Research projects

Title: SEASentinels: towards the use of sentinel species and ecosystem modeling tools for adaptive and proactive marine conservation

[Proyecto de Consolidación Investigadora, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; CNS2022-135631].

Centre: ICM-CSIC.

Duration: 2023-2025.

P.I.: F. Ramírez

Despite their paramount importance for the maintenance of life and human wellbeing, oceanic systems are among the most complex, poorly understood and impacted of Earth’s biomes. Identifying present and future key marine areas and species that require specific management and conservation actions is a major societal challenge that can contribute to adapt and mitigate environmental consequences of Global Environmental Change (GEC); and move towards the necessary shift to sustainability. However, this represents a major challenge for marine conservation today because of the lack of holistic approaches based on the combination of reliable spatial-temporal information on the simultaneous distribution of key marine species and main stressors in the complex, remote and vast oceans. Through this project, we aim to fill a gap of knowledge in the southern hemisphere and contribute to the present and future conservation and sustainable use of marine communities and ecosystem services of this valuable ecosystem. We will focus on penguins as ‘sentinel’ species for environmental health monitoring. Penguins are widely distributed through the southern hemisphere, and, because of their charismatic appeal, they may act as “ambassadors” and play a vital role in education to help explain environmental issues to the public. Penguins are facing severe threats and deserve conservation priority, but may also act as “umbrella/flagship” species and promote the conservation of key marine ecosystems while supporting living resources and, therefore, essential economic, nutritional, recreational and health needs of societies. We will combine the most comprehensive dataset on penguin biology and ecology (e.g. diets, dynamics, and distributions) with the most novel and finer spatially explicit assessments for climate impacts and human stressors within cutting-edge, spatial-temporal marine ecosystem modelling tools. We will hindcast and forecasts penguin responses to different scenarios of climate change and human driven pressures, contributing to the scientific capability to project what the future marine ecosystems in the southern hemisphere may look like and how different scenarios may play out. The project will develop, therefore, the necessary framework and scientific knowledge to provide managers, citizens and stakeholders with key information to set effective management and conservation actions that help preserve the highly valuable marine ecosystems and the associated ecosystem services of the Southern Ocean.

Title: SOSPEN: A Safe Operating Space for Penguins: fostering the present and future conservation of penguins and their associated marine systems

[Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica, Técnica y de Innovación; PID2021-124831OA-I00].

Centre: ICM-CSIC.

Duration: 2022-2025.

P.I.: F. Ramírez

Oceans provide humans with natural benefits such as seafood provisioning, carbon storage and climate regulation—the so-called ecosystems services. However, despite their paramount importance for the maintenance of life and human wellbeing, oceanic systems are among the most complex, poorly understood and impacted biomes. Identifying present and future key marine areas and species that require specific management and conservation actions is a major societal challenge that can contribute to adapt and mitigate environmental consequences of Global Environmental Change (GEC); and move towards the necessary shift to sustainability. However, this may represent a major challenge for marine conservation today because of the lack of holistic approaches based on the combination of reliable spatial-temporal information on the simultaneous distribution of key marine species and main stressors in the complex, remote and vast oceans. Through this project, we aim to fill a gap of knowledge in the southern hemisphere and contribute to the present and future conservation and sustainable use of marine communities and ecosystem services of this valuable ecosystem. We will focus on penguins as ‘sentinel’ species for environmental health monitoring. Penguins are widely distributed through the southern hemisphere, and, because of their charismatic appeal, they may act as “ambassadors” and play a vital role in education to help explain environmental issues to the public. Penguins are facing severe threats and deserve conservation priority, but may also act as “umbrella/flagship” species and promote the conservation of key marine ecosystems while supporting living resources and, therefore, essential economic, nutritional, recreational and health needs of societies. We will combine the most comprehensive dataset on penguin biology and ecology (e.g. diets, dynamics, and distributions) with the most novel and finer spatially explicit assessments for climate impacts and human stressors within cutting-edge, spatial-temporal marine ecosystem modelling tools. We will hindcast and forecasts penguin responses to different scenarios of climate change and human driven pressures, contributing to the scientific capability to project what the future marine ecosystems in the southern hemisphere may look like and how different scenarios may play out. The project will provide, therefore, the necessary framework and scientific knowledge to enrol citizens and stakeholders in reliable and effective management and conservation actions to preserve the highly valuable marine ecosystems and the associated ecosystem services.

