Marine Community Ecology and Conservation

Marine Conservation

jocarher — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 18:49:22 +0000

Place Based Management of Marine Ecosystems, Marine Protected Areas, Human dimensions, Sea Ethics

Human Impacts on Marine Ecosystems

jocarher — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 18:45:08 +0000

Classes focus on the main impacts on Marine Ecosystems: Fisheries and Climate Change. Describing the complexity and design studies to detect impacts.

Marine Zoology: Atlanto-Mediterranean Diversity

jocarher — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 18:24:34 +0000

Marine Organism Diversity and the biology and ecology of important species of the Sponges, Corals, Annelids, Mollusk, Crustaceans, Echinoderms, Tunicate, Fishes, Birds and Mammals.

Zoology I

jocarher — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 12:41:18 +0000

Classes of Animal Diversity, Origin of Metazoa and Biology of the following groups: Porifera, Cnidarians, Ctenophores, Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, Gnathifera, Gastrotricha, Scalidophora, Nemertina, Anelidae, Sipuncula, Mollusk, Briozoa, Brachiopoda, Foronidea, Entoprocta, Echinodermata and Hemichordata.

Marine Biology

jocarher — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 12:40:58 +0000

Classes on Marine Biology: Concept, History and Evolution; Abiotic and Biotic Characteristics of the Marine Environment and Human Activities and Impacts.

Cover of Journal of Plankton Research

jocarher — Mon, 08 Jun 2020 08:30:41 +0000

Cover story is Hernadez et al., “Planktonic stages of the ecologically important sea urchin, Diadema africanum: larval performance under near future ocean conditions”

https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/fbaa016 Have a look!

ADAPTIVE: how marine invertebrates will adapt to future environmental changes?

jocarher — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 16:37:56 +0000

2018 – PRESENT Understanding the underlaying mechanisms of regional/local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity of marine organisms, and how these mechanisms generate functional variability and buffering traits to face environmental gradients is not only important to interpret current biogeographical patterns but also to make predictions about the future effects of environmental shifts and climate change, to develop proper management and conservation strategies, and finally to mitigate further impacts of anthropogenic activities. The new project lead by Dr. Rocío Pérez-Portela and Dr. José Carlos Hernández will try, in the coming years, to disentangle the genetic and ecological mechanisms behind the adaptation of marine invertebrates to their changing environment.

Web of our project at the new Marine Observatory in La Palma Island

jocarher — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 18:47:43 +0000

We have launched our new project web site. Please, explore the Future Oceans in La Palma Island

Cover of Journal of Experimental Biology

jocarher — Sat, 08 Sep 2018 09:14:10 +0000

Not every day you get a cover of your favorite animal in a prestigious journal!

The journal cover is related to the recent paper we have published in the Journal of Experimental Biology about the vision of Diadema africanum. This sea urchin waves its sharp, venomous spines at approaching enemies and can move to avoid bright light, in spite of lacking eyes. We have shown that it uses resolving vision to approach dark objects. The spatial resolution is very coarse and is consistent with a tube-foot receptor based system, as proposed elsewhere.

Marine Biodiversity of the Future Oceans

jocarher — Fri, 18 May 2018 15:25:05 +0000

2017-2018 The impact of how ocean acidification (OA) will affect the biodiversity and functionality of marine ecosystems is very uncertain. Laboratory approaches are able to predict impacts at the organism level, however to scale up to marine communities studies it is far more complicated. A new project, funded by “Fundación Biodiversidad” of “Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica”, will explore these aspects of OA effects in the volcanic CO₂ seeps off La Palma Island. In this incredible natural environments we can already observe how the marine ecosystems of the future looks like. The CO₂ from volcanic degassing combines with the surrounding water, lowering its pH which mimics future conditions. One of these special places is located in the southern tip of La Palma Island, constituting by its accessibility and seeps features one of the most important natural laboratories in the world.