“…In the northern Adriatic ecosystems and the GoT area, a review of numerous long term studies on river discharg, oceanographic features, plankton, fish and benthic compartments, collected since the 1970s revealed significant changes in mechanisms and trophic structures [53,73]. In detail, a gradual increase in eutrophication phenomena, characterized by significant hypoxic events at the bottom, was recorded during the 1970s until the mid-1980s [74,75,76], followed by a reversal of the trend, particularly marked in the 2000s [66,77]. This trend was attributed to a combination of the reduction in anthropogenic impact, mainly due to a substantial decrease of the phosphorus loads, and of climatic modifications, resulting in the decline in atmospheric precipitations and, consequently, of runoff [78,79].…”