Hydrobiologia - Meet the Editors of Hydrobiologia

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Koen Martens
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium

Koen Martens is Head of Research of the Royal Belgian Institute of natural Sciences (Brussels, Belgium), guest professor at the University of Ghent (Belgium) and invited professor at the University of Maringa (Brazil). His research interests are in aquatic ecology and evolutionary biology, especially in the field of speciation in ancient lakes and the evolution of asexual reproduction, and in the taxonomy and ecology of non-marine Ostracoda (Crustacea). Koen is author of c 200 ISI rated papers and of more than 500 additional titles. He is author or (co-) editor of 18 books. Koen has been (co-) PI of about 50 national and international projects, including several large EU projects. Koen has been Editor in Chief of Hydrobiologia since 2003.

ASSOCIATE EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

Diego Fontaneto
IRSA-CNR, Verbania Pallanza, Italy

Diego Fontaneto is a zoologist and an ecologist interested in biological diversity in general, and in particular in how bdelloid rotifers can survive, persist and diversify in theapparent absence of sexual recombination. Given the ubiquity of bdelloids in any habitat, from freshwater to marine, to their unusual ecological characteristics of desiccation resistance, and to their ‘scandalous’ evolutionary features of being considered ancient asexuals, his work is often at the boundary between ecology and evolution. In 2012 he joined the editorial board of Hydrobiologia and was exposed to an even wider diversity of approaches and ideas through the manuscripts that he has handled since then.

Luigi Naselli-Flores
University of Palermo, Italy

Luigi Naselli-Flores is a hydrobiologist, mainly interested in freshwater phytoplankton and its taxonomic and ecological classification systems. He is also intrigued by the effects of environmental constraints on size and shape of planktic algae and, more recently, by the mechanisms allowing microorganisms to disperse across different freshwater ecosystems. He is a Professor of Plant Ecology at the University of Palermo since 2007; in the same year he was asked to join the Hydrobiologia editorial team as Associate Editor. Since then, his ‘‘scientific horizons’’ had to widen in order to deal with the huge diversity of manuscripts submitted to the journal. In 2013, he started serving as Associate Editor in Chief.

Sidinei Magela Thomaz
Universidade Estadual de Maringá - Nupélia, Brazil

Dr. Sidinei M. Thomaz is Associate Professor in Ecology at the State University of Maringá, Brazil. He uses aquatic macrophytes and related organisms (including aquatic invertebrates and vertebrates) to test ecological concepts about invasion biology and biodiversity. His research is developed mainly in the Upper Paraná River floodplain (Brazil), in reservoirs and in green-houses. He has currently several active scientific collaborations with universities in China, Argentina, France, UK and Belgium. He is Associate Editor-in-Chief of Hydrobiologia and Associate Editor of Biological Invasions, NeoBiota and Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation. He has supervised over 70 undergrad, MSc. and PhD students.

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

Stefano Amalfitano
Italian National Research Council | CNR · Institute of Water Research IRSA

Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. I carry on researches in the field of Aquatic Microbial Ecology, with a focus on the structural and functional dynamics of microbial communities across environmental gradients in natural and engineered systems. These studies find fundamental applications for the management of water resources.

Trine Bekkby
NIVA - Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Oslo, Norway

Dr. Trine Bekkby has been working at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research since 2004, with the position as a senior scientist at the professor level since 2011. She has been leading national projects since 2002 and has been principal investigator, WP leader or having leading role in international projects since 2007. The main focus is on marine benthic and coastal ecology, variation in space (incl. environmental conditions) and changes in time (incl. effects of climate and human space use changes) - particularly focusing on the biodiversity, structure, function and restoration of habitat building species (such as kelp forests, seagrass meadows and seaweed beds). Key qualifications include mapping, monitoring, spatial analyses, benthic habitat and species distribution modelling; classification and value assessment - both at local, regional, national and international scale.

Maureen Berg
University of Brighton, UK

I am a plant ecologist with specific interests in plant-plant and plant-animal interactions at the community and population level. My research focuses on determining the key factors involved in these relationships and assessing how resilient are these links in changing environmental conditions. Wetland plant community: I am particularly interested in dynamic ecosystems such as wet grasslands, riparian, and coastal habitats. I have experience with wet grassland habitat management and assessing changes in response to different practices. Much of the focus of previous work has been on management and restoration of these habitats and  this has expanded to wetlands and across taxa through collaborative work. Invasive Ecology: I am also interested in invasion ecology, focusing on Invasive Non-Native plant species and understanding their influence and impacts on associated habitat and species. INNS competitive strategy and succes could be caused by the range of allelochemic released by the leaves or roots affecting neighbouring plants and their environment. I have started research projects examining the effects of sub-lethal exposure to allelochemical compounds released by Impatiens glandulifera on freshwater invertebrate and fish larvae development and behaviour. Similarly, I am interesting on the long-term impacts of Rhododendron ponticum allelopathy on soil microbial community.

