The Team

CURRENT MEMBERS

	Xavier Turon Principal Investigator CEAB Project coordinator My research focuses on biology and ecology of benthic invertebrates, particularly ascidians, sponges and sea urchins. My taxonomic expertise is on ascidians, and they are my favourite beasts. Sponges and sea urchins came later, but earned their place in my heart, too.My main fields are population dynamics, reproductive biology, chemical ecology, larval biology and population genetics. I am fascinated by the way species and populations adapt to their environment, interact with each other, and are able to disperse from place to place. Thus, studying reproduction and population dynamics led me to analyze interactions and, particularly, the crucial role of allelochemicals in interspecific relationships. Larval biology followed naturally, as I realized that many of the processes that determine community dynamics occur at the first stages of development. The next step was to incorporate molecular tools to address simple, but as yet unanswered, questions: which species are you? where do you come from? who do you mate with? Recently, I have focused on molecular assessing of the diversity of benthic communities, in order to be able to study the hidden biodiversity, which is usually overlooked by conventional techniques.
	Marta Pascual Principal Investigator UB I’m a professor at the Universitat de Barcelona since 2001. My research focusses on population genetic studies of marine and terrestrial species to understand the processes shaping their genetic variation. Since my PhD I studied colonizing species by analyzing their spatial and seasonal distribution, competition with other native species, possible routes of colonization, population genetic diversity and the effect of recombination on adaptation. Since the late 90s I focus primarily on the study of marine organisms (sponges, corals, echinoderms, crustaceans, ascidians, fish and turtles), analyzing with mtDNA and microsatellite loci their population diversity and the effect of oceanographic discontinuities on population connectivity in the Atlantic-Mediterranean transition. Recently I’m interested in applying massive sequencing in non-model organisms to study dispersal and local adaptation genome wide as well as adaptation at the transcriptomic level.
	Iosune Uriz Emeritus Researcher My scientific contribution to the project was to ascertain particularities of sponge associated microbiota and their roles in the sponge ecology, distribution, and biological traits. My research focused on sponge-associated bacteria and archaea from both the Mediterranean and Indo-Pacific, ussing two approaches: i) wide exploration in contrasting environments, including multi-level invertebrate associations and ii) methodological and experimental studies on a set of sponge species harboring calcifying bacteria.
	Enrique Macpherson Senior Researcher I am doctor in Biology since 1977 (University of Barcelona) and Research Professor at the Center for Advanced Studies in Blanes, Spain (CEAB-CSIC). I have been working on fish management, fish ecology, including population genetics, as well as taxonomy, phylogeny and biogeography of crustacean decapods. I have coordinated some projects related with fish conservation, mostly on settlement and mortality patterns in protected and unprotected areas. In the present project, I am working on genetic structure and adaptation to environmental differences, including the potential effects of climate changes.
	Daniel Martin Senior Researcher I am Doctor in Biological Sciences (Ecology) and Scientific Researcher of the CSIC in the Marine Ecology Department of the CEAB, where I was Deputy director from 2000 to 2002 and Director since then until 2014. Currently, I am member of the Research Group “Molecular Ecology of the Marine Benthos”. With expertise in taxonomy, ecology and biology of marine benthic invertebrates, my research focuses especially on Annelid Polychaetes and in the study of inter-specific interactions involving these animals, particularly those developing intimate associations (i.e., symbiosis).
	Creu Palacín Senior Researcher My research interests range from meiofaunal communities dwelling in soft bottoms to littoral macrofaunal assemblies living on rocky benthic ecosystems.
	Francesc Mestres Senior Researcher I’m doctor in Biology from the University of Barcelona since 1988. My thesis project focused on the colonization of America by Drosophila subobscura using classical genetic markers. This species was found in the New World in 1978 and hence my interest in colonizing species / invaders. In my postdoc at the University of California at Irvine, I continued studying this topic, and later I started using molecular markers (nucleotide sequences of nuclear genes). I have also dealt with the issue of climate change by looking at changes in the chromosomes of D. subobscura in time and whether they vary according to the global warming expectations. Although I still have research projects using this species, I changed 'air' environment by 'marine' environment. I continue studying similar evolutionary problems, but using the Mediterranean crab Liocarcinus depurator. We want to analyze its population distribution in relation to the barriers created by ocean currents and the effect of physical parameters of the sea on their genetic variation (mtDNA sequences).
	Marc Rius Senior Researcher, University of Southampton My research broadly focuses on understanding the underlying ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that determine and maintain species ranges. My research group incorporates cutting-edge analytical and genetic techniques to conduct studies on community ecology, conservation biology, invasion biology, population genetics and taxonomy.
