International 6th scientific and expert conference Adria Climate 2025

The 6th International Scientific and Expert Conference Climate Change and Preservation of Marine Ecosystems in the Adriatic Sea – Adria Climate 2025 was held in Crikvenica, Croatia, from 2 to 5 October 2025.

The event, organized by the University of Zadar, Aquarium Pula, the Marine Education Centre Pula, and the Ruđer Bošković Institute, in collaboration with numerous Croatian research and educational institutions, brought together more than one hundred scientists and experts from across the Adriatic region. The conference aimed to raise awareness of the impacts of climate change and human activities on the Adriatic Sea and to promote the exchange of scientific knowledge on adaptation, sustainable management, and conservation of marine ecosystems – in the spirit of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030), which the conference particularly highlighted.

Within the session on climate change impacts on biological processes, researchers from the Marine Biology Station Piran, Dr. Janja Francé and Dr. Patricija Mozetič, in collaboration with Croatian and Italian partners, presented two contributions: “Disrupted periodicity and weakened connectivity: Phytoplankton dynamics under climate pressure in the northern Adriatic” and “Contrasting patterns of oceanographic properties and plankton dynamics in the northern and southern Adriatic under climate change.” Both studies address the influence of meteorological, hydrological, and oceanographic factors on plankton communities, highlighting how ongoing climate change is altering the ecological dynamics of the northern and southern Adriatic.