Title: PROOCEANS: Fostering the capacity of marine ecosystem models to PROject the cumulative effects of global change and plausible future OCEANS

[Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Proyectos de I+D+I (RETOS-PID2020-118097RB-I00)].

Centre: ICM-CSIC.

Duration: 2021-2024.

P.I.: Marta Coll

To obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the functioning of marine ecosystems, and the impacts that humans may pose on them, we need to adopt a multidisciplinary view of the ocean as a social-ecological system. This calls for powerful integrative analyses and modelling approaches for digital representations of the oceans. However, despite the unprecedented development of Earth System Models (ESMs) and Marine Ecosystem Models (MEMs), available tools have still limitations in terms of their ability to evaluate the cumulative impacts of global change on marine ecosystems over time and space.
To move forward, the capabilities of the state-of-the-art MEMs need to be reinforced in three main fronts that we will pilot under ProOceans: a) model development, to incorporate key ecological processes and to better project where and how marine species and marine ecosystems will be under certain future global change scenarios; b) model validation, to quantify the ability of MEMs to replicate the past and to develop various uncertainty analyses to evaluate the robustness of model results; and c) model applicability, to foster the capacity of MEMs to represent the cumulative effects of human activities and climate change upon marine ecosystems, and MEM usability to test relevant management questions within a context of global change.
ProOceans will advance the capacity of the previous model EcoOcean, a global Marine Ecosystem Model, to pilot solutions to these challenges. ProOceans will improve the mechanisms in EcoOcean to project species distributions and ecosystem changes by: a) including how species may adapt to local changing conditions, and how species will disperse and invade new area; b) expanding EcoOcean with the ability to consider changes in ocean oxygen levels, sea ice distributions, and salinity gradients in addition to its current consideration of marine temperatures and primary production; and c) expanding EcoOcean with the ability to consider the negative impacts of fisheries, coastal degradation due to eutrophication, and habitat change and loss due to exploitation of deep-sea mineral resources and energy extraction. ProOcean will then use the improved MEM to test alternative management scenarios including protection, mitigation and socioeconomic adaptations. Last, to assess the improvement of our new modelling capabilities as well as facilitating transparency in the interpretation and communication of results, ProOceans will use robust and novel state-of-the-art spatial-temporal techniques (such as Hierarchical Bayesian models) and software development paradigms to advance the ability to validate MEM results, and to advance the quantification of uncertainty in parameterization, structure of internal processes and hypotheses, and responses to external drivers.

We expect that ProOceans will improve the ability of EcoOcean to support sustainable use of marine resources and ecosystems, with a global and regional scale perspective, and to allow exploration of alternative management measures for mitigation and adaptation to future ocean conditions. We also hope that ProOceans will raise the standard for global ecosystem modelling to better contribute to management advice at the start of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).

Title: MarinePlan: Improved transdisciplinary science for effective ecosystem-based maritime spatial planning and conservation in European Seas

[Horizon, Grant agreement 101059407]

Centre: ICM-CSIC.

Duration: 2022-2025.

P.I.: M. Coll (Vanessa Stelzenmüller, EU coordinator)

Website

The MarinePlan project aims to develop the science base for ecosystem-based MSP and to provide guidance for its practical implementation in European Seas to support the European Green Deal and the Biodiversity Strategy. The project contributes to the EU demand for guidance on integrated planning to safeguard biodiversity loss and ecosystem functioning by developing tools and best practice standards.

Title: GES4SEAS: Achieving good environmental status for maintaining ecosystem services by assessing integrated impacts of cumulative pressures

[Horizon, Grant agreement 101059877]. Centre: ICM-CSIC.

Duration: 2022-2026.

P.I.: M. Coll (Angel Borja, EU coordinator)

Website

Human activities exert great pressures on the health of our marine environment, its biodiversity and the functioning of its ecosystem. The EU-funded project GES4SEAS will inform and guide marine governance with a view to minimising these pressures and their impacts to ensure continued provision of ecosystem services. It will develop, test, demonstrate and upscale an innovative and flexible toolbox relevant to adaptive ecosystem-based management. This will support Good Environmental Status in the context of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and support policies at national, European and international levels. GES4SEAS solutions will be tested and demonstrated at 11 learning sites, including one in the Caribbean Sea.

Title: FutureMARES: Climate Change and Future Marine Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity

[H2020, Grant agreement 869300].

Centre: ICM-CSIC.

Duration: 2020-2024.