	Carles Carreras Senior Researcher My research focuses on biology and conservation of marine vertebrates using genetic tools. I have worked almost all my research career on marine turtles, as these charismatic and endangered marine vertebrates have very complex life cycles and long migrations, thus raising interesting research and conservation issues. More recently, I have started to work on demersal fishes, as their generally short life cycle and larval dispersal mechanisms add a new dimension to my research. My main interests include population structuring, the connectivity and the adaptation of the study species to changing environments, specially linked to global warming but also at an evolutionary scale. I am fascinated on how organisms disperse in the marine environment and their populations are shaped in relation to their biological aspects, the biogeographical barriers of the area and local adaptation. My most recent interest include the use of genome-wide next-generation sequencing as a powerful tool to answer my research questions.
	Owen Wangensteen Senior Researcher, UIT Artic University of Norway My research interests include ecology of marine benthic communities, molecular approaches to population structure and dynamics and assessment of the effects of Global Change on marine ecosystems. My favorite taxonomic group is Echinoderms. In recent times, I have been involved in developing new analytical methods and bioinformatics pipelines for Metabarcoding (massive molecular identification of thousands of species per sample) in marine benthic communities.
	Celia Schunter Senior Researcher, The University of Hong Kong Coming from a land-locked place, was always fascinated by the marine world. Early in her career, she started combining the study of marine organisms with genetic and molecular tools. She received her BSc in Marine Biology from James Cook University, Australia and her Masters and Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Barcelona, Spain. During her Postdoc, she used functional genomics to understand the effects of ocean acidification on fish within and across generations. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor at the Swire Institute of Marine Science at the University of Hong Kong, where her laboratory continues to explore the impacts of climate change on behaviour and population dynamics of marine organisms, including the underlying molecular mechanisms of adaptation.
	Susanna López-Legentil Senior Researcher, University of North Carolina at Wilmington My research interests focus on the following areas: Biology and ecology of invasive and key native ascidians. Stability and significance of symbiotic microbial communities Population connectivity and phylogeography at local and global scales Secondary metabolites as mediators of trophic interactions.
	Mari Carmen Pineda Postdoctoral Researcher, Australian Institute of Marine Science I obtained a PhD in 2012 which investigated the biology, phylogeography and resilience of the introduced ascidian Styela plicata. Since 2013 I have been researching the effects of dredging-related pressures on sponges. The primary focus of my research is to understand the impacts of natural and human pressures on marine invertebrates and their symbionts, in order to contribute to effective environmental management that aids the protection of marine ecosystems.
	Cinta Pegueroles Postdoctoral Researcher I am a biologist specialized in genetics and bioinformatics and my main research interests are population genomics, evolution and adaptation. My overall goal is to understand how genomes evolve using large-scale data. In particular, I am interested in understanding the genetic basis of adaptation and in deciphering the functionality of long non-coding genes, as well as their role in genome evolution and adaptation. To do so, I use both an evolutionary perspective that provides information of ancient events and a population perspective that provides information about more recent events.
	Nuria Raventos Postdoctoral Researcher I am doctor in Marine Sciences from the University of Barcelona since 2004. My thesis project focused on the reproduction patterns and early life stages ecology of a Mediterranean littoral nesting fish (Symphodus roissali). My interest was to understand the relationship between spawner abundance, propagules, and subsequent recruitment, and between recruitment and year class strength. In my Post Doc at the University of Perpignan I continued with this topic, focused mainly in the dispersal capabilities of the fish larvae assemblage. I have used the planktonic larval duration as a proxy for the dispersal and the connectivity patterns between populations. To attain this objective, I had to deal with the otoliths of the fish species, so I have specialized in the analyses of the microstructure and the macrostructure of these ear bones. More recently I am studying the effects of climate change on Mediterranean fishes by looking at changes in the duration of the larval period along a gradient of temperature.
	Héctor Torrado Postdoctoral Researcher The aim of my research is to study the genomic differences associated to the high mortality during the recruitment stage of littoral fishes and the patterns of distribution of the genomic variability in marine organisms by using demersal fishes in the Western Mediterranean as a case study.
	Adrià Antich PhD Student The aim of my PhD is to study the application of molecular methods (metabarcoding) to determine the biodiversity of marine benthic ecosistems. I also work on analisis methods and software development to study population genetics Western iberian Coast across the two main fronts of "Almeria-Oran" and "Ibiza channel" using metabarcoding data.
	Carles Galià-Camps PhD Student My thesis aims to answer what is the population structure of the species Styela plicata, a global invasive tunicate specie, by taking profit of genomic methodologies. Moreover, a temporal genomic, transcriptomic and microbiome analyses will be carried out to shed light on the processes involved in the invasiveness of S. plicata.
