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Guest Editor

Laboratory of Zoology and Animal Biotechnology, Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-Food and Forest Systems, University of Tuscia, Largo dell’Università, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
Interests: fish physiology; reproductive biology; fish immunity; ecotoxicology; aquaculture; anthropogenic impacts to fish

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity have been demostrated to be especially severe, and the latest research has identified resource over-exploitation, land-use change, climate change, and pollution as major drivers of biodiversity loss. Fish biodiversity in particular, both in marine and freshwater environments, has been profoundly reshaped, with consequences in terms of ecosystem functionality and services yet to be precisely determined.

The present Special Issue aims at advancing the knowledge on the impacts on fish physiology (e.g., reproduction, immune system, and stress) caused by anthropogenic disturbances, and other research areas, including, but not limited to, the following:

Pollution, both physical and chemical (e.g., micro- and nanoplastics, endocrine disruptors);
Biological invasions;
Aquaculture and capture fishery production;
Nutrition;
Infrastructure projects.

We invite submissions of original articles and short communications leveraging upon in vivo, in vitro, and in silico methods on model and non-model species. The Special Issue accept papers on a rolling basis and will be open for 8 months.

Dr. Miccoli Andrea
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. Fishes 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.

Keywords

pollution
anthropogenic impacts
fish physiology
biodiversity
biological invasion

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Open AccessArticle

Stress Response to Entrainment Flow Speed near Pump Inlet Fish Screens in Two Model Teleost Species, Anguilla anguilla and Oncorhynchus mykiss

Andrea Miccoli

Antonio De Luca

Jeremy Bricker

Frederik Tijmen Vriese

Roelof Moll

and

Giuseppe Scapigliati

Fishes 2023, 8(3), 139; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes8030139 - 28 Feb 2023

Viewed by 520

Abstract

Fish screens are structures associated with pump stations and power plants, that prevent entrainment of fish, but may also be a source of physiological stress, if placed in locations of strong flow speeds that fish are unable to sustain swimming against over time. Herein, the acute response of Anguilla anguilla and Oncorhynchus mykiss to a 30-minute exposure to two water flow regimes was evaluated at the lowest level of the hypothalamus–pituitary–interrenal axis, from blood serum and skin mucus, in a controlled setup presenting a 45° vertically-angled fish screen. Cortisol response was species specific, regardless of the matrix employed. While the flow velocity factor did not describe any variance of eel data, and no statistically significant differences in cortisol concentrations were observed among eel groups, cortisol release in response to flume hydraulics followed a dose-dependent pattern in trout, with a large proportion of the variance described by the model. Mucus cortisol was highly and strongly correlated to serum levels of trout specimens subjected to the strongest flow. Given the established neuromodulatory and molecular roles of cortisol on major fitness-relevant processes, animal welfare implications may be severe, especially considering ever increasing exposure to chronic anthropogenic stressors, resulting in repeated and/or prolonged elevation of circulating glucocorticoids. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of Anthropogenic Stressors on Fish Physiology)

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Open AccessArticle

Gene Expression Profiling of Trematomus bernacchii in Response to Thermal and Stabling Stress

Samuele Greco

Anastasia Serena Gaetano

Gael Furlanis

Francesca Capanni

Chiara Manfrin

Piero Giulio Giulianini

and

Fishes 2022, 7(6), 387; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7060387 - 13 Dec 2022

Viewed by 870

Abstract

The Antarctic continent is one of the most pristine environments on planet Earth, yet one of the most fragile and susceptible to the effects of the ongoing climate change. The overwhelming majority of the components of Antarctic marine trophic chain are stenotherm organisms, highly adapted to the extreme, but extremely stable, freezing temperatures of the Antarctic ocean, which have not changed significantly during the past fifteen million years. Notothenioid fishes are the most abundant representatives of ichthyofauna at these latitudes, being ubiquitously found in coastal areas across the entire continent. While different Antarctic fish species have been previously subjected to studies aimed at defining their range of thermal tolerance, or at studying the response to acute thermal stress, just a handful of authors have investigated the effects of the exposure to a moderate increase of temperature, falling within the expected forecasts for the next few decades in some areas of the Antarctica. Here, the emerald rockcod Trematomus bernacchii was used as a model species to investigate the effects of a 20-day long exposure to a +1.5

^{°}

C increase in the brain, gills and skeletal muscle, using a RNA-sequencing approach. In parallel, the experimental design also allowed for assessing the impact of stabling (including acclimation, the handling of fishes and their confinement in tanks during the experimental phase) on gene expression profiling. The results of this study clearly identified the brain as the most susceptible tissue to heat stress, with evidence of a time-dependent response dominated by an alteration of immune response, protein synthesis and folding, and energy metabolism-related genes. While the gills displayed smaller but still significant alterations, the skeletal muscle was completely unaffected by the experimental conditions. The stabling conditions also had an important impact on gene expression profiles in the brain, suggesting the presence of significant alterations of the fish nervous system, possibly due to the confinement to tanks with limited water volume and of the restricted possibility of movement. Besides providing novel insights in the molecular mechanisms underlying thermal stress in notothenioids, these findings suggest that more attention should be dedicated to an improved design of the experiments carried out on Antarctic organism, due to their extreme susceptibility to the slightest environmental alterations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of Anthropogenic Stressors on Fish Physiology)

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