P.I.: M. Coll (Myron Peck, EU coordinator)

Website

Marine and transitional waters support a large portion of the global biodiversity. Harbouring key climate-regulating processes and habitats, they contribute to worldwide food security, in addition to other valuable economic and well-being services and resources. The EU-funded FutureMARES project will deliver new solutions to climate change challenges. This highly multidisciplinary project will investigate socially and economically viable nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation. Solutions will include the restoration of habitat-forming species that can buffer coastal habitats from climate change effects and improve seawater quality. Conservation actions and sustainable, ecosystem-based harvesting (capture and culture) of seafood are also a project priority. Overall, the aim is to safeguard these ecosystems’ natural capital, biodiversity and services.

Title: TRIATLAS: South and Tropical Atlantic – climate-based marine ecosystem prediction for sustainable management

[H2020 BG-08-2018-2019-RIA- SEP-210482854].

Centre: ICM-CSIC.

Duration: 2019-2023. P.I.: M. Coll (Noel Keenlyside and Dr. Heino Fock, EU coordinators)

Website

Human activities such as intense fishing and coastal development are altering the Atlantic marine ecosystems around the South and Tropical Atlantic. The EU-funded TRIATLAS project aims to study the current situation of the Atlantic Ocean’s marine ecosystem and predict future changes. A range of African, European, and South American institutions specialised in climate change, oceanography and social sciences, as well as local stakeholders will be engaged in the project. TRIATLAS will also work closely with relevant European Commission services. The project will observe the impact of pollution and climate change on the marine ecosystem to present the first prognosis for the next 40 years for the whole Atlantic. This will aid in sustainable management of human activities.

Research projects, complete list

Un Espacio Operativo Seguro para los Pingüinos: Contribución a la conservación presente y futura de los pingüinos y sus sistemas marinos asociados [Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica, Técnica y de Innovación; PID2021-124831OA-I00]. Centre: ICM-CSIC. Duration: 2022-2025. P.I.: F. Ramírez

Contrato de Apoyo Tecnológico: “EVALUACIÓN DE LA BIOMASA DISPONIBLE/PRESENTE DE LAS PRINCIPALES PRESAS DE PEQUEÑOS PECES PELÁGICOS UTILIZADOS POR LAS AVES MARINAS COMO FUENTE DE ALIMENTO DURANTE EL PERIODO REPRODUCTOR 2022 EN LA ZEPA ES0000512” Centre: ICM-CSIC. Duration: 2021-2024. P.I.: F. Ramírez

ProOceans: Fostering the capacity of marine ecosystem models to PROject the cumulative effects of global change and plausible future OCEANS [Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica, Técnica y de Innovación; RETOS-PID2020-118097RB-I00]. Centre: ICM-CSIC. Duration: 2021-2024. P.I.: M. Coll & J.M. Bellido

Becas de introducción a la investigación JAE Intro ICU 2021, JAEICU-21- ICM-11. Centre: ICM-CSIC. Duration: 2021-2022. P.I.: F. Ramírez

Becas de introducción a la investigación JAE Intro SOMdM 2021, JAE-SOMdM21-80. Centre: ICM-CSIC. Duration: 2021-2022. P.I.: F. Ramírez

GES4SEAS: Achieving Good Environmental Status for maintaining ecosystem SErvices, by ASsessing integrated impacts of cumulative pressures [Horizon, Grant agreement 101059877]. Centre: ICM-CSIC. Duration: 2022-2026. P.I.: M. Coll (Angel Borja, EU coordinator)

MarinePlan: Improved transdisciplinary science for effective ecosystem-based maritime spatial planning and conservation in European Seas [Horizon, Grant agreement 101059407]. Centre: ICM-CSIC. Duration: 2022-2025. P.I.: M. Coll (Vanessa Stelzenmüller, EU coordinator)

FutureMARES: Nature-based solutions for marine conservation [H2020, Grant agreement 869300]. Centre: ICM-CSIC. Duration: 2020-2024. P.I.: M. Coll (Myron Peck, EU coordinator)

TRIATLAS: South and Tropical Atlantic climate-based marine ecosystem prediction for sustainable management [H2020 BG-08-2018-2019-RIA- SEP-210482854]. Centre: ICM-CSIC. Duration: 2019-2023. P.I.: M. Coll (Noel Keenlyside and Dr. Heino Fock, EU coordinators)

