and species diversity. Moreover, articles addressing the topics of aquatic insects’ ecological features, such as their relation to environmental factors, ecological traits, trophic interactions, distribution patterns, and population dynamics, are highly welcomed. Finally, we highly encourage researchers to contribute to this issue with their studies on the impacts of anthropogenic disturbances on aquatic insects’ diversity and ecology. We hope this issue will include a wide taxonomic range of aquatic insects, as well as proper representation of biomes, continents, and countries.

Dr. Marina Vilenica
Dr. Zohar Yanai
Dr. Laurent Vuataz
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. Diversity 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 2100 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.