Iacopo Bertocci
Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Napoli, Italy

Dr. Iacopo Bertocci got a degree in Biological Science in 1999 and a PhD in Marine Ecology in 2003, both at the University of Pisa. Between 2003 and 2007, he was a post-doc researcher at the same university. Between 2009 and 2016, he was a researcher at CIIMAR, Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental in Porto (Portugal). Between 2016 and 2018, he was a researcher at Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn of Naples Italy) in the field “Experimental design, biostatistics and data analysis”. Since the 28th December 2018, he is back to the University of Pisa, Dept. of Biology, with a tenure-track position as senior researcher. His main interest is in the assessment of the effects of natural and anthropogenic perturbations on coastal systems. His research activity is built on a strong basis in experimental design and statistical analysis of data aimed at testing hypotheses on patterns of distribution of assemblages and on how they are modulated by spatial and temporal changes of anthropogenic disturbance. His recent studies focus on benthic assemblages from intertidal and subtidal temperate environments and on their changes due to human harvesting, coastal urbanization and environmental variables directly and/or indirectly associated with climate change. These include, for instance, the mechanical disturbance associated with extreme storms, nutrient inputs and warming the single or combined effects of which are often examined as a function of variations in mean intensity and temporal variance. Such activities are developed in the context of some of the current main themes of global ecological research, including the study of responses of marine systems to global change, the understanding of the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, the analysis of the impact of invasive species and the evaluation of the effectiveness of marine protected areas. In 2016, he has received the National Scientific Qualification as Associate Professor of Ecology. Until March 2019, he has published 62 ISI papers and has supervised 2 PhD theses and 15 Master theses.

Luis Mauricio Bini
Universidade Federal de Goias, Brazil

Luis Mauricio Bini received his Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD degrees, respectively, in Ecology (São Paulo State University, 1991), Environmental Engineering (São Paulo University, 1995) and Ecology of Continental Aquatic Environments (State University of Maringá, 2001). He works at the Federal University of Goiás (since 1997), with a current interest in metacommunity ecology and research synthesis. His research on these topics is based on different aquatic systems (from tropical floodplain lakes and reservoirs to boreal streams) and on different organism groups (from diatoms to fishes).

Dani Boix
Institute of Aquatic Ecology & Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Girona, Spain

Dr. Dani Boix is Associate Professor of the Ecology Unit in the Department of Environmental Science and researcher of the Institute of Aquatic Ecology. He is working as university teacher and researcher from 1992 in the same university. He has supervised 6 Master’s theses and 5 PhD theses. He has over 75 papers in peer review journals with a current H-index=26 and ResearchGate-score=35.71. The main topics of his research are: (1) the study of the structure of aquatic communities and their trophic relationships. It includes the analysis of species composition using other non taxonomic but functional approaches, such as the size of the individuals, their feeding habits or their life-history strategies; (2) the influence of environmental factors (hydrological, physical, chemical and biological) and their variability on the ecological functioning of Mediterranean aquatic ecosystems; (3) the dynamics and structure of metacommunities of different biotic groups according to their biological traits; (4) the use of the knowledge on the ecology of Mediterranean shallow waters in applied projects on wetland restauration (e.g., he was involved in the research team of 7 European Life projects). His research was mainly performed in freshwater and brackish wetlands, especially in temporary ponds and coastal salt marshes.

Nick Bond
The Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Australia

Professor Nick Bond is Director of the Centre for Freshwater Ecosystems at La Trobe University, Australia. He applies quantitative statistical and processes modelling approaches to study the effects of flow variability on stream biota (especially fish and macroinvertebrates) and ecosystem processes, with a strong focus on applied issues, such as water resources and habitat restoration. He earned a BSc(hons) and PhD from the University of Melbourne, and prior to joining La Trobe University he worked at the Australian Rivers Institute at Griffith University, where he remains an adjunct.

Gary Bucciarelli
University of California, Davis, Davis, USA

Dr. Gary Bucciarelli received his B.A. from Antioch College and Ph.D. from UCLA in ecology and evolutionary biology. He is the Director of the UC Davis Lassen Volcanic Park Field Station in northern California and is Director of Strategic Engagement for the six campus field stations that are a part of the 41 sites comprising the UC Natural Reserve System. He works to understand the biotic and abiotic factors that drive organismal phenotypes, population dynamics, and community patterns in freshwater ecosystems, with a focus on amphibians and stream invertebrates. His research is basic and applied, and draws from areas of chemical ecology, conservation genetics/genomics, and invasion biology. He is adjunct professor at UC Davis in the Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology.  