Sustainability for Mediterranean Hotspots in Andalusia Integraing Lifewatch ERIC (SUMHAL). SUMHAL- WP4 - LT3 - Initiative 2: Monitor Anthropogenic Impacts: Achieving (WP 4 LWE2103000). WBS 4.4 Seabirds. Centre: Estación Biológica de Doñana. Duration: 2020-2023. P.I.: Manuela G. Forero

Los arrozales del delta del Ebro como ecosistema clave para la especiación y biodisponibilidad del mercurio [Ministerio de Economia, Industria Y Competitividad; CGL2016-80963-R]. Centre: University of Barcelona. Duration: 2017-2020. P.I.: C. Sanpera

Biologia i Ecologia Evolutives dels Tetrápodes. Aplicacions a la conservació [Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR); 2017 SGR 01611]. Centre: University of Barcelona. Duration: 2017-2019. P.I.: C. Sanpera

Responses to a sea of changes: Oceanographic drivers of little penguin performance [Phillip Island Nature Park, Australia]. Centre: Phillip Island Nature Park. Duration: 2016. P.I.: F. Ramírez

ECOPOTENTIAL: Improving future ecosystem benefits through earth observations [H2020 No. 641762]. Centre: EBD-CSIC. Duration: 2016-2017. P.I.: J. Bustamante

Sentinels of the seas: seabirds as biomonitors of climate and human impacts on the Earth’s oceans [EBD proposal call "Microproyectos" financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the Severo Ochoa Program for Centres of Excellence in R+D+I (SEV-2012-0262)]. Centre: EBD-CSIC. Duration: 2016-2017. P.I.: M.G. Forero

Investigating the origin of the nutrients sources in Doñana using stable isotopes [EBD proposal call "Microproyectos" financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the Severo Ochoa Program for Centres of Excellence in R+D+I (SEV-2012-0262)]. Centre: EBD-CSIC. Duration: 2015-2016. P.I.: A. Green

Acuicultura y delfines: colaboración en la creación de bases científicas para una gestión en Red Natura 2000 [Fundación Biodiversidad]. Centre: ANSE. Duration: 2014. P.I.: P. García Moreno

Abundancia y distribución de depredadores apicales en el medio marino de Doñana: interacción con actividades humanas y sensibilidad a alteraciones del medio [Compañía Española de Petróleos, S.A. (CEPSA, S.A.)]. Centre: EBD-CSIC. Duration: 2011–2015. P.I.: M.G. Forero

Determining the ecological risk of fishing activity on marine predators [EBD proposal call "Microproyectos" financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the Severo Ochoa Program for Centres of Excellence in R+D+I (SEV-2012-0262)]. Centre: EBD-CSIC. Duration: 2013-2015. P.I.: M.G. Forero

EcoGenes. Adapting to Global Change in the Mediterranean hotspot: from genes to ecosystems [Project 7FP Regpot]. Centre: EBD-CSIC. Duration: 2011–2013. P.I.: J.J. Negro

Evaluación de la Ecología Trófica de la Comunidad de Cetáceos del Golfo de Cádiz [Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Plan Nacional de I+D+i)]. Centre: EBD-CSIC. Duration: 2011–2013. P.I.: R. de Stephanis

El papel del arrozal en la ecología trófica y reproductiva de la gaviota de Audouin (Larus audouinii) en el Delta del Ebro [Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Plan Nacional de I+D+i)]. Centre: University of Barcelona. Duration: 2009–2011. P.I.: C. Sanpera

Evaluación del impacto ambiental del mercurio en ecosistemas de alto interés ecológico. Subproyecto 1. [Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Plan Nacional de I+D+i)]. Centre: University of Barcelona. Duration: 2008–2010. P.I.: C. Sanpera

Efecto de la clausura de un vertedero en la población de gaviota patiamarilla (Larus michahellis lusitanus) en Gipuzkoa. [Sociedad de Ciencias Aranzadi]. Centre: University of Barcelona. Duration: 2010–2010. P.I.: C. Sanpera

Conservación de la Garcera de Santiago de Chikly (Túnez) en el Marco del Programa Azahar: Biomarcadores y contaminantes como potenciadores de su interés ecoturístico y medioambiental. [Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia. SPGC – Programa Nacional de Promoción General del Conocimiento. CGL2004-02238]. Centre: University of Barcelona. Duration: 2004–2007. P.I.: X. Ruiz

Aplicación de biomarcadores a la gestión de una especie problemática (Larus cachinnans). [Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología. Programa Nacional de Recursos Naturales. REN2003-07050/GLO]. Centre: University of Barcelona. Duration: 2003–2006. P.I.: X. Ruiz