Oceanic Processes in Global Change
According to the IPCC (2019), since the 1970s, the ocean has absorbed more than 90% of the excess heat from the Earth's system, as well as between 20% and 30% of the CO2 emitted by humans into the atmosphere since the 1980s.
A comprehensive study of ocean-mediated processes is fundamental to understand, monitor and mitigate the effects of global change.
The Ocean Processes in Global Change research group applies a multidisciplinary approach to oceanography from a physical, chemical and biological perspective. The group addresses the observation, experimentation and modeling of evidence and impacts of marine ecosystem warming, acidification, fertilization and deoxygenation in response to global change, both on the NW coast of the Iberian Peninsula and in the surrounding ocean.
On the one hand, the group studies marine biological and geochemical processes, with special emphasis on coastal upwelling systems, especially the Iberian-Canary Islands system, and on the thermohaline and chemical evolution of ocean water bodies. It is also immersed in the study of the biological and biochemical characterization of phytoplankton, the production of phytoplankton toxins and the dynamics of microbial communities in a changing ocean like ours.
On the other hand, it explores exchanges between the atmosphere, oceans and land, as well as the effects of human society on the marine environment and climate. Within this field, the group studies the role of oceans in the dissolution of excess atmospheric CO2 and ocean acidification as one of its main consequences. It also researches sediment exchanges between the substrate and the water column and their implications for regeneration processes of both the seabed (benthic zone) and the water column itself (pelagic zone).