Louise Chavarie
Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management (MINA), Ås, Norway

My long-term research interests lie at the interface of evolutionary ecology, fish ecology, northern aquatic ecology, fisheries, climate change, and intraspecific diversity. I carry out research on the dynamics of aquatic ecosystems and inform their conservation and management, with a primary focus on salmonid systems. Basic and applied science - To generate knowledge and apply it to conservation and management. Aquatic ecology - I primarily work in freshwater and estuary ecosystems, and study fish across their life cycle as well as their communities and ecosystems. Scale - Individual life-stages, among-individuals, focal populations, watersheds, regional, and continental. Field sampling: Norway, Canada, USA, and Scotland and it is often combined with big data analysis. Analyzes - GIS, time series analyses, telemetry, stable isotopes, fatty acids, otoliths, morphology, genetic, life-history. Collaborative - I work with various partners including: First Nations, DFO, USGS, Great Lakes Fishery Commission, provincial organizations (MFFP, SEPAQ), eNGOs and other organizations.

Julie Coetzee
Rhodes University, Centre for Biological Controls, Makhanda, (Grahamstown), Eastern Cape, South Africa

Julie’s research focuses on the biological control of invasive aquatic plants. She started working on biological control of the world’s worst aquatic weed, water hyacinth, in 1998, and has never looked back. Recently the focus of her work on floating aquatic plants has shifted to include biological control of submerged and emergent aquatic plants. As we have gained excellent control of the floating species, this new suite of species has taken advantage of these new habitats, threatening indigenous aquatic flora and fauna. Tackling these new problem plants is a challenge, but we will benefit from experience gained elsewhere in controlling these species, as well as pioneering new methods of control for southern Africa. Julie is a Professor in the Botany Department at Rhodes University, and Deputy Director of the Centre for Biological Control.

Jörg Dutz
Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, Rostock, Germany

Jörg Dutz obtained his Master degree in Hydrobiology and Fisheries Research from the University of Hamburg (Germany) in 1993. He did his doctoral studies at the Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research (Bremen, Germany) and received his PhD from the University of Bremen in 1999. Between 1999 and 2006, he has worked as postdoctoral fellow at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and the Leibniz-Institute for Baltic Sea Research. Following a Marie-Curie fellowship at the Danish Institute for Fisheries Research, he held the position as senior scientist at the Danish Technical University in 2009-2014. Since then, he is a senior researcher at the Leibniz-Institute for Baltic Sea Research. His research focuses on ecological problems related to pelagic food web interactions and potential effects of climate variability and the long –term change in the dynamics of marine zooplankton populations.

Andrew R. Dzialowski
Oklahoma State University, Department of Integrative Biology, Stillwater, OK, USA

Research in my lab explores how biotic interactions, resource availability, and anthropogenic disturbances interact to influence the structure and function of aquatic ecosystems. My students and I combine laboratory, observational, and experimental studies to address several major themes: Metacommunity dynamics; Ecology of invasive species; Zooplankton community structure; Ecology and management of cyanobacterial blooms; Applied water quality and reservoir management; Wetland ecology and management.

Alex Elliott
Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Lancaster Environment Centre, UK

Dr Alex Elliott is a lake ecologist with expertise in modelling and has been employed by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH, UK) since 2000, publishing over 60 peer-reviewed papers. He has worked with the lake phytoplankton community model, PROTECH, for over twenty years, developing and testing it around the world. His research has focused on predicting the impact of climate change on lakes and the compounding influence of eutrophication. The focus of many of these studies has been to examine the impact on the functional ecology of the phytoplankton community and particularly the cyanobacteria species that can so adversely affect water quality. Recently, he has been examining the impact of drought on lakes and reservoirs.

Sally Entrekin
Virginia Tech, Department of Entomology, Blacksburg, VA, USA

Sally is an Associate Professor in the Entomology Department at Virginia Tech. She publishes on macroinvertebrate-environmental interactions, freshwater quantity and quality, and ecosystem ecology. Her research group focuses on macroinvertebrate community ecology and ecosystem function. They use the coupled integration of macroinvertebrate communities and ecosystem dynamics at the land-water interface to understand how people impact freshwater quality, quantity, and community structure and function.  Their current projects span across disciplines that engage students and the public in water quality and quantity issues typically from development for urban centers, agriculture, and resource extraction in streams and wetlands. Sally also serves as the Secretary for the Society for Freshwater Science and is the co-associate editor for the journal Freshwater Science, Bridges, that integrates science and decision-making. At Virginia Tech, Sally also teaches Aquatic Entomology and Freshwater Biomonitoring.

