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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Human activities, such as fisheries, aquaculture, industrial, and agricultural pollution, and artificial structures, greatly impact plankton communities, by modifying the networks of interaction between their main components, i.e., phytoplankton and zooplankton. The perturbation of phytoplankton–zooplankton coupling may modify the structure of aquatic food webs, and, as a consequence, the biological carbon fluxes of the plankton itself, all over the water column, from the nekton to the benthos. Investigating how and to what extent human pressures cause alterations at the phytoplankton–zooplankton interface is crucial to preserving aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem services.

In this context, we invite you to submit contributions to our Special Issue, entitled “The Phytoplankton–Zooplankton Link under Anthropogenic Pressures”.

This topical collection is open to high-quality contributions relating human activities and plankton biodiversity, structure, and function, response to direct or indirect anthropogenic stressors, food web efficiency and variation in time and space, resistance and resilience of plankton communities, adaptation, and acclimation to pollutants and changing thermal and hydrogeologic regimes. Contributions pertaining to either marine or freshwater systems are welcome.

We encourage you to submit works providing a context for the interactive and cumulative effects of multiple stressors on the phytoplankton–zooplankton interactions, but case studies will also be taken into consideration.

Authors may contact the Guest Editors before submitting their manuscripts to see if the work is suitable for this Special Issue.

Dr. Domenico D'Alelio
Dr. Luigi Caputi
Guest Editors

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. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2600 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.

Keywords

plankton
biological interactions
food webs
anthropogenic impact
aquatic biodiversity

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Jump to: Review

23 pages, 9948 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Dynamics of the Spatial Chlorophyll-A Distribution at the Polar Front in the Marginal Ice Zone of the Barents Sea during Spring

by Pavel R. Makarevich, Veronika V. Vodopianova and Aleksandra S. Bulavina

Water 2022, 14(1), 101; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w14010101 - 04 Jan 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2089

Abstract

Effects of the sea-ice edge and the Polar Frontal Zone on the distribution of chlorophyll-a levels in the pelagic were investigated during multi-year observations in insufficiently studied and rarely navigable regions of the Barents Sea. Samples were collected at 52 sampling stations combined into 11 oceanographic transects over a Barents Sea water area north of the latitude 75° N during spring 2016, 2018, and 2019. The species composition, abundance and biomass of the phytoplankton community, chlorophyll-a concentrations, hydrological and hydrochemical parameters were analyzed. The annual phytoplankton evolution phase, defined as an early-spring one, was determined throughout the transects. The species composition of the phytoplankton community and low chlorophyll-a levels suggested no phytoplankton blooming in April 2016 and 2019. Not yet started sea-ice melting prevented sympagic (sea-ice-associated) algae from being released into the seawater. In May 2018, ice melting began in the eastern Barents Sea and elevated chlorophyll-a levels were recorded near the ice edge. Chlorophyll-a concentrations substantially differed in waters of different genesis, especially in areas influenced by the Polar Front. The Polar Front separated the more productive Arctic waters with a chlorophyll-a concentration of 1–5 mg/m³ on average from the Atlantic waters where the chlorophyll-a content was an order of magnitude lower. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Phytoplankton-Zooplankton Link under Anthropogenic Pressures)

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Review

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13 pages, 1713 KiB

Open AccessReview

Plankton under Pressure: How Water Conditions Alter the Phytoplankton–Zooplankton Link in Coastal Lagoons

by Domenico D’Alelio, Luca Russo, Gabriele Del Gaizo and Luigi Caputi

Water 2022, 14(6), 974; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w14060974 - 19 Mar 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3477

Abstract

Transitional waters (TWs), such as coastal lagoons, are bodies of surface water at the transition between saline and freshwater domains. These environments play a vital role in guaranteeing ecosystem services, including provision of food, protection against meteorological events, as anthropogenic carbon sinks, and in filtering of pollutants. Due to the escalating overpopulation characterising coastlines worldwide, transitional systems are over-exploited, degraded, and reduced in their macroscopic features. However, information on the impact of anthropogenic pressures on planktonic organisms in these systems is still scanty and fragmented. Herein, we summarise the literature, with a special focus on coastal lagoons undergoing anthropogenic pressure. Specifically, we report on the implications of human impacts on the ecological state of plankton, i.e., a fundamental ecological component of aquatic ecosystems. Literature information indicates that human forces may alter ecosystem structures and functions in coastal lagoons, as in other TWs such as estuaries, hampering the phytoplankton–zooplankton link, i.e., the main trophic process occurring in those communities, and which sustains aquatic productivity. Changes in the dominance and lifestyle of key planktonic players, plus the invasion of ‘alien’ species, and consequent regime shifts, are among the most common outcomes of human disturbance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Phytoplankton-Zooplankton Link under Anthropogenic Pressures)

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