Climate Change and Neotropical Mangrove Insects: A Critical Review of Ecological Pathways, Evidence, and Knowledge Gaps

Mangrove ecosystems of the Neotropics occur across the Caribbean, Central America, northern South America, Brazil, and southern Florida and support diverse insect assemblages that contribute to pollination, herbivory, decomposition, predation, parasitism, and nutrient cycling. Climate change represents an increasingly important driver of change in these systems because it alters both the physical environment occupied by insects and the biological interactions on which many insect populations depend. This review synthesizes literature on the potential and documented impacts of increasing temperature, altered precipitation, drought, sea-level rise, salinity change, tidal modification, hurricanes, and other extreme climatic events on insects associated with neotropical mangrove ecosystems. Particular attention is given to insect-mediated pollination because evidence from Rhizophora mangle, Avicennia germinans, and Laguncularia racemosa demonstrates that insect activity, flowering phenology, mating systems, and mangrove reproductive success are closely interconnected. The available literature indicates that climate change may affect mangrove insects through direct physiological mechanisms, including altered metabolism, development, survival, and reproduction, and indirectly through changes in mangrove distribution, habitat structure, floral resources, hydrology, salinity, and species interactions. A major concern is phenological mismatch, whereby climatic changes alter the timing of insect emergence or activity differently from mangrove flowering. Extreme disturbances may also restructure insect communities rapidly; hurricane-associated reductions in pollinator richness and diversity in Florida mangroves provide an important analogue for understanding the ecological consequences of increasingly intense climatic disturbances. However, direct climate-change studies focused specifically on neotropical mangrove insects remain scarce. Existing knowledge is concentrated on a limited number of mangrove species and locations, while many taxa, particularly small Diptera, solitary Hymenoptera, herbivores, detritivores, parasitoids, and immature insects, remain poorly documented. The review concludes that climate impacts on mangrove insects should be understood as interacting pathways linking climatic exposure, insect physiology, mangrove phenology, habitat transformation, and ecological networks. Long-term, species-level, climate-linked monitoring is urgently needed, particularly in under-studied neotropical regions such as the Caribbean and northern South America.