Cécile Fauvelot
IRD, UMR ENTROPIE, Université Nice Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France

Cécile Fauvelot research activities focus on evolutionary biology, molecular ecology, marine ecology, population genetics and conservation biology. She completed her PhD in 2002 France, working on coral reef fishes from French Polynesia, investigating gene flow - life history trait correlations in coral reef fishes. After her PhD, she explored the impact of population size variations in modifying species genetic diversity and geographic structuring through time on various organisms, from Indonesian butterflies to red coral and other invertebrates from the Mediterranean Sea. Since 2007, she works at the Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD) where her research activities mainly focus on coral reef organisms populations connectivity, using population genetics to answer ecological questions regarding how reef populations are linked by larval dispersal. Her current model organisms are various (coral reef fishes, pelagic fishes, giant clams, corals, sea cucumbers), from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea, but her main question remains the same: what can their DNA tells us?

Verónica Ferreira
MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, University of Coimbra, Portugal

Verónica Ferreira holds a PhD in Biology (specialization: stream ecology) from the University of Coimbra, for which she studied the effects of fertilization and forest change on stream invertebrate communities and organic matter decomposition. Between 2007 and 2015, she carried out post-doctoral research at IMAR – Institute of Marine Research (University of Coimbra, Portugal), EcoLab (CNRS, France) and School of Biological Sciences (Royal Holloway University of London, UK) to evaluate the effects of global change factors (e.g. fertilization, warming, forest change, increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration) on aquatic communities and processes and to perform systematic reviews by means of meta-analysis to evaluate the effects of anthropogenic activities on organic matter decomposition. She has also studied the effects of environmental change on streams in tropical settings (central Brazil) and oceanic islands (Azores Archipelago). Since 2015, she is an auxiliary researcher at MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, University of Coimbra. She has authored more than 50 papers in international scientific journals and participated in 11 research projects, including 4 large scale international networks. Over recent years, she has also devoted substantial time to science communication activities.

Margarita Patricia Florencio Díaz
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Department of Ecology, Madrid, Spain

Margarita Florencio is an experienced limnologist with a large background in aquatic ecology and invertebrates, particularly in Mediterranean temporary ponds. She has developed sampling protocols for spatial and temporal variations of the Doñana temporary ponds, addressing a wide variety of organisms, since macro- and micro-invertebrates, amphibians, and aquatic plants, and determining their physical and chemical, and spatial characteristics. She has a vast knowledge in the functioning of these singular aquatic ecosystems, being the use of community ecology key to understand the biodiversity patterns and the ecological processes behind, regarding environmental and spatial characteristic of ponds. The use of community ecology has later allowed her to understand the role of land-use changes and alien species in determining the biodiversity patterns of the arthropods of the Azorean oceanic islands. During more than six years of postdoctoral experience in national and international centres, she has also become an expert in biological invasions with active involvement in the research of island biology. Currently, she is the Principal Investigator of the project ClimaRiskinPond, entitled “Towards the conservation perspective of temporary ponds to face climate change and alien species invasions”, which wants to prioritize the conservation of temporary ponds in peninsular Spain, using aquatic invertebrates to face climate change, anthropogenic perturbations, and biological invasions.

María Florencia Gutierrez
Instituto Nacional de Limnología (CONICET-UNL), Santa Fe, Argentina

Gideon Gal
Kinneret Limnological Laboratory, Israel Oceanographic & Limnological Research, Migdal, Israel

Dr. Gideon Gal is the director of the Kinneret Limnological Laboratory, Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research. He is an aquatic ecologist by training with a background in zooplankton research. His main research focus is ecosystem modeling of lakes and marine systems. He is particularly interested in food-web interactions and the impact of abiotic stressors on food web processes. He uses the models as a management tool and a as a means for providing insight into the possible outcomes of anthropogenic stressors on the ecosystem.

María de los Ángeles González Sagrario
Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), UNMDP-CONICET, Mar del Plata, Argentina

Dra. María de los Ángeles González Sagrario is an associate researcher of the National Council of Scientific and Technological Research of Argentina (CONICET). She got her bachelor degree at the National University of Mar del Plata (Argentina), Doctor degree at the National University of the Comahue (Argentina) and made a post doctoral research at the University of Seattle (USA). As part of her Doctoral degree and thanks to research grants she completed stays in Holland and Denmark.  María de los Angeles have focused her research on shallow lakes ecology, specially on food web interactions and processes, and community interactions between the littoral and pelagic habitats and functional groups (zooplankton, macroinvertebrates, fish). Currently, she is studying regime shifts and food web dynamics in shallow lakes over the last 250 yr. (paleolimnology).

