Current scientific and technical staff
Jorge Mestre Tomás, MSc
Project: ProOceans (2021-2024)
Funding: Plan Nacional
Expertise: I am a data-driven marine scientist with a passion for analyzing biological data and contributing to open science. My background includes an MSc in Bioinformatics, where I worked with large datasets and explored transcriptomics using Python. I am currently completing an MSc in Biostatistics, looking forward to applying my statistical skills to marine biological research.
Angela Olvera, MSc
Project: Integrated Marine Ecosysem Assessments (iMARES) research group
Funding: Generalitat de Catalunya (SRG-2021)- 00435
Expertise: Project manager
Claudia Aparicio, MSc
Project: Towards the use of sentinel species and ecosystem modeling tools for adaptive and proactive marine conservation (SEASENTINELS)
Funding: PN2022 -Consolidación Investigadora-Subprograma Estatal de Incorporación- Programa Estatal para Desarrollar, Atraer y Retener Talento – PEICTI 2021-2023
Expertise: I am a marine conservationist with interest in understanding the surrounding natural environment, animal behaviour and seeking climate change solutions through research. My current research focuses on global change ecology, marine ecosystem modeling and conservation, with a special emphasis on marine turtle and penguin species diet patterns, aiming to provide a better understanding on these animals’ trophic ecologies and their responses to environmental changes.
Sara Mohamed Santamaría, MSc
Project: Assessment of potential interactions between the purse SEINErs fishery of Castellón and Endangered, Threatened, Protected species (2023) // Aproximaciones científicas en la implementación de estrategias marinas: herramientas de gestión (ACCION) (2024-2025)
Funding: Ocean Stewardship Fund MAVA Grant // Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico (MITERD) – Fondos de Recuperación.
Expertise: marine ecology, trophic ecology, outreach
José Manuel Reyes-González, PhD
Project: Juan de la Cierva fellow (2024-2025)
Funding: Juan de la Cierva 2022 -MCIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 & Unión Europea “NextGenerationEU/PRTR”.
Expertise: I am a behavioural ecologist and conservation biologist with a strong focus on using bio-logging as a tool to advance our understanding of the ecology of free-moving animals. I am particularly interested in how human-driven stressors may threaten top predators inhabiting dynamic marine ecosystems through direct or cascading effects. Furthermore, I have been passionate about animal migration since childhood, and I am deeply interested in unravelling the secrets of these amazing movements along ocean basins and land masses.
I possess high-level skills in various state-of-the-art analytical techniques, including quantitative modelling of movement and behaviour, spatial ecology, stable isotope analysis, and advanced statistical approaches. Additionally, I have extensive experience in fieldwork, leading numerous fieldwork campaigns to deploy tracking devices and collect biological samples from seabirds. On the desktop, I function as a data scientist, thriving on challenging assignments and enjoying data handling, especially with massive datasets.
My ultimate goal is to provide essential knowledge on functional ecology in marine ecosystems to enhance conservation strategies and management policies, fostering the sustainable use of the oceans.
Website:
Zuzana Zajková, PhD
Project: A Safe Operating Space for Penguins: fostering the present and future conservation of penguins and their associated marine systems (2023-2024)
Funding: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (PID2021-124831OA-I00)
Expertise: I am an ecologist with a strong background in data science. In my research, I focus on various aspects of the movement ecology of animals, particularly migration strategies and foraging patterns. My expertise lies in processing data from bio-logging devices to describe and model migratory routes, identify stopovers and residency in non-breeding areas, as well as their relationship with environmental variables. I am also passionate about data visualization, exploring new ways to create effective and beautiful graphics that turn data into accessible knowledge for the scientific community and the general public.
I have a particular interest in analysing activity patterns of animals to identify behavioural changes occurring through different stages of the life cycle, crucial knowledge for evaluating the impact of climate change and human disturbances on species sensitive to environmental changes. During my PhD at the University of Barcelona I mainly focused on the at-sea ecology of flying seabirds from tropical and temperate regions of the Atlantic. Later, during my postdoc at CEBC-CNRS in France, I began studying penguins, a group of non-flying seabirds with unique characteristics that make them excellent sentinels for monitoring the impact of climate change and fisheries in the Southern Ocean.
