Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management Society: A global integration of aquatic ecosystems research and development

Abstract

It was 1990 when I became acquainted with the newly published Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management Society journal, Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management (AEHM) volume (1). At that time, I had just registered for my Ph.D. in Italy and my research was underway at one of the CNR-Italy (Consiglio Natizionale delle Richerche) prestigious research institutes in the field of hydrobiology. At that time this institute was known as “Istituto Italiano di Idrobiologia” or “Italian Institute of Hydrobiology,” located in Verbania Pallanza, northern Italy.This Institute has many scientific, social, and cultural traditions. One of its scientific traditions was to expose newly published journals on a special shelf in the reading room for a period of 2 weeks to one month which was very helpful in keeping you updated with new publications in your field of research (no online services at that time). Since I was a fresh student at the VI cycle of the Italian Ph.D. program in environmental science with a special interest in aquatic ecology, I was attracted by the title of the journal … oh … no, I was firstly attracted by the cover design and the colorful cover page. Since it was my first time seeing a scientific journal with such a colorful cover, I was interested to see the quality of publications and what areas of aquatic ecosystems they were focusing on; I was also interested to see who was the editor and who was on the editorial board of this journal. When I read the name Mohi Munawar, as chief editor, I remembered that I was interested in some of his publications about Indian inland waters and their phytoplankton communities while I was preparing my M.Sc. thesis at Alexandria University in Egypt, and I remembered that I wrote to him asking for some of his publications. He kindly sent two of them to me by normal post and at that time it took six months to receive them!The topics of the first volumes of AEHM were not related to one geographic area and were not specific to certain organisms. Those made me reflect on the cover page design, which consists of the world map outline containing different habitats and ecosystem features within. In fact, that was one of the most important strong points that made the AEHMS journal stand out; also its publisher, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, is one of the most well-known worldwide and has endorsed the journal editor's ideas to spotlight specific geographical ecosystems. This needs attention not only from the scientific research point of view, but also from the point of view of administrative, policy development and management programs which need to be established in order to sustain healthy aquatic environments worldwide.Years passed and I referred in many of my publications to several published articles in the AEHMS journal until one day in 2004 when I was in Lahti- Finland at the 29th SIL Conference, where I met in person with Dr. Mohi Munawar. During the conference he came to know that I was occupying the position of Chairman of the Biology Department at the United Arab Emirates University, UAE. We discussed how the AEHMS society could enhance aquatic research in the Middle East in general and in the Arabian Gulf area in particular and developed the idea to organize the First International Conference on the “State of the Gulf Ecosystem: future and threats.”Dr. Munawar visited our United Arab Emirates University in 2005 and I organized different meetings with the research affairs office at the University that supported the conference idea. It was also suggested to devote an entire issue of AEHM to the Middle East. In March 2006 at the City of Al-Ain, the UAE University in collaboration with AEHMS-Canada had one of the most successful conferences in the Arabian Gulf area, discussing all aspects of different ecosystems in the Arabian Gulf. At the conference, about 12 Ambassadors of different Gulf, North American and European regions attended the opening ceremony, and some of them then attended all the sessions in order to follow the hot and important discussions about conservation and protection of aquatic ecosystems of the Gulf. Selected articles of this conference were subsequently peer reviewed and published in a special issue of AEHM entitled “The State of the Gulf Ecosystem: Future and Threats” Vol 10(3), 2007. This special issue was announced by the publisher to be the top requested volume of this journal until the end of 2008.In 2011 we succeeded in organizing the 2nd Gulf conference held in Kuwait in February in collaboration with the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR).Since 2004 my close relation with the AEHMS mission has continued from North America to Europe and from Asia to Africa, especially the Nile basin and its freshwater resources. In addition to being part of the organizing committee for different scientific events, I have also reviewed scientific articles submitted to the AEHMS from such events and as individual submissions. Their aim is to promote scientific publication and research in some remote areas where scientists have sound knowledge but lack accessibility to ranked scientific journals, either due to less experience in publishing in such journals or because of their isolation from global scientific networking that leads to high quality publications and research development. One of the aims of the AEHMS editorial board is to enhance research and therefore research articles quality for scientists in developing countries by giving advice and by suggesting ideas on how to improve their manuscripts while reviewing them. This has encouraged those scientists to be keen to produce scientific manuscripts with valuable scientific information and well-designed experimental work, as well as establish new generations of well instructed scientists.I believe that no other scientific society has such spirit to move not only between countries of the same continent, but also between different continents like that accomplished by the AEHMS during a very short period little more than 20 years. This achievement and continuous success is really due to the Chief Editor's spirit and belief in connecting the world for better aquatic ecosystem health and management, with the aim to enforce research and development globally. The editorial team experience built during the past 20 years has contributed significantly to organizing the different AEHMS events world-wide with a very high standard of professionalism. One of the key persons in this team is Ms. Jennifer Lorimer, who has great patience for understanding the different cultures of different world populations which has contributed markedly to the success of communication and event planning.As a member of the Editorial board of the AEHMS, I would like to express my great admiration of the efforts of the AEHMS and its editorial team, as well as of the support of Taylor and Francis. Finally I wish all the best to Mohi Munawar, asking him to continue his mission in supporting scientific research everywhere in the world discovering new geographical areas where aquatic ecosystems need to be in better health and focusing on their resources as you always successfully did elsewhere.With my best wishes to the AEHMS on its 20th Anniversary.