Stuart Halse
Bennelongia Pty Ltd, Wembley, Australia

Stuart Halse did his undergraduate degree in zoology at the University of Western Australia and then did a PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg on the ecophysiology of feeding and breeding by Spur-winged Geese. He subsequently worked on feeding behaviour of larks in Iraq, worked briefly at the University of Tasmania and then spent more than 20 years in Western Australia’s Parks and Wildlife agency before setting up the environmental consulting company. Bennelongia, where he now works. In Parks and Wildlife, Stuart worked mostly on inventory of aquatic invertebrates and waterbirds and management issues associated with wetlands, including being part of the teams that developed AusRivAS for river health assessment in Australia and undertook the first Australia-wide waterbird survey. Stuart also set up a long-term monitoring program to quantify the effects of salinization on wetlands and undertook various studies to document the importance of arid zone wetlands for aquatic invertebrates. Around 2000, Stuart began working on stygofauna which, together with troglofauna, comprise much of the consulting work done by Bennelongia, Stuart’s main interests currently are the factors affecting occurrence of subterranean fauna, waterbirds and aquatic invertebrates. Stuart is also interested in the taxonomy of Australian ostracods.

Lee B. Kats
Pepperdine University, Malibu, USA

Dr. Lee Kats received his B.A. from Calvin College in Michigan and the Ph.D. in biology from the University of Kentucky. From 2001 until 2011 he served as Associate Dean for Research at Pepperdine University and since 2011 he has served as Vice Provost for Research and Strategic Initiatives. He began teaching at Pepperdine in 1990. In 2000, Dr. Kats was named as the Frank R. Seaver Chair in Natural Science at Pepperdine University. He conducts research in the areas of animal ecology, tropical ecology and conservation biology. For over 25 years he and his students have studied the conservation biology of local amphibians. He and his students focus on stream ecology, impacts of invasive species and predator-prey ecology and behavior. He also conducts research and teaches in Costa Rica and Argentina. As Vice Provost, Dr. Kats works closely with Pepperdine’s information technology department, office of institutional effectiveness and assessment, and research and sponsored programs. Dr. Kats is also involved in the university’s strategic planning process and implementation.

Jonne Kotta
University of Tartu, Estonia

Jonne Kotta works at the Estonian Marine Institute, the University of Tartu as a research professor in Marine Ecology. He also acts as a Vice Director in the same institute. J. Kotta has over 25 years’ experience as a field and an experimental ecologist. He has a broad expertise in a number of fields of marine science (pattern, process studies, dynamics and modelling) and strong knowledge in different types of habitats (benthic and pelagic) and organisms (phytoplankton, zooplankton, phytobenthos, zoobenthos and fish). He is conducting research, among other topics, on trophic networks, benthic-pelagic coupling and scale-dependent relationships between environmental forcing and biotic patterns. He has also strong theoretical and practical knowledge of different types of (spatial) modelling techniques to link theoretical science with different management practices. Such knowledge is needed for the current management plans but likely to produce clearer vision and strategies for the future.

Katya Kovalenko
U.S. Geological Survey, National Wetlands Research Center, Lafayette, LA, USA

"I enjoy working and handling papers in diverse areas of freshwater community and ecosystem ecology particularly food webs, invasive species, functional traits, habitat complexity, and the interface of ecology and data science."

Zhengwen Liu
Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Manuel Lopes-Lima
CIBIO/InBIO, Research Center in Biodiversity and Generic Resources, University of Porto, Portugal

Manuel Lopes-Lima is a researcher in CIBIO/InBio - Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources at the University of Porto. He is also the (IUCN/SSC) Coordinator of the Red List Authority on Freshwater Bivalves within the Mollusk Specialist Group. He holds a B.Sc. in Biochemistry and an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Biodiversity, Evolution, and Genetic Resources, all from the University of Porto. His research interests are related to the global conservation of freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionoida) including phylogeny, genetic diversity, and ecophysiology. He has multiple freshwater conservation projects in three different continents and is also an active promoter of international research efforts around this faunistic group.

John M. Melack
University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

John M. Melack is a Professor in the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management and Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Melack's research has emphasized ecological processes in lakes, wetlands and streams, and hydrological and biogeochemical aspects of catchments. He has conducted multi-year studies of freshwater and saline lakes in eastern Africa and floodplains in the Amazon and Pantanal of South America. In California, his studies of the saline Mono Lake and high-elevation lakes in the Sierra Nevada have continued for over 30 years, and he is involved in the second decade of an LTER examining linkages among coastal watersheds, near-shore kelp ecosystems and offshore waters in Santa Barbara Channel. He has applied active and passive microwave and optical remote sensing to studies of lakes and tropical wetlands.

Juan-Carlos Molinero
Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR), Kiel, Germany

Marcelo S. Moretti
Department of Ecology, University Vila Velha, Vila Velha, Brazil

Dr. Marcelo S. Moretti holds a Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (2002), a Master's degree (2005) and a PhD (2009) in Ecology from the Graduate Program in Ecology, Conservation and Management of Wildlife at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. He has experience in the area of Limnology, with emphasis on Ecology of Benthic Invertebrates and Processing of Organic Matter in Streams, working mainly on the following subjects: benthic macroinvertebrate communities, leaf litter decomposition, behavior of invertebrate shredders, and bioindicators of water quality. He is currently a professor at Universidade Vila Velha, where he leads the Laboratory of Aquatic Insect Ecology and is the Head of the Graduate Program in Ecology of Ecosystems.

