Preface: Emerging trends in aquatic ecology II

Hydrobiologia, Jul 2017

Luigi Naselli-Flores, Koen Martens, Diego Fontaneto, Sidinei Magela Thomaz

A PDF file should load here. If you do not see its contents the file may be temporarily unavailable at the journal website or you do not have a PDF plug-in installed and enabled in your browser.

Alternatively, you can download the file locally and open with any standalone PDF reader:

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10750-017-3264-6.pdf

Preface: Emerging trends in aquatic ecology II

which celebrates the publication of the 800th Volume of the journal. It was nearly 70 years ago when the first issue circulated among aquatic biologists and our world has undergone significant changes since then. The most striking change is beyond any doubt related to technological developments Preface: Emerging trends in aquatic ecology II Luigi Naselli-Flores 0 1 2 3 4 5 . Koen Martens 0 1 2 3 4 5 . Diego Fontaneto 0 1 2 3 4 5 0 K. Martens Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, OD Nature, Freshwater Biology , Brussels , Belgium 1 L. Naselli-Flores (&) Department of Biological, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies - Section of Botany and Plant Ecology, University of Palermo , Palermo , Italy 2 Guest editors: Koen Martens, Sidinei M. Thomaz, Diego Fontaneto & Luigi Naselli-Flores / Emerging Trends in Aquatic Ecology II 3 S. M. Thomaz Universidade Estadual de Maringa ́, DBI/PEA/Nupe ́lia , Maringa ́, PR , Brazil 4 D. Fontaneto Institute of Ecosystem Study, National Research Council of Italy , Verbania Pallanza , Italy 5 K. Martens Department of Biology, University of Ghent , Ghent , Belgium Introduction has enormous and cumulative impacts on our Planet, at present the only place in the universe where we can survive. Survival of human beings as well as economic development still depend strongly on aquatic ecosystems, the target habitats of our journal’s aims and scope. These ecosystems are particularly strongly exposed to human impacts as they ultimately receive all kinds of waste from our ever growing industrial and technological production (e.g. chemical contaminants and microplastics). They are also strongly influenced by the human-induced greenhouse gas emissions (e.g. warming and acidification), a by-product of our technological and industrial global growth, and by invasive species, the introduction of which is caused by increased international travel, be it for trade, tourism, or other. As a result, the integrity of aquatic ecosystems has been impaired in many places and there is a serious risk that this may act as a boomerang on our future existence. We need to improve and to increase our knowledge on aquatic ecosystems’ structure and functioning if we want to protect them and ourselves! The editorial team of Hydrobiologia is committed to disseminate and archive knowledge on biological structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems in the broadest way. By handling ca. 1,300 submitted manuscripts a year, Hydrobiologia editors are constantly screening for emerging trends in aquatic ecology worldwide (the journal received manuscripts from 101 different countries in 2015). This is the reason why the title of this Special Issue repeats that of the celebratory Volume 750 (Martens, 2015) . Also, the present volume is a joint effort of the editors of Hydrobiologia and each paper has at least one editor as (co-)author. However, this time the focus is on freshwater ecosystems, the most endangered ecosystems of our Planet (WWF, 2016) , especially considering the very limited percentage of water they contain (which sustain all Life on emerged lands) and the small amount of area they cover on Earth’s surface. As pointed out in the popular science book ‘‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’’ (Bryson, 2003) , paradoxically, our knowledge about Life on our Planet is quite limited (especially as regard aquatic ecosystems which hold the bulk of Earth’s biodiversity) compared with what we know about the Moon or other planets in our Solar System. There is therefore a strong need to increase our knowledge on freshwaters in order to understand how to use these resources without impairing the life they host, and on which we depend. To reach this goal we have (i) to improve our assessment on freshwater biological diversity, (ii) to understand how to preserve the structural integrity of these important ecosystems, (iii) to fully clarify both their functioning and the impacts of human actions on their functioning and (iv) to develop skills addressing their restoration. In order to achieve these tasks, Hydrobiologia editors are therefore again proposing a journey through some of the most imminent emerging trends in aquatic ecology research. This commitment will not reach an end with the present Special Issue and we hope that the ‘‘Emerging Trends in Aquatic Ecology’’ series can further grow and become a regular appointment with our readers. The present collection of ‘‘emerging trends’’ papers Investigations on freshwater ecosystem functioning still requires further research investments. A perfect example is offered by Forsberg et al. (2017) , who analysed large-scale spatial and temporal variability of planktonic production and respiration in the Amazon floodplain. They found that these floodplain lakes emit more carbon dioxide than what is produced by their planktonic photosynthesis. These results indicate the existence of large and sustained inputs of nonphytoplankton organic carbon to (...truncated)


This is a preview of a remote PDF: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10750-017-3264-6.pdf

Luigi Naselli-Flores, Koen Martens, Diego Fontaneto, Sidinei Magela Thomaz. Preface: Emerging trends in aquatic ecology II, Hydrobiologia, 2017, pp. 1-5, DOI: 10.1007/s10750-017-3264-6