Conserving Biodiversity in Aquatic Ecosystems: Challenges and Solutions

Dear Colleagues,

The integrity of aquatic ecosystems (e.g., lakes, rivers, estuaries, mangroves, seagrass meadows and oceans) is supported by a variety of animals, plants and microbes, which provide different ecological functions. Over the last few decades, however, aquatic ecosystems have been increasingly impacted by urbanization, exploitation, pollution and climate change, which can threaten the survival of aquatic organisms and thus undermine their contributions to the community. As such, many countries have implemented policies and taken measures to minimize habitat degradation and to restore degraded aquatic ecosystems. For the sake of biodiversity conservation, the regular monitoring of environmental quality and biodiversity is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of management measures.

This Special Issue seeks to understand (1) the impacts of human activities on the distribution and diversity of organisms in aquatic ecosystems, and (2) the management measures aiming to protect aquatic ecosystems and conserve biodiversity. We welcome original papers addressing research themes including, but not limited to, the following:

1. Distribution and diversity of organisms in aquatic ecosystems, including freshwater (e.g., rivers, lakes and ponds), intertidal (e.g., mangroves, salt marshes and rocky shores) and marine ecosystems;
2. Effects of pollution, species invasion, habitat degradation and climate change on the distribution and diversity of aquatic organisms with implications for potential changes in ecosystem functioning;
3. Methods for monitoring species distribution (e.g., mapping and modelling), biodiversity and ecosystem services (e.g., indicators and indices) from local to global scales;
4. Opinions on the strategies and policies to minimize habitat degradation and conserve biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems.

Dr. Jonathan Y.S. Leung
Prof. Dr. Xiaoshou Liu
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Water 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 2600 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.