Ivan Nagelkerken
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Australia

Ivan Nagelkerken is a professor in marine ecology at The University of Adelaide in Australia. He works in temperate as well as tropical coastal ecosystems (mangroves, seagrasses, kelp forests, rocky reefs, coral reefs, estuaries), with a special focus on fishes. His main focus has been on how ecosystem connectivity affects the functioning and resilience of coastal marine ecosystems. Most of this work was performed in the Caribbean, Eastern Africa, and Australia. In the last 6 years he has additionally focussed on studying the effects of global change (e.g. ocean warming and acidification) on the diversity, abundance, and distribution of fish species, and the cascading effects on marine ecosystems. This research provides an understanding of how climate change stressors will affect the behaviour and physiology of fish species, how this could modify population dynamics and species community structuring, and what the implications are for the biodiversity, functioning, and resilience of marine ecosystems in the near future. Most of this work has been performed in Australia and New Zealand. Prof. Nagelkerken has co-authored >150 scientific papers and book chapters and edited a book on ecosystem connectivity. He has a Google scholar h-index of 55 with > 10,000 citations to his work.

Daniele Nizzoli
Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability – SCVSA, University of Parma, Italy

Daniele Nizzoli is a researcher in Ecology, working at the Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma. He got a Degree in Biology in 1997 and a PhD in Ecology in 2003. The research activity includes and integrates the fields of biogeochemistry and aquatic ecology with emphasis on the effects of natural and human induced perturbations on ecosystem functions such as primary productivity, organic matter mineralization, nutrients and greenhouse gas dynamics in coastal lagoons and freshwater environments. Research focuses primarily on the study of microbial mediated carbon and nitrogen transformations and their regulation by the activity of benthic macrofauna, primary producers and organic matter accumulation. A second line of research is about the study of factors that regulate nitrogen and phosphorus load formation and export from watersheds in relation to the anthropic activity.

André Andrian Padial
Federal University of Parana, Botany Department, Curitiba, Brazil

Andre A. Padial is a full professor at Universidade Federal do Paraná – Brazil since 2011, working mainly with aquatic ecology, invasion biology and aquatic plants. In summary, his current work focus mainly in the understanding impacts of anthropogenic actions and neobiota in aquatic metacommunity assembly considering taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic dimensions. He has graduated in Biological Sciences in 2005, finished has a Masters in Aquatic Ecology in 2007, and completed a PhD in a program on Ecology and Evolution in 2010, with a thesis on community assembly of multiple aquatic biological groups. He has published more than 50 papers in peer-review journals in about 10 years of professional experience. He is also a fellow of Brazilian Council for Scientific Development and is currently head of one of the top Post-graduate program in Ecology in Brazil.

Judit Padisák
Department of Limnology, Institute of Environmental Science, University of Pannonia, Hungary

Judit Padisák serves as Professor of Limnology at the Department of Limnology, Institute of Environmental Science University of Pannonia, Hungary. She graduated as biologist and got her PhD in the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary. Judit's research focuses on population- and community ecology of (especially) freshwater phytoplankton in context of habitat heterogeneity; biogeochemical processes in lakes; functional diversity and dispersal ecology. Her primary research experience was gained on temperate lakes and were extended later to phytoplankton behavior in lakes and reservoirs from the tropics to cold temperate regions.She has cooperated with a wide number of researchers worldwide on various research projects (e.g. FP7-Phytoplankton-on-line, FP7-CLIME, Interreg-EULAKES, Tempus-Quali). Judit serves as editor or editorial board member of for several top-ranked international journals field of phytoplankton research and was an elected vice president of the International Society of Limnology (SIL). Her ex-PhD students are acknowledged members of the international scientific community. She is a member of the Academia Europaea.

Fernando Mayer Pelicice
Environmental Research Nucleus, Federal University of Tocantins, Brazil

Fernando Mayer Pelicice graduated in Biological Sciences, and received his PhD on Ecology of Inland Ecosystems at the State University of Maringá (Brazil). Currently is professor and researcher at the Federal University of Tocantins (Brazil). Fernando is an expert in aquatic ecology and conservation, with focus on Neotropical freshwater fishes. His research interests include fish ecology and diversity, biological invasions and impacts from human activities. A main research line is the investigation of river regulation and hydropower development. He has supervised Master and PhD students in different universities, and collaborated with several researchers from Brazil and other countries. Fernando has published nearly a hundred of articles, books and chapters. He also serves as Section Editor for Neotropical Ichthyology.

