Effects of Environment and Food Stress on Insect Population

A special issue of Insects (ISSN 2075-4450). This special issue belongs to the section "Insect Ecology, Diversity and Conservation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2025 | Viewed by 579

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Key Laboratory of Germplasm Resources Biology of Tropical Special Ornamental Plants of Hainan Province, College of Forestry, Hainan University, Haikou, China
Interests: insect biology and physiology; insect ecology

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Guest Editor
Environment and Plant Protection Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Haikou, China
Interests: insect biology; insect ecology; evaluation and utilization of natural enemies

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Guest Editor
CAS Key Laboratory of Insect Developmental and Evolutionary Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, The Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai 200032, China
Interests: insect innate immunity; insect physiology

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Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Resource Insects, Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China
Interests: circadian rhythm; sleep; DNA damage repair; insect genetics; insect behavior; environmental stress

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleague,

In recent years, global warming, desiccation, increased ultraviolet light intensity, food stress and geomagnetic changes have brought great challenges to the survival of organisms. Specifically, changes in those environmental factors directly affect the behavioral pattern, dynamic distribution, population and even survival of insects. It is increasingly important to study the adaptation of organisms to those environmental stresses. In this Special Issue, we are addressing the impacts of extreme environment on insect behavior, biology, physiology, evolution and genetics, especially circadian rhythm, sleep, DNA damage repair, oxidative stress response, plant–pest–natural enemy interactions and food webs. For example, through interdisciplinary research, we can figure out why honeybee colonies continue to decline due to environmental changes. We can also illustrate the outbreak of invasive pests due to heat stress.

In addition, there is a long-term co-evolutionary history between host and microorganism. A lot of studies have shown that microbial communities can influence organisms’ environmental adaption. We are also trying to figure out how microbial communities involve the host's adaptation to heat, ultraviolet light and food stress. For instance, we aim to answer the key questions regarding how environmental stress affects the distribution and enrichment of gut microbes in insects. In the opposite direction, we also aim to unmask which types of gut microbes and their metabolites can regulate their host’s environmental adaptation.

This Special Issue aims to collect papers from researchers who concentrate on topics such as circadian rhythms, sleep, heat and ultraviolet light tolerance, DNA damage/repair, interaction between different species and effects of climate changes on insect populations.

Dr. Shihao Zhou
Dr. Junyu Chen
Prof. Dr. Erjun Ling
Dr. Zhenxing Liu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • circadian rhythm
  • sleep
  • DNA damage repair
  • food webs
  • interspecific competition
  • plant–pest–natural enemy interactions
  • reproduction
  • life span
  • suitable areas
  • extreme temperature
  • insect population

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 2815 KiB  
Article
Elevation and Human Disturbance Interactively Influence the Patterns of Insect Diversity on the Southeastern Periphery of the Tibetan Plateau
by Zhouyang Liao, Jinlu Zhang, Xuemei Shen, Mi Zhu, Xinlin Lan, Junming Cui, Yunfang Guan, Ying Zhang, Zhongjian Deng, Tiantian Tang, Fang Liu, Darong Yang and Yuan Zhang
Insects 2024, 15(9), 669; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects15090669 - 4 Sep 2024
Viewed by 383
Abstract
The maintenance of biodiversity and ecological balance heavily relies on the diversity of insects. In order to investigate the impacts of elevation and human disturbance, as well as their interactions on insect diversity, we conducted an intensive survey of insects in the Hengduan [...] Read more.
The maintenance of biodiversity and ecological balance heavily relies on the diversity of insects. In order to investigate the impacts of elevation and human disturbance, as well as their interactions on insect diversity, we conducted an intensive survey of insects in the Hengduan Mountain Range, which is situated on the southeastern periphery of the Tibetan Plateau in China. A total of 50 line transects were established in this study to investigate the impact of elevation and human disturbance on insect diversity and distribution patterns. Designed insect surveys were conducted at various elevations and levels of human disturbance, and statistical methods such as generalized linear modeling and redundancy analysis were employed for data analysis. The results of this study indicated a negative correlation between insect diversity and elevation. Additionally, moderate disturbance was found to have a positive impact on insect diversity to some extent. The explanatory power of the model for the distribution of insect diversity could be improved if elevation and human disturbance were included as an interaction effect into the model, and there were differences in the effects of human disturbances on insect diversity at different elevation levels. The highest insect diversity was observed under low disturbance conditions below elevation of ~2200 m, whereas above this threshold, insect diversity was the highest under moderate disturbance compared to low disturbance. The response of different insect taxa to the interactions of elevation and human disturbance varied. The findings imply that when formulating strategies for managing insect diversity, it is crucial to thoroughly consider the interaction of environmental factors and disturbance response of individual insect taxa. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of Environment and Food Stress on Insect Population)
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