Happy birthday Hydrobiologia! 70 years young and still growing…
Hydrobiologia started its existence in March 1948 by publishing a first volume of 476 pages, and already then focused on the biology and ecology of aquatic organisms. After 70 years, the focus of the journal is still similar, but the diversity of approaches increased during the seven decades of its existence. To celebrate the 70 years of Hydrobiologia, we here address some emerging trends in the history of publications in Hydrobiologia.
Two celebrations and the Sustainable Development Goals
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Speciation in the Brachionus plicatilis Species Complex
The Brachionus plicatilis species complex is the best-studied example among rotifers where the use of integrative taxonomy, coupling morphology, ecology, physiology, cross-mating experiments, and DNA taxonomy helps disentangling the biological reality of the different species in the complex. Here we review the theoretical and empirical approaches in species definition applied to the B. plicatilis complex, we outline the history of the discovery of the complex, and we explore the evidence in support of the currently accepted presence of 15 species. We review the evidence for long-distance dispersal and for co-occurrence of the species in the complex, including the processes favoring the co-o…
A georeferenced dataset of Italian occurrence records of the phylum Rotifera
We report a dataset of known and published occurrence records of Italian taxa from species (and subspecies) to family rank of the phylum Rotifera; we considered only Bdelloidea, Monogononta, and Seisonacea, and did not include Acanthocephala. The dataset in-cludes 15,525 records (12,015 of which with georeferenced coordinates) of 584 valid species and subspecies names and other taxa at family level, gathered from 332 published papers. The published literature spans the period from 1838 to 2022, with the lowest number of papers published during the first half of the twentieth century, followed by an increasing number of papers, from 20 to more than 60 in each decade. The Italian regions with…
Fifteen species in one: deciphering the Brachionus plicatilis species complex (Rotifera, Monogononta) through DNA taxonomy
Understanding patterns and processes in biological diversity is a critical task given current and rapid environmental change. Such knowledge is even more essential when the taxa under consideration are important ecological and evolutionary models. One of these cases is the monogonont rotifer cryptic species complex Brachionus plicatilis, which is by far the most extensively studied group of rotifers, is widely used in aquaculture, and is known to host a large amount of unresolved diversity. Here we collate a dataset of previously available and newly generated sequences of COI and ITS1 for 1273 isolates of the B. plicatilis complex and apply three approaches in DNA taxonomy (i.e. ABGD, PTP, …
A (very) brief vademecum on biological nomenclature
This editorial is aimed at explaining why the editors of Hydrobiologia are so concerned with biological nomenclature and why we ask our authors the utmost precision when referring to species in their papers... In these lines, we want to show that this is not just an old fashion formalism, but a necessity to correctly and univocally identify the biological subjects that are the basis of the research published in ecology-related journals.
Cryptic diversity, niche displacement and our poor understanding of taxonomy and ecology of aquatic microorganisms
AbstractThe analysis of ecological niche is an important task to correctly identify the role exerted by species within ecosystems, to assess their vulnerability, to plan effective measures addressed at fulfilling the postulates of biological conservation, and ultimately to prevent biodiversity loss. However, for the majority of organisms our knowledge about the actual extent of their ecological niche is quite limited. This is especially true for microscopic organisms. Evidence exists that in different geographical areas allegedly conspecific populations can show different, if not antithetical, ecological requirements and not-overlapping ecological niches. This opinion paper discusses whethe…
Preface: Emerging trends in aquatic ecology II
You are now consulting the celebratory volume 750 of Hydrobiologia, the international journal of aquatic sciences. The journal has, since its first volume in March 1948, now exactly 67 years ago, covered a lot of ground and has seen a lot of change in the landscape of scientific publishing in general, and in that of aquatic biodiversity in particular. It has evolved from a fairly locally managed journal, to an international journal with ever increasing impact and ranking. With an ISI 2013 Impact Factor of 2.212, it now ranks 32 out of 103 journals in ‘‘Marine and Freshwater Biology’’. But in the ‘‘Marine Sciences and Fisheries’’ Category of Google Scholar, Hydrobiologia ranks proudly at a 9…
Preface: Emerging trends in aquatic ecology III
Humans have never faced such major threats to their homes as they are experiencing now. Despite several global initiatives to ameliorate environmental problems, to preserve biodiversity and to alleviate poverty, these major threats are far from being resolved. According to a recent survey conducted by Ripple et al. (2017) and signed by 15,364 scientists of 184 countries, several indicators of environmental health are still worsening significantly. For example, along with the continuing increase of atmospheric CO2 and global temperatures (the threats best known by the general public as ‘‘climate change’’), there are still steep increases in atmospheric concentrations of methane and nitrous o…