	Astrid Luna-Ortiz PhD Student My sphere of scientific interest lies in the conservation of vulnerable or endangered species using genetics/genomics technics as tools for designing strategies that allow their persistence in the ecosystem. My current research includes the conservation genomics -2b-RAD genomic sequencing- of the loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) in the Mediterranean Sea. For this, in my phD thesis, I will set out to evaluate new nesting and feeding sites, and the relationship of these patterns to climate change..
	Ariadna Colmenero TFG student I am currently in the fourth course of Biochemistry. My Bachelor’s thesis is focused on the connectivity in Atlantic–Mediterranean populations of the marine crab Geryon longipes. Moreover, my aim is to observe if the distribution of haplotypes of COI (Cytochrome Oxidase I) mitochondrial gene in this species, shows a geographic pattern. Following this objective, I work with a 572 bp sequence of this gene.
	David Bofias TFG student I am in the fourth course of Marine Sciences degree. My bachelor’s thesis is focused on the two well-known urchin species of the Mediterranean Sea: Arbacia lixula and Paracentrotus lividus. The rise of temperatures in the Mediterranean Sea, due to the global climate change, might be creating a favorable scenario for the development of the thermophile urchin Arbacia. The aim of this research is to determine the global population structure of Arbacia using genomic methodologies, and compare it with the Paracentrotus one.
	David Huertas TFG student I'm finishing the Environmental Science degree, making a final thesis about the adaptation of the sea urchin species Paracentrotus lividus and its genomic comparison with other sea urchin species. Using genetic and bioinformatic techniques I pretend to understand and classify the genomic differences of the species in different locations of Mediterranean sea and west Atlantic.

FORMER MEMBERS

	Rocío Pérez Former Postdoctoral Researcher My research at RSMAS (University of Miami, USA) focuses on adaptation of coral reef species of deep waters, and population genomics of the lionfish, an invasive species in the Caribbean. I am currently developing techniques of Genotyping by Sequencing (GBS) for several coral and fish species. Within the ChallenGen Project I have been developing research on population genetics and phylogeography of several echinoderm species, including sea stars, brittle stars and sea urchins, across the Atlanto-Mediterranean arch. Additionally, during the last years I have used transcriptomic data to characterise gene expression profiles in sea urchin tissues, as well as stress responses to rapid temperature shifts.
	Oriol Sacristán-Soriano Former Postdoctoral Researcher My investigation is framed by Marie S. Curie Actions (SCOOBA ref. 705464). This research focuses on the sensitivity of bioeroding sponges to climate change. I used targeted metagenomic and transcriptomic approaches to assess natural shifts in their microbiome structure and evaluate how sponges respond to thermal and pH stressors
	Alex Garcia Former Postdoctoral Researcher My PhD research focuses on biology, phylogeography and population genetics of two common Atlanto-Mediterranean starfish species. More specifically, I developed and used molecular tools to answer questions about connectivity and population structure. Besides, the study of population genetics led me to detect clonal lineages of sea stars and therefore to perform and investigate their patterns of longevity and the incidence of clonal reproduction along the species distribution.
	Víctor Ordóñez Former Postdoctoral Researcher In my PhD thesis, I dealt with the problem of invasive ascidians and the role of human being in introducing these species around the world. In particular, I focused my study on introduced ascidians in the Western Mediterranean. At present, another topic of my research is the study of population structure and connectivity as well as the adaptation of fishes and sea urchins, linked to a global environmental changing scenario in the Mediterranean Sea.
	Ferran Palero Former Postdoctoral Researcher My scientific career has focused on evolutionary genetics, covering from ancient divergences to contemporary population genetics. As a Beatriu de Pinos post-doctoral researcher at the CEAB, I focus on using molecular markers to study the evolution and define species limits in marine Crustacea (using phylogenetic methods) and characterizing the bacteria associated with marine species (using bioinformatics and metagenomics).
	Anna Barbanti Former PhD Student My PhD thesis focuses on the use of genetic tools to face different conservation issues affecting marine turtles. My research is divided in two main projects: the first project uses microsatellites and mtDNA markers to evaluate the outcome and the impact of a green turtle (Chelonia mydas) reintroduction program in the Cayman Islands, which has been active since the early 1970s. The second project implements 2b-RAD genomic sequencing on breeding and feeding Mediterranean populations of loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta), to define population structuring, identify Conservation Management Units and run Mixed Stock Analysis, in order to improve fishery management among the Mediterranean Basin.