In my current postdoc at the ICM, I aim to compile the most comprehensive database of penguin tracking data to enhance our understanding of their at-sea distribution. This effort aims to contribute to improving marine conservation policies and safeguarding these sensitive species and their endangered habitats.
Website:
- Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Qgt6v0QAAAAJ
- ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7540-3651
- ResarchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Zuzana-Zajkova
Elena Lloret Lloret, PhD
Project: Mejora del conocimiento científico-técnico para la sostenibilidad de las pesquerías demersales del Mediterráneo occidental – SOSMED (2022-2025)
Funding: Ministerio de Agricultura, Ramaderia y Pesca (MAPA) – Fondos de Recuperación Europeos.
Expertise: marine ecology, seasonality of marine ecosystems, trophic ecology, ecosystem models
Maria Bas, PhD
Project: JdC postdoctoral position (2022-2024)
Funding: Ayudas para contratos Juan de la Cierva-formación 2020 MCIN/AEI y Unión Europea “NextGenerationEU/PRTR”.
Expertise: I am a marine ecologist specialised in trophic ecology and historical ecology, mastering trophic (Stable Isotopes Analysis), temporal (SIBER), and genetics (DNA extraction and amplification) techniques. These skills are central to study the ecology of wildlife and predict the impact of environmental changes and anthropogenic actions to design precise management programs. I have special interest in understanding the ecological role of marine organisms and their trophic links in the marine food web and how natural factors and human activities may change these processes. My research is developed within a multi-interdisciplinary framework to provide holistic solutions to manage conservation problems in an ecosystem approach. I obtained my PhD degree in Biology at National University of Mar del Plata and it was focused in marine ecosystem from South-Western Atlantic Ocean. After my PhD, I have done more research at the University of Barcelona studying the trophic ecology of Magellanic Penguins and Mediterranean turtles from different periods. I am a member of Q-MARE international group from Past Global Changes as a leader. The aim is to disentangle climate and pre-industrial human impacts on marine ecosystems and I collaborate with scientists from all around the world. Apart from this historical ecology research I am also interested in maritime spatial planning, because I was involved in set the foundations from the maritime spatial planning for the Catalan Government.
Website:
Miquel Ortega Cerdà, PhD
Project: Mejora del conocimiento científico-técnico para la sostenibilidad de las pesquerías demersales del Mediterráneo occidental – SOSMED (2022-2023) // Achieving good environmental status for maintaining ecosystem services by assessing integrated impacts of cumulative pressures Ges4Seas (2023-2026)
Funding: Ministerio de Agricultura, Ramaderia y Pesca (MAPA) – Fondos de Recuperación Europeos // Horizon EC 2020 – HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-01-04
Expertise: Bachelor’s degree in physics (UB). Master in Ecological Economics and Environmental Management (UAB), Director of Operations and Innovation (ESADE), PhD Environmental Sciences (UAB).
Topics: Fisheries food chain, fisheries and marine conservation policies, ecological economics, political ecology.
Website:
Lucia Espasandin Soneria, MSc
Project: Climate Change and Future Marine Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity (FutureMares) – 2022-2023 // Achieving good environmental status for maintaining ecosystem services by assessing integrated impacts of cumulative pressures (Ges4Seas) – 2023-2024
Funding: Horizon EC 2020 – Topic LC-CLA-06-2019, H2020-LC-CLA-2018-2019-2020 // Horizon EC 2020 – HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-01-04
Expertise: Recreational Fisheries, Vulnerability analyses, Climate Change, Socioeconomic analyses
Valerio Sbragaglia, PhD
Project: Juan de la Cierva-incorporación 2019 (2020-2022) // Ramon y Caja Fellowship (2023-2027)
Funding: Ayudas para contratos Juan de la Cierva-incorporación 2019 MICINN // MICINN
Expertise: I am an integrative marine ecologist with a strong interdisciplinary interest in fisheries. My current integrative line of research can be subdivided in two major branches. The first one focuses on behavioural ecology and fisheries-induced evolution. In particular, I aim to understand how animal behaviour affects fisheries and ecological processes, and vice versa, how fishing affects animal behaviour and thus ecological and evolutionary dynamics. The second one aims to integrate citizen science and digital data from social media into marine ecology and fisheries management. In particular, I am using the emerging approaches of conservation culturomics and iEcology (use of digital data for studying human-nature interactions and ecological processes) in a marine recreational fishing context.
