Integrated marine ecology
All living beings, including those underwater, maintain an intricate relationship with their environment and with the other living beings that surround them. Discovering this complex network is essential for us to move towards a sustainable society.
The Integrated Marine Ecology Group, also known as INMARE, is a multidisciplinary group focused mainly on addressing ecological studies of marine organisms using complementary approaches. The topics studied cover a wide spectrum from ecology, evolutionary biology, genomics or conservation, both basic and applied to the management of marine resources at an ecosystem level that guarantee the conservation of biodiversity. The group therefore presents a broad approach, from studies with specific species to fishing-oceanographic research campaigns, including experimentation in confinement conditions.
This approach by the INMARE group requires several basic elements for the development of the research of this group. On the one hand, the definition and description of ecosystems that involve marine resources, in terms of scale, extension, structure and functioning and, on the other, the evaluation of the state of marine ecosystems, defined in terms of environmental health or integrity and established as acceptable to society, as well as the evaluation of threats.
In addition, the conservation, protection and rehabilitation of marine ecosystems and the mitigation of impacts using adaptation strategies are required, as well as a study of biodiversity with an integrative approach.
INMARE focuses on generating the necessary knowledge to ensure the protection, conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity, including those resources that are subject to exploitation. This knowledge is aimed at developing the necessary tools for the proper implementation of a ecosystem approach in marine resource management. The group is currently working along 5 lines of work:
- Experimental studies of marine organisms in culture: biology, physiology, interactions with the microbiota and development of cultivation techniques; taxonomic characterization of harmful microalgae.
- Ecology of marine species (life history; trophic relationships; identification, delimitation and estimation of the abundance of populations and their spatiotemporal variability; distribution and use of habitat; population dynamics; microbial ecology).
- Ecology of marine ecosystems (structure, functioning, complexity, stability and biodiversity) and impacts of natural and anthropogenic stressors; ecosystem modeling.
- Conservation of marine biodiversity and the sustainable use of living marine resources.
- Study of patterns and processes that contribute to the origin of biodiversity and its distribution, from an integrative approach that ranges from ecology to genomics.
