BMC Ecology and Evolution is calling for submissions to our Collection titled 'Agroecology: Protecting, Restoring, and Promoting Biodiversity'.

The global food system is the predominant driver of biodiversity loss. Food System Impacts on Biodiversity Loss, a 2021 Chatham House report, supported by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and Compassion in World Farming, estimates that agriculture alone is the main threat to 86% of the 28,000 species at risk of extinction. To protect, restore and promote biodiversity, there is an increasing need to transition towards more sustainable and resilient agri-food systems.

To highlight this issue and support the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2: Zero hunger, 6: Clean water and sanitation, 12: Sustainable consumption and production, 13: Climate action, 14: Life below water, 15: Life on land, and 17: Partnerships for the goals, BMC Ecology and Evolution has launched this collection to bring together research on:

• the development and implementation of sustainable agricultural practices that promote healthy ecosystems,
• upscaling agroecological practices,
• the impact of agroecology practices on pollinators,
• the role of consumers in agro-ecological food systems,
• matter and energy flows in agroecosystems,
• agroecology practices and soil management,
• the ecological management of plagues and diseases,
• ecological restoration in agricultural landscapes,
• the possible use of agroecology to achieve carbon neutrality,
• and agroforestry.

Meet the Guest Editors

Jessica Knapp: Department of Botany, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Dr. Knapp is an ecologist interested in how agricultural landscapes best support biodiversity and ecosystem functions, especially how pollinators and their multiple stressors (such as habitat loss, pesticides and climate change) affect pollination services and farmers' agricultural resilience. She enjoys interdisciplinary research, and her projects combine ecological field data and model predictions with psychology and economic valuations to understand the uptake and effectiveness of different pollinator conservation practices across Europe and under climate change scenarios. She is also interested in how agricultural practices expose bees to multiple pesticides and how these effects scale beyond traditional studies focusing on single substances in focal fields. Impact-driven, her research is transdisciplinary. She enjoys communicating and disseminating her work to multiple stakeholders: farmers, agricultural industries (levy boards, seed companies), land managers, beekeepers, scientists, and conservation organisations.

Andrea Sciarretta: Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences, University of Molise, Campobasso, Italy

Since 2013, Dr. Sciarretta has served as Associate Professor of General and Applied Entomology at the Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences at the University of Molise, Italy. His main research interests are in spatial ecology of insects in complex agro-ecosystems, using moths and fruit flies as model; biodiversity and systematic studies on Lepidoptera in the Palearctic and Afrotropical region, using integrative taxonomy (molecular + morphology); insect monitoring, with focus on traps development, optimization of monitoring networks, automatic monitoring systems; integrated plant protection in fruit crops and use of methods alternative to chemicals (mating disruption, mass trapping, attract and kill). 

Submission guidelines

This Collection will consider research, database and software articles. Review articles will be considered at the discretion of the Journal’s Editor. If you would like to submit a review article, please first email Jennifer Harman <jennifer.harman@springernature.com> - the Editor of BMC Ecology and Evolution. Please note that unsolicited reviews will not be considered as per our submission guidelines.

Datasets, descriptions and short reports relevant to the Collection will be considered by BMC Research Notes as data or research notes. This type of content will be published in BMC Research Notes and included in the final collection.

Articles under consideration for publication within the collection will be assessed according to the standard BMC Ecology and Evolution editorial criteria and will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process overseen by Guest Editors Dr Jessica Knapp (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland) and Dr Andrea Sciarretta (University of Molise, Italy).

Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you have read our submission guidelines. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select 'Agroecology: Protecting, Restoring, and Promoting Biodiversity' from the dropdown menu.

If accepted for publication, an article processing charge applies. Please click here to find out about our standard waiver policy.

Submission Status: Open   |   Submission Deadline: 27 December 2023