Francisco José Ramirez Benitez, PhD
Project: TRIATLAS (2020-2021) // Severo Ochoa postdoctoral position (2021-2022) // Ramon y Cajal Fellowship (2022-2023) // Permanent position (CT, 2024)
Funding: Horizon EC 2020-Topic: BG-08-2018-2019-RIA- SEP-210482854 // MICINN // MICINN
Expertise:
My research focuses on global change ecology and marine biodiversity conservation, with a special emphasis on investigating the long-term trends in key environmental and biological variables in the world’s oceans; identifying those marine areas most at risk due to climate and human-driven environmental changes; evaluating wildlife responses to environmental changes in highly-impacted marine systems; and designing suitable management alternatives to enhance ecosystems’ resilience to climate change and to ensure a sustainable balance between marine biodiversity conservation and human use of ecosystem services. Over the last several years, my research has contributed to advancing the state-of-the-art in these fields by producing the most spatially explicit assessments on climate and human impacts in the marine environment; providing new insights on the biological consequences of climate change and overfishing; and devising new approaches to identifying key areas for marine biodiversity conservation. To accomplish these goals, I have worked at different levels of ecological complexity (from individuals to communities and ecosystems), with different study models (e.g. seabirds, cetaceans and waterbirds), and in various biogeographical areas (from template to polar regions).
- WoS Researcher ID (Publons): I-3553-2014
- SCOPUS Author ID: 55612439700
- ORCID: 0000-0001-9670-486X
Riikka Puntila, PhD
Project: Alternative histories and changes in coastal ecosystems – defining potential for recovery (2022-2025)
Funding: Research Council of Finland
Expertise: marine ecology, trophic interactions, ecosystem modelling, Baltic Sea, Ecopath with Ecosim, species invasions
My research interests are in marine food web ecology, and how disturbances impact their functions. Currently, I am concentrating in developing tools to balance sustainable use of marine resources and ecosystem functioning in the Baltic Sea. In my Masters’ thesis research I studied trophic interactions in coral reef setting. For my PhD research I studied on the various interactions of aquatic non-indigenous species in the Baltic Sea coastal food webs. Since my PhD I have been working on developing ecosystem models for the coastal systems in the Baltic Sea, utilizing Ecopath with Ecosim and Ecospace (EwE) approach. These models can be used in a variety of settings, including ecosystem-based management.
Website:
Konstantina Agiadi, PhD
Project: Deep-time Climate Change Impact on Marine Food Webs (2020-2022) // Marie Curie Fellowship (2023-2027)
Funding: Lise Meitner Fellowship project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) // EU H2020 program
Expertise: geologist, paleontologist with expertise of fossil fish otoliths
Camila Artana, PhD
I conducted research at ICM in the IMARES team between 2022 and 2023, supported by a Severo Ochoa and a Marie Curie postdoc.
I am currently working in France at LOCEAN, Sorbonne University, and closely collaborate with the IMARES team. I am a physical oceanographer motivated by climate change and addressing ocean processes covering a wide range of scales, from basin scale to a few kilometers, and from decades to hours. I am interested in the link between physics and biology. In particular, I am currently working on ocean extreme events and their potential impacts on marine ecosystems.
Jeroen Steenbeek, MSc
Funding: EU Horizon 2020, NIVA (Norway), MINECO – Plan Nacional, EII SMA
Expertise: Spatial-temporal EwE modelling, GIS analyses, .NET programming, Ecopath International Initiative (EII) coordination.