María Grazia Pennino
IEO - Instituto Español de Oceanografia, Vigo, Spain

María Grazia Pennino is a marine biologist, with a master's degree in Biostatistic and a PhD in Mathematics & Statistics. She is a researcher at the Spanish Oceanographic Institute (IEO) in Vigo (Spain). Before moving to the IEO she developed her scientific career in different institutions and countries as the Institute por le Research and Development (IRD-France), the Unviversidade de Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN-Brazil) and the University of the British Columbia (UBC-Canada). Her research focus on understanding the spatial-temporal dynamic of marine ecosystems and, in particular, changes of, and threats to, marine resources and ecosystem services. She studies species and community dynamics linked with human activities (such as fisheries and climate change), and how these translate into changes in ecosystem structure and services. She develops and applies a variety of ecosystem modelling techniques and statistical tools, with the final aim to have an application in conservation and management of marine resources and ecosystems. She participated in several national and international research projects and perform education activities supervising PhD and postdoc students as well as teaching courses of Bayesian spatial-temporal models. 

Xavier Pochon
University of Auckland, Cawthron Institute, Nelson, New Zealand

Xavier is a marine molecular ecologist at the Cawthron Institute and an Associate Professor at the Institute of Marine Science of the University of Auckland, New Zealand. His research expertise focuses on developing multi-trophic molecular detection tools to analyse environmental DNA (eDNA) and measure biodiversity changes associated with natural and human-induced stressors in aquatic ecosystems. Xavier is involved in multiple research programmes using DNA and RNA proxies for monitoring aquatic ecosystems’ health, emerging contaminants such as organics and microplastics, non-indigenous marine species, and benthic impacts associated with aquaculture. Xavier is an Associate Editor at PeerJ (since 2015), Frontiers in Marine Science (since 2017) and Hydrobiologia (since 2021).

Michael Power
Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, ON, Canada

Dr. Power is a research biologist in the Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, with a specialization in northern salmonid ecology, population dynamics and stable isotope research. His research has focussed on understanding the effects of climate-related variability on iconic fish species, such as Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus, Linneaus) and Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar, Linnaeus), and on climate-related analyses of estuarine and freshwater fishes generally. His work aims specifically at melding modern analytical methods (e.g. stable isotopes) with long-term biological monitoring records to better infer likely population-level responses to climate change. Other research interests have focussed on the determining the ecological effects of water abstraction, hydro dams and the determination of ecological flow assessment techniques for flow regulation. Dr. Power has an established record of publication success (> 220 peer reviewed papers) dealing with all aspects of salmonid ecology (movement, reproduction, population dynamics and zoogeographic patterns) and has authored several key chapters on population bioassessment methods for American Fisheries Society technical publications. He has been PI or co-PI for several multi-year, multi-million dollar projects in northern Canada ( e.g., International Polar Year) and collaborates regularly on fisheries and food web studies in Scandinavia and elsewhere.

Maria del Mar Sánchez Montoya
Department of Ecology and Hydrology, Faculty of Biology, University of Murcia, Spain

María Mar Sánchez-Montoya is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Murcia (Spain). She got her Bachelor and PhD degrees at the University of Murcia in 1999 and 2008, respectively. Thanks to research grants she has completed stays in Australia, Chile, Greece, Germany and EEUU for duration of longer than four years, all of them focus on the study of ecology of Mediterranean rivers. At the present, her research focuses mainly on intermittent and ephemeral river and lake ecology, including: i) responses of both aquatic and terrestrial invertebrate communities to flow intermitence and water salinity; ii) ecological functions of dry riverbeds for both invertebrate and vertebrate fauna; and iii) dry-phase indicators of ecological quality of intermittent and ephemeral rivers. She has authored more than 40 papers in international scientific journals and participated in 12 national and international research projects. She is an Associate Editor of Hydrobiologia since 2017.

Jasmine Saros
School of Biology & Ecology, University of Maine, Orono, USA

My main research interests involve paleolimnology and phytoplankton ecology, as I use diatom fossil records in lake sediments to reconstruct environmental change over time. My approach differs from conventional reconstructions involving diatom profiles in that I apply information from both field observations and bioassays to the sediment records, and I use patterns in the sediment record to pose testable hypotheses about mechanisms driving observed changes. My research also focuses on understanding current responses of lake ecosystems to climate change. I am currently conducting research in alpine, saline, and boreal lakes.

Stefano Schiaparelli
Dr. Stefano Schiaparelli is a researcher at the Università degli Studi di Genova (University of Genova, Italy)

Stefano Schiaparelli is Associate Professor in Zoology at the University of Genoa (Genoa, Italy) and Director of the Italian National Antarctic Museum (Section of Genoa). He has general interests in marine biodiversity with a special focus on biotic interactions and phylogeography of marine invertebrates living in association. Since 2001 he become progressively involved in Antarctic research also becoming member of several international board committee (SCAR-AntEco, SCAR-ANTOS and the recently established Ant-ICON, “Integrated Science to inform Antarctic and Southern Ocean Conservation”).  His current research is focusing on barcoding e metabarcoding of Antarctic taxa and on the development of innovative techniques for long-term monitoring of Antarctic benthic communities. He has published more than 70 ISI rated papers, 10 book chapters and 1 international patent and participated to more than 20 scientific expeditions in the tropics and in polar areas.

