marine forest, human impacts & climate change
Benvinguts! Bienvenidos! Welcome!
I am a marine scientist studying global change in coastal ecosystems.
I investigate cliamate change, environmental change and other human impacts in marine forests, foundation species of marine macrophytes, such as seagrasses and seaweeds.
My general approach consists of developing manipulative field and lab experiments in combination with observational field studies. Towards that purpose, I draw on techniques that span ecology, ecophysiology, biogeochemistry, and oceanography.
My research addresses questions in four main areas
Seascape ecology
community ecology
ecosystems resilience
coastal carbon cycling
Currently, I am a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Bodega Marine Laboratory of the University of California, Davis and at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, where I study how marine macrophytes influence seawater carbonate chemistry. In particular, how seagrass meadows and macroalgal beds (including kelp forests) can serve as natural tools to help to mitigate ocean acidification effects in coastal areas.
Previously, I did a PhD in seascape ecology at the Ecology Department of the University of Barcelona. I studied how the coastal landscape composition (which habitats are present in the coast) and configuration (how these habitats are spatially distributed) affect the functionality of coastal ecosystems. Specifically, I looked at how seagrass ecosystems spatial configuration and seagrass habitat fragmentation and patchiness affected main ecological processes within the habitat:
1) nutrient transfer and trophic interactions
2) blue carbon storage and burial in seagrass sediments
3) community structure effects on associated faunal assemblages
During all my career I have been extensively involved in monitoring programs and benthic habitat mapping projects in marine coastal areas.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Ecosystem resilience and functionality
Carbon ecosystem services
Ocean acidification buffers
Blue carbon
Multiple stressors
Climate change refugia
Coastal nutrient cycling
Disturbance ecology
Trophic interactions
Remote sensing and benthic habitat mapping
Monitoring the past and present to understand the future