Past scientific and technical staff
Odei Garcia Garin, PhD
Project: Margarita Salas postdoctoral position (2022-2024)
Funding: Ayudas para contratos Margarita Salas 2022 financiadas por el Ministerio de Universidades y la Unión Europea Next GenerationEU/PRTR y por el Plan de recuperación, transformación y resiliencia, y por la convocatoria complementaria de ayudas para la recualificación del sistema universitario español para 2021-2023
Expertise: I am a marine biologist specialised in the occurrence, distribution and abundance of marine litter and its impact on marine fauna. I’m focused on the analysis of plasticizers, microplastics, trace elements, the monitoring of floating marine macro-litter and marine vertebrates using drones and vessels, and the modelling of microplastics through the marine food web. These skills are key to assessing the impact of anthropogenic activities on marine wildlife and designing specific management programs. I obtained my PhD in Biodiversity at the University of Barcelona with an Excellent Cum Laude with a dissertation entitled “Interdisciplinary evaluation of the presence and distribution of marine litter (floating macro-litter, microplastics and plastic additives), and its impacts on marine vertebrates”.
Marina Pastor, PhD
Project: Aproximaciones científicas en la implementación de estrategias marinas: herramientas de gestión (ACCION) (2023-2024)
Funding: Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico (MITERD) – Fondos de Recuperación.
Expertise: marine ecology, spatial ecology of gelatinous zooplankton, jellyfish taxonomy
Dorota Szalaj, PhD
Funding: Ministerio de Agricultura, Ramaderia y Pesca (MAPA) – Fondos de Recuperación Europeos // Ayudas para contratos Juan de la Cierva-formación 2021 MCIN/AEI y Unión Europea “NextGenerationEU/PRTR”.
Expertise: food web modelling, small pelagic fish, fisheries management
Camila Artana, PhD
Funding: Severo Ochoa ICM-CSIC // HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01
Expertise: I am a physical oceanographer and my work is mainly concerned with the dynamics of the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean, focusing on the strong western boundary currents. My current research focuses on Marine Heat Waves along the South American coast. I’m particularly interested in their predictability and their impacts on marine ecosystems. I wish to contribute to our understanding of ocean dynamics and their role in climate and marine ecosystems.
Laura Julià, MSc
Funding: Horizon EC 2020-Topic: BG-08-2018-2019-RIA- SEP-210482854 // Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Proyectos de I+D+I (RETOS-PID2020-118097RB-I00)
Expertise: Statistics, Multivariate Analysis, Regression Analysis, Parametric Inference, Distance Based Trajectory Clustering, Factorial Designs
Joan Gimenez, PhD
Funding: MINECO – Plan Nacional // Generalitat de Catalunya – FEMP EU // Ayudas para contratos Juan de la Cierva-formación 2020 MICINN
Expertise: Conservation ecologist specialized in trophic ecology, spatial ecology and marine conservation planning of marine top and mesopredators, mastering trophic, spatial, and abundance techniques. These skills are central to study the ecology of wildlife and predict the impact of environmental changes and anthropogenic actions to design precise management programs. He has special interest in understanding the ecological role of marine organisms, their distribution patterns and their trophic links in the marine food web that allows their persistence and how natural factors and human activities may change these processes. His research is developed within a multi technique framework to provide holistic solutions to manage conservation problems in an ecosystem-based approach. He obtained his PhD degree in Biodiversity at University of Barcelona with an Excellent Cum laude with the dissertation of “Ecology and Conservation of cetacean in southern Iberian Waters”.
Jennifer Rehren, PhD
Funding: DFG Fellowship (Germany) and National Geographic Explorer Grant
Expertise: Spatial modelling, food web modelling
Eneko Bachiller Otamendi, PhD
Funding: MINECO – Plan Nacional
Expertise: Stomach content analyses, ecology of small pelagic fish
Marta Albo, PhD
Funding: MINECO – Plan Nacional // EU EASME/EMFF– European Commission Tender
Expertise: Stomach content analyses, stable isotope analyses, energy content, ecology of small pelagic fish
John Gabriel Ramírez, PhD
Funding: EU EASME/EMFF– European Commission Tender
Expertise: Stock assessment analyses
Daniel Vilas González, MSc
Funding: NIVA Norway // Horizon EC 2020
Expertise: Spatial ecology, food web modelling
Joan Josep Navarro Bernabe, PhD
Funding: EU Marie Curie CIG grant
Expertise: Stable Isotope Analyses, spatial ecology, telemetry, seabird ecology, sharks ecology