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Life below Water: Marine Biology and Sustainable Ocean—2nd Edition

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Oceans".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (22 March 2024) | Viewed by 1108

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, Via Vitaliano Brancati 48, 00144 Rome, Italy
Interests: protection of coastal marine environments and biodiversity conservation; the management and mitigation of anthropogenic disturbances and global changes; sustainable aquaculture; alien species’ introductions and their impacts; element contamination in marine environments; physiological and biochemical responses of marine invertebrates to environmental stressors; population genetics; phylogenetics; molecular taxonomy and biogeography
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Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnologies, University of Perugia, Via del Giochetto, 06100 Perugia, Italy
Interests: biodiversity; biogeography of inland and aquatic species; the resolution of taxonomic ambiguities via molecular biology and DNA sequence analysis; identification of closely related and cryptic taxa; molecular phylogenetics and systematics; phenotype–genotype relationships; forensic genetics and wildlife crimes; preservation; recovery; archives of historical museums and private biological collections
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, Via Vitaliano Brancati 48, 00144 Rome, Italy
Interests: marine environmental protection; management and mitigation of anthropogenic impacts and global changes; organic and inorganic contaminants in the marine environment; marine ecotoxicology; marine mammals; fishes; bivalves
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, Via Vitaliano Brancati 48, 00144 Rome, Italy
Interests: marine environmental protection; natural resource management; implementation of the EU Directive Marine Strategy MSFD (2008/56/UE); Descriptor 8; chemical contamination; global changes; biodiversity alterations; anthropogenic impact mitigation; circular economy; citizen science
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change, biodiversity loss, chemical contamination, and plastic pollution represent the main issues of marine environmental concern, impacting marine species, habitats, and the ecosystem services that they provide to humans in different ways. Therefore, it is mandatory to better understand the effects of these multiple stressors on marine environments, which require urgent remediation actions. Moreover, many marine habitats and taxa are still understudied; therefore, it is urgent to improve the scientific knowledge on their ecological and biological processes, to better prevent and mitigate the human impacts.

The opening of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030) represents a unique opportunity for our scientific community to improve and share our knowledge and to achieve the ambitious goal of conservation and sustainable development of the seas and oceans worldwide.

The aim of this Special Issue is to collect papers regarding the biodiversity conservation and protection of marine ecosystems, paying special attention to innovative tools for monitoring both natural and anthropic disturbances, mitigation measures, and the restoration of marine habitats.

The present issue will be devoted to studies focused on the conservation of marine biodiversity, including relevant papers dealing with population genetics and systematics, forensic studies, environmental crimes and the sustainable exploitation of marine biological resources, innovative tools for species detection and monitoring (for example, environmental DNA), and the occurrence and impact of invasive alien species.

It will also include papers related to different environmental contaminants (for example, metals, POPs, marine litter, and emerging contaminants), their levels in water and sediments, and their bioaccumulation and effects on marine species.

Moreover, this Special Issue will also welcome papers dealing with mitigation and restoration measures for marine habitats and their ecosystem services, paying particular attention to the implementation of the European Union's Marine Strategy Framework Directive for European Seas, but not being limited to this.

Finally, this issue will also consider papers regarding new innovative tools for data collection (for example, citizen science approaches and questionnaires), elaboration, and modeling.

We welcome the submission of papers reporting frontier results in identifying, detecting, monitoring, controlling, and preventing the effects of different threats and disturbances to marine ecosystems. Scientific, technical, and management papers, ideas, opinions, and mini reviews are also welcomed.

Dr. Stefania Chiesa
Dr. Livia Lucentini
Dr. Silvia Maltese
Dr. Alfonso Scarpato
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. Sustainability 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

  • marine biology
  • marine ecology
  • biodiversity conservation
  • alien species
  • anthropic disturbances
  • contaminants
  • climate change
  • innovative tools
  • monitoring
  • mitigation
  • restoration

Published Papers (1 paper)

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13 pages, 544 KiB  
Perspective
Towards Sustainable Management of Beach-Cast Seagrass in Mediterranean Coastal Areas
by Loredana Manfra, Stefania Chiesa, Simone Simeone, Patrizia Borrello, Raffaella Piermarini, Chara Agaoglou, Monia Elbour, Noureddine Zaaboub, Dimitris Vandarakis, Ioannis Kourliaftis, Alfonso Scarpato and Alice Rotini
Sustainability 2024, 16(2), 756; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16020756 - 16 Jan 2024
Viewed by 838
Abstract
Marine environmental conservation and tourist exploitation are often in conflict, particularly where anthropogenic pressure is greatest, such as along the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. A case in point is the accumulation of beach-cast seagrass, a typical feature of the Mediterranean Sea that [...] Read more.
Marine environmental conservation and tourist exploitation are often in conflict, particularly where anthropogenic pressure is greatest, such as along the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. A case in point is the accumulation of beach-cast seagrass, a typical feature of the Mediterranean Sea that is nowadays perceived as an “obstacle” to tourist activities and thus treated and removed as waste, leading to environmental impacts. In this paper, we analyzed the legislative context at the Mediterranean basin level and the contribution of twenty virtuous research projects related to the topic. In our opinion, the main benefits for the beach–dune ecosystem would be generated by the use of seagrass banquettes directly within the beach system (temporary displacement, creating beach walkways, dune consolidation), while their uses outside the beach system (agricultural and farm solutions—compost and bedding) should be considered as alternative solutions for a circular economy, in case of consistent biomass deposits along the shores. In this perspective, we support the “Ecological Beach” model which integrates most of the science-derived solutions addressed in this study. This model provides good practices that can be usefully spread and shared along Mediterranean coasts: to achieve this result, it is necessary to create a regional or Mediterranean network involving local communities and stakeholders. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Life below Water: Marine Biology and Sustainable Ocean—2nd Edition)
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