Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics of Agroforestry Systems under Climate Change: Biodiversity, Species Interactions, and Ecosystem Functioning

Agroforestry systems are increasingly recognised not only as land-management practices, but as complex socio-ecological habitats that shape biodiversity, structure species interactions, and drive ecological and evolutionary responses to environmental change. As climate pressures intensify, these systems offer a valuable natural laboratory for understanding how communities assemble, how species adapt, and how ecosystem functions are maintained or lost across managed landscapes.

This Research Topic focuses on the ecological and evolutionary processes operating within agroforestry and tree-based landscapes under climate change. We welcome contributions that advance understanding of biodiversity patterns, community assembly, trophic and mutualistic interactions (including plant–pollinator, plant–soil, and pest–natural-enemy dynamics), functional-trait and phenological responses, local adaptation, gene flow, and eco-evolutionary feedbacks.

We are particularly interested in work that connects these ecological and evolutionary processes to ecosystem functioning and the services that flow from them: pollination, pest regulation, carbon and nutrient cycling, and soil biodiversity. Studies that illuminate the mechanism behind such links are especially valuable to the collection.

Geospatial, remote-sensing, machine-learning and ecosystem-modelling approaches are very welcome where they are put to work on ecological and evolutionary questions, for example in modelling species distributions, community turnover, or adaptation under climate scenarios. We are keen to see the ecological and evolutionary insight these tools can generate across managed landscapes.

Themes

Biodiversity and community assembly in agroforestry systems under climate change
Species interactions in tree-based landscapes: pollination, pest regulation, plant–soil and multitrophic dynamics
Functional traits, phenology, and adaptive responses of species to climate pressures
Local adaptation, gene flow, and eco-evolutionary dynamics in managed and agroforestry habitats
Linking biodiversity and species interactions to ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services
Ecological and evolutionary forecasting under climate scenarios using geospatial, remote-sensing and modelling tools