Aquatic organisms and global change
Aquatic organisms and global change: new challenges and insights for the environmental management. A tribute to the memory of late Prof. Annamaria Carli, planktonologist
Starting from the last decades of the twentieth century, increasing evidence has shown the role of climate change in affecting the global environment, the communities of organisms, the biodiversity and, least but not last, the human life and society as well.
Therefore, despite the negationism which sometimes has arosen in some parts of the human society, sometimes supported regretfully also by many scientists, this situation is now well known by each one is aware of the evidence, being also a matter of concern for the new generations which will face with new challenges and uncertainty in the future. Global changes and warming induce many problems of concern, causing wheather extreme events which are supposed to become always more common and severe in the future and, consequently, have a remarkable impact also on human life, forcing human populations to migrate, and on human activities, such as agriculture, fishing and tourism among others.
The current evidences show that global changes are greatly affecting all environmental compartments; notably, they are known to have a significant impact on aquatic environments and, as a consequence, on both marine and freshwater ecosystems and the organisms living herein. The increase of temperature has remarkable effects on the distribution of aquatic species, which are forced to move and migrate searching for more adequate environmental situations to satisfy their needs, but also can exacerbate other negative features, such as water acidification, hypoxia, eutrophication, etc.. All these aspects cause spreading and introduction of new species in areas where they were not before, with evident problems to the autochtonous organisms.
All these negative effects of warming and global changes can have a clear and remarkable negative impact on the low chains of the food web (phytoplankton and zooplankton) which are known to be highly sensitive to changes of water temperature and oxygen concentration. As a consequence, this situation has a remarkable impact also on all other aquatic organisms and to those, such as whales, which utilize the plankton as food.
As the relationships between small aquatic organisms such as phytoplankton and zooplankton and global change is still to be searched deeply, the contribution and the cooperation of scientists experienced in both fields could better elucidate the effects of the new environmental challenges induced by global warming on these essential components of the life on Earth.
This special issue is aimed to increase the knowledge about the relationships between the plankton biocenosys, including all their components, and the increasing global warming, and is proposed as a tribute to the memory of Prof. Annamaria Carli, dead in 2001, who passed all her life and scientific activity studying the environmental and ecological aspects of plankton research.
Guest Editor
Dr. Gian Luigi Mariottini MSc, MD
Retired from University of Genova (Italy)
Research Fellow, Department of Earth, Environment and Life Sciences
E-mail: Gian.Luigi.Mariottini@unige.it - glmariottini@libero.it
Dr. Mariottini, retired from University of Genova, dealt with several project in the field of biological and environmental research, ecology, toxicology, ecotoxicology and cell biology. His work has been particularly focused on studying bioactive extracts from marine organisms. Also, he had experience in the research on neuroblastoma at the Giannina Gaslini Pediatric Hospital of Genova. He was planner, tutor and teacher of technical courses about the knowledge of the chemical and biological laboratory, cell culture methods and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts must be submitted online by registering and logging in, where also a guide for authors and other relevant information is available. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline (October 31st, 2025). Submitted manuscripts must neither have been published previously, nor simultaneously submitted for publication elsewhere. All submissions will pass pre-check by Editors and then will be peer-reviewed by anonymous reviewers. As soon as accepted, the papers will be published continuously and listed on the special issue website. Research and review articles, as well as short communications, experts' opinion are invited. Please visit the Guidelines for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication is EUR 200.00 (plus 4% VAT, if applicable).