The Plastic Pollution Paradox: Marine Litter as New Habitat

Dear Colleagues,

Aside from the well-known threats of plastic pollution, like any other submerged substrata, marine litter provides a habitat for organisms that are able to settle and persist on artificial surfaces. Once colonized, plastic surfaces act as steppingstones for the connectivity between populations and the recruiting of larvae, as well as disrupting ecological processes in benthic and pelagic communities. Given the great persistence and quantities of litter in the world’s oceans, the rafting dispersal of associated organisms has become more widespread, potentially supporting the spread of species out of their native ranges. As a Guest Editor, I would like to kindly invite you to contribute a research article or a review to be published in a Special Issue of Environments (ISSN 2076-3298): ‘The Plastic Pollution Paradox: marine litter as new habitat’. The general purpose of this Special Issue is to discuss the ecological relevance of biological positive interactions with marine litter. The scope is broad, and I invite submissions based on detailed investigation, both from field and laboratory, aiming to reveal the drivers and to account for ecological possible consequences of plastic colonization on planktonic and benthic communities.

Dr. Armando Macali
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Environments is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• marine litter
• biofouling fauna
• substrate selection
• pioneer species
• larval settlement