Disruption of Natural River Flow Regimes: An Opportunity for Non-Indigenous Species and the Need for New Management Practices
A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2018) | Viewed by 4980
Special Issue Editors
Interests: estuarine ecology; biological invasions; ecosystem functioning; fish migration; otolith chemistry
Interests: zooplankton ecology; conservation of aquatic habitats; fish larvae physiology and behavior; impacts of global change on marine biodiversity: ocean acidification; jellification; microplastics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The disruption of natural river flow regimes affects biological communities along hundreds of kilometers across a spectrum of habitats, both aquatic and terrestrial, and even including adjacent coastal areas. Dams, water diversion, water extraction, and climate change are the factors most known for altering natural river flow regimes. The impacts caused by these factors on established ecological dynamics create the opportunities for non-indigenous species to establish or to become invasive. Therefore, it is necessary to implement new management strategies to at least prevent the establishment of non-indigenous species or minimize the putative impacts caused by invasive species. In this sense, new management strategies could be carried out by adapting the timing and quantity of water released from dams to inflict detrimental impacts on the survival of non-indigenous species, while trying to mimic natural river flow regimes.
This Special Issue aims binding contributions i) describing the relationship between altered river flow regimes and the introduction of non-indigenous species or species invasiveness, ii) quantifying the alterations in ecosystem functioning prompted by species invasiveness after river flow disruption, and iii) describing case studies, or conceptual approaches, on how river flow management can prevent the introduction of non-indigenous species or the invasiveness of established populations. The range of habitats considered includes aquatic ecosystems (i.e., anywhere along the continuum stream-river-estuary-adjacent coastal area) and terrestrial ecosystems (i.e., floodplains, fringing terrestrial habitats).
Dr. Pedro Morais
Dr. Alexandra Teodósio
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. Diversity 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 2100 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
- Biological invasions
- Non-indigenous species
- Invasive species
- River flow
- Dams
- Climate change
- Water diversion
- Water abstraction
- Management
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.