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Impacts of Climate Change on Marine Communities
This special issue belongs to the section “Marine Science and Engineering“.
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Marine ecosystems worldwide are undergoing rapid structural and functional changes as a result of accelerated climate change. Rising ocean temperatures, acidification, altered circulation patterns, and extreme climatic events are reshaping species interactions, modifying community structure, and reducing ecosystem resilience. Understanding these dynamics is essential not only for advancing ecological knowledge but also for developing applied tools, predictive frameworks, and management strategies that support the sustainable use of coastal and marine environments.
This Special Issue welcomes contributions that integrate ecological understanding with applied approaches, including innovative monitoring methodologies, modeling tools, technological solutions, and management interventions. We particularly encourage submissions that provide actionable insights for policy, conservation planning, fisheries management, coastal protection, or the implementation of nature-based and climate-adaptive solutions.
Suggested topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Climate-driven changes in species distribution, community structure, and ecosystem functioning.
- Effects of warming, acidification, and hypoxia on physiological, ecological, and biogeochemical processes.
- Resilience, thresholds, and regime shifts in benthic and pelagic systems, including early-warning indicators and predictive models.
- Technological and methodological advances for monitoring and assessing climate impacts (remote sensing, eDNA, automated sensors, and modeling frameworks).
- Nature-based solutions, ecological restoration, and adaptive management strategies for climate-impacted marine ecosystems.
- Applied research supporting fisheries management, conservation policy, and coastal zone planning under climate change.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Claudio Valdovinos
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. Applied Sciences 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 2400 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
- climate change
- marine communities
- biodivesrity shifts
- monitoring technologies and modeling tools
- nature-based solutions and ecological restoration
- adaptive management under climate change
- ecological resilience
- coastal and marine ecosystems
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