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Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Research topic

Open research questions in Plant and animal studies

219 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 1,114 Plant and animal studies papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • The lack of historical reference collections for wild bees in Doñana. The need for long-term monitoring of pollinator dynamics in protected areas. The challenge of identifying and classifying bee species, particularly cleptoparasitic species.

    Mapping wild bee diversity and flower use for an effective conservation of the Doñana biodiversity hotspot · 2026 · DOI

  • lack of historical reference collection for wild bees in Doñana, - insufficient documentation of nesting and social behavior of the majority of species

    Mapping wild bee diversity and flower use for an effective conservation of the Doñana biodiversity hotspot · 2026 · DOI

  • Building up a critical mass of para-taxonomy experts from all EU Member States, - Addressing the decline of pollinating insects and the EU Biodiversity Strategy by the year 2030

    Key to long horn bee species of the tribe Eucerini (Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Apidae) occurring in Europe · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in understanding how habitat transformation and non-native species shape plant-pollinator interactions on oceanic islands. Prior studies have rarely examined the combined effects of habitat transformation and non-native species on pollination interactions.

    Vegetation Types and Plant Invasion Shape Pollination Interactions on a Tropical Island · 2026 · DOI

  • Small sample size of 12 participants, - Limited to farmers in Ireland, - No control group for comparison

    Bee Well: a positive psychological impact of a pro-environmental intervention on beekeepers’ and their families’ wellbeing · 2024 · DOI

  • Further research on the impact of beekeeping on wellbeing, - Investigation of the effects of beekeeping on different populations, - Exploration of the relationship between beekeeping and environmental conservation

    Bee Well: a positive psychological impact of a pro-environmental intervention on beekeepers’ and their families’ wellbeing · 2024 · DOI

  • However, the factors that enable certain lineages to colonize novel environments while others fail to do so remain unclear.

    Disentangling enabler and adaptive traits across habitat shifts in a large neotropical plant clade · 2026 · DOI

  • Human use of wild species has long reshaped biodiversity, but the historical dynamics of exploitation are often poorly documented.

    Molecular evidence reveals unsustainable harvest of wild orchids · 2026 · DOI

  • Although native pollinators are thought to be declining, the evidence is limited.

    Elevated extinction risk in over one-fifth of native North American pollinators · 2025 · DOI

  • Consequently, few studies have systematically investigated the contributions of CNVs to adaptation at a genome-wide scale.

    Copy number variation contributes to parallel local adaptation in an invasive plant · 2025 · DOI

  • However, little is known about the patterns and drivers of biomass allocation between reproductive and vegetative organs along large environmental gradients.

    Biomass allocation between reproductive and vegetative organs of Artemisia along a large environmental gradient · 2025 · DOI

  • However, the evolutionary mechanisms driving their speciation remain poorly understood.

    Sexual selection drives the speciation of lineages with contrasting mating systems · 2025 · DOI

  • The genetic legacy of the Quaternary ice ages (GLQ) hypothesis outlines this phenomenon for Europe, but a comprehensive data-driven assessment is lacking.

    The genetic legacy of the Quaternary ice ages for West Palearctic butterflies · 2024 · DOI

  • Yet, how variation in pollen chemistry shapes interactions between plants and bees in natural communities is an open question, essential for both understanding the nutritional dynamics of plant-pollinator mutualisms and informing their conservation.

    Pollen nutrition structures bee and plant community interactions · 2024 · DOI

  • However, the drivers of their diversity dynamics are not well quantified or understood.

    The Angiosperm Terrestrial Revolution buffered ants against extinction · 2024 · DOI

  • Together, our results cast light on an important but poorly understood path from hermaphroditism to dioecy, and provide an adaptive hypothesis for the preponderance of XY systems.

    An explanation for the prevalence of XY over ZW sex determination in species derived from hermaphroditism · 2024 · DOI

  • Alternatively, dioecy may evolve via the gradual divergence of male and female phenotypes, but the genetic basis of such divergence and its connection to XY and ZW systems remain poorly understood.

    An explanation for the prevalence of XY over ZW sex determination in species derived from hermaphroditism · 2024 · DOI

  • Whether such differences contribute to differences in reproductive strategy and mating outcomes is rarely investigated.

    Contradistinctive floral attributes, pollination guilds and their consequence on the outcrossing rate in two elevational morphs of Rhododendron arboreum Sm. · 2024 · DOI

  • However, the number and identify of plant traits that will respond to this form of selection, as well as the overall predictability of evolutionary responses, remain unclear.

    Experimental evolution suggests rapid assembly of the ‘selfing syndrome’ from standing variation in Mimulus guttatus · 2024 · DOI

  • Flower morphology and floral rewards are among the key factors that have shown to contribute to pollinator attraction, however little is known about their relative importance for improving yield in the context of plant breeding.

    Genotypic variation in blueberry flower morphology and nectar reward content affects pollinator attraction in a diverse breeding population · 2024 · DOI

  • However, due to the enormous diversity of flowering plants, further research on other plant species, especially monocots, is needed.

    Metabolic and transcriptomic analyses of nectaries reveal differences in the mechanism of nectar production between monocots (Ananas comosus) and dicots (Nicotiana tabacum) · 2024 · DOI

  • A comprehensive phylogeny-based biodiversity evaluation of the island remains lacking.

    Spatial heterogeneity of neo- and paleo-endemism for plants in Madagascar · 2024 · DOI

  • This coupling often occurs through anther biting, but no studies have quantified how biting affects flower vibration.

    Buzz-pollinating bees deliver thoracic vibrations to flowers through periodic biting · 2024 · DOI

  • However, little is known about the pathways and mechanisms by which coumarin reduces the IMI residue by regulating plant secondary metabolism and plant-microbe interactions.

    Plant Coumarin Metabolism–Microbe Interactions: An Effective Strategy for Reducing Imidacloprid Residues and Enhancing the Nutritional Quality of Pepper · 2024 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in understanding the relationship between pollen traits and pollination mode. The study finds that prior work has not consistently associated pollen morphological, morphometric, hydric, cytological, or reserve-related traits with pollination mode. The paper aims to fill this gap by investigating the pollination dynamics in Ficus species.

    Does Transport Matter? Functional Integration of the Pollen on the Fig Wasp Body in Active and Passive Pollination of Fig Trees · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Plant and animal studies

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219 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 1,114 Plant and animal studies papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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