Piet Spaak
Eawag, Aquatic Ecology, Dubendorf, Switzerland

Piet Spaak is an evolutionary plankton ecologist. During his career he used Daphnia as a model organism to study the influence of environmental factors on aquatic ecosystems. He did his PhD in the Netherlands (Netherlands Institute of Ecology, NIOO-KNAW) and a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Limnology in Plön, Germany. Since 1996 he works as a group leader at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), from 2010 until 2018 as department head of the Department of Aquatic Ecology. He teaches at ETH, with colleagues, the course “LimnoEcology”. His actual research concentrates around Daphnia (host) – parasite interactions, Daphnia genomics as well as food web ecology in lakes. At the moment he is coordinating a large international project on Lake Constance that comprises 13 sub-projects whose investigations contribute to an improved process-based understanding of the pelagic and littoral zone, as well as interactions between them.

Sofie Spatharis
SoLS & IBAHCM, University of Glasgow, Scotland

Sofie Spatharis is a community ecologist interested in species coexistence in phytoplankton assemblages. Her research also encompasses the investigation of factors that affect microalgal productivity such as light, nutrients and metabolites secreted by competitor species. She employs different ways to address these questions including field monitoring and mesocosms, laboratory microcosms and computer simulations using both local patch and metacommunity perspectives. Sofie was thrilled to join the editorial team of Hydrobiologia in 2020 as this journal includes her favorite collection of articles on paradigms of aquatic biodiversity. Sofie Spatharis lab web page: www.sofiespatharis.com (this opens in a new tab)

Christian Sturmbauer
University of Graz, Austria

Christian Sturmbauer is Professor for Zoology and Evolutionary Biology and the Head of the Department of Biology at the University of Graz and Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on patterns of speciation and eco-morphological diversification during adaptive radiation, addressed by a combination of genomic and comparative morphological approaches using East African cichlid species flocks as model system. Thereby the focus lies on the evolution of critical adaptive traits, shaped by the combined action of natural and sexual selection. The role of hybridization events boosting the pace of speciation is also topic of his research. The documentation of the Central European biodiversity is a second focus of research, manifesting in a leading role in the project initiative Austrian Barcode of Life (ABOL), his membership in the Commission for Interdisciplinary Ecological Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and his commitment in the editorial boards of Bioinformatics and Ecology Series of the OEAW, Hydrobiologia and Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research.

Ülkü Nihan Tavşanoğlu
Çankırı Karatekin University, Faculty of Science, Biology Department, Çankırı, Turkey

I have worked on ecology for over 15 years and have published several papers related to eutrophication, drought, and biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems. I have particular experience in biological responses to environmental change in lakes, rivers, and lagoons from fieldwork to laboratory experiments. I am mostly interested in the response of aquatic ecosystems and their biodiversity (taxonomic & functional) to environmental disturbances such as eutrophication, microplastic pollution, land use, salinization, or global warming. Currently, I work at the Biology Department at Çankırı Karatekin University.

Vasilis D. Valavanis
Hellenic Center for Marine Research, Iraklio, Crete, Greece

Vasilis Valavanis is a senior researcher at the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (Greece) promoting research based on the extensive use of satellite remote sensing, geographic information science and related modeling in marine disciplines. Since 1997, he coordinated and participated in many European Commission-funded research projects on species-environment interactions, marine habitat mapping, and essential fish habitat identification as well as several education activities through Marie Curie projects at PhD and postdoc levels. He collaborates with more than 150 co-authors and he is the author of ‘Geographic Information Systems in Oceanography and Fisheries’ (Taylor & Francis 2002), ‘Essential Fish Habitat Mapping in the Mediterranean’ (Springer 2008) and ‘Marine Ecosystems and Sustainability’ (Springer 2011). He is Associate Editor for Hydrobiologia and Scientia Marina and a member of the scientific committee of the triennial ‘International Symposium on GIS/Spatial Analyses in Fishery and Aquatic Sciences’. More information on past and current collaborative research and activities is available at: https://www.hcmr.gr/en/ (this opens in a new tab)

Erik Yando
Department of Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA

The Coastal Plant and Ecotone Ecology Lab at Old Dominion University aims to understand properties and processes of the natural world, particularly at range limits, ecotones, and across habitat transitions. Research interests include wetland, coastal, and marine ecosystems, plant ecology, ecotones, plant-soil interactions, and blue carbon from individual to landscape scales.