	Maria Casso Former PhD Student The aim of my PhD is to assess adaptation issues and fine-scale patterns of genetic variation of recently introduced ascidians in the Mediterranean, developing SNP markers based on Next-Generation Sequencing technologies.
	Marta Turon Former PhD student My research focuses on the use of molecular tools to answer ecological questions. During my PhD thesis, I applied molecular tools to assess the impacts of anthropogenic activities on sponge biodiversity and the role that sponge associated microorganisms played in their ecological distribution. I developed a strong background in field work (experimental design, tissue and water sampling, ecological transects), in different lab techniques (DNA extractions and PCR), and in traditional taxonomy. Moreover, I also learnt and regularly used bioinformatic pipelines associated to metabarcoding and statistical analyses of community data. I am currently working as a post-doc researcher at the Genetics group at the Norwegian College of Fishery Science (UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø). In our current project we aim at monitoring the impacts of salmon aquaculture farms in marine ecosystems using environmental DNA metabarcoding and develop early detection systems for pathogens related to aquaculture.
	Beatriz Lorente Former TFM Student My Master Thesis focused in the comparison of the genetic structure of an introduced ascidian species (Styela plicata) over space (9 populations from Atlanto-Mediterranean harbours spanning ca. 1000 Km of coastline) and time (comparing the same populations in 2009 and 2014). We expected to find a highly dynamic system as a result of bottlenecks, genetic drift, and recurrent introductions between harbours.
	Miguel Angel Meca Former TFG Student My Degree thesis was focused on the biology and life cycle of the symbiotic annelid Oxydromus okupa (as O. humesi) supervised by Dr. Daniel Martin. After my graduation, I performed a complex morphometric approach to the two populations of this species known until that moment (Iberian vs. Congolese) and the results allowed the description of the Iberian population as new species in a paper published in Contributions to Zoology. Later, I achieved mastery in Biodiversity after the presentation of my Master thesis supervised by DM, which consisted in combining morphometry and phylogeography analyses of the three known populations of O. okupa to assess whether Host, Environment and its combination may be drivers of interpopulation variability. As a result of my academical training, my intellectual goals are focused on molecular tools to apply in systematics and evolutionary processes. Thus, I am currently collaborating with DM in some works, performing the phylogenetic analyses required for a robust establishment of a new species, that likely will conclude with the description of several new annelid species.
	Víctor Ojeda Former TFM Student In my Master Thesis I analyzed the spatial and temporal genetic variation of the populations of the marine crab Liocarcinus depurator across the three permanent or semipermanent oceanographic discontinuities found along the Western Mediterranean: Gibraltar Straits, Almeria-Oran Front and Ibiza Channel.
	Eva Rojo Former TFG Student I’m in my last year of Biochemistry degree, and in my Bachelor thesis I study the population structure and connectivity of two marine crabs. Currently, I work with nucleotide sequences of COI (Cytochrome Oxidase I) mitochondrial gene of Liocarcinus depurator from different Mediterranean samples. Furthermore, I analyze the same gene in the depth crab Geryon longipes.
	Maria Sellés Former TFG Student I’m in the third course of Biochemistry degree and my aim is to learn molecular genetic techniques that I’ll need next year for my Bachelor thesis. I’ll work with the marine crab Liocarcinus depurator. My objective will be to monitor the spatial and temporal variation of COI (Cytochrome Oxidase I) haplotypes in Mediterranean populations of this species.
	Dani Sanromán Former TFG Student The aim of my Bachelor thesis is to assess the detectability of fish species in water samples collected at different distances of hard-substrate benthic communities (both sciaphilic and photophilic) from the Cabrera island. To do that an emerging genetic method is being used (metabarcoding) which amplifies the fish DNA in the samples using vertebrate primers for the 12S gene.
	Clauria Lagares Former TFG student My Bachelor thesis was focused on the spatial and temporal genetic study of the marine crab Liocarcinus depurator in Mediterranean populations. For this purpose, a fragment of the COI (Cytochrome Oxidase I) mitochondrial gene was used. The main aim of this research was to obtain information on genetic structure and connectivity of populations separated by different oceanographic barriers. Also, I studied the nucleotide variability of this gene fragment in another crab species, Geryon longipes.
	Mireia Gonzalez Former TFG student The aim of my Bachelor thesis was to assess the dynamics of the main groups of Arthropoda settled in biological collectors sampled in Blanes harbour between April 2019 and April 2020. Results were compared to metabarcoding data obtained by other projects of the group during the same period of time. Biological collectors were collected outside the harbour too, so we could compare both communities of Arthropoda (inside and outside Blanes harbour).