Research Profile

My research line focuses on marine spatial ecology, including transport; dispersal and recruitment of early age stages of marine species; the modelling of species’ habitat; spatial planning approaches promoting populations’ connectivity; and the use of network analysis to address complex ecological problems like seafood traceability and verification. 

I did my PhD at U of Barcelona and with four international stays (+16 months) at IFREMER (France), U Hamburg (Germany), U Concepción (Chile) and NIWA (New Zealand). I defended my PhD in 2013, graduating with honours (cum laude). 

I have performed four postdoctoral stays (for a total of 7.5 yrs.), three international. After a short stay in New Zealand and a contract with WWF-Mediterranean, I joined the Center for Marine Conservation (Catholic U of Chile) as a postdoc (2013-2015). From 2015 to 2017, I was PI of competitive project funded by a Chilean State agency. Since then, I had the opportunity to conduct independent research, raise my own funds, manage economic resources and supervise a doctoral thesis. From 2018 to 2021, I was a H2020 Marie S. Curie fellow at IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB), leading the Co-TriP project "Dolphinfish living in a warming ocean: How global climate change is reshaping the distribution, physiology and behaviour of marine migratory species and their associated fisheries”.

During my PhD and two of my postdocs, I focused on the dispersion of planktonic early age stages and on how the relationship between spawning and nursery areas determines marine metapopulations connectivity. However, my interest in modelling natural systems drove me to explore spatial models and graph theory to understand reproductive behaviour of Bluefin Tuna, integrate connectivity into the design of protected areas, study complex food web networks, and analyse social network data to assess nature contribution to humans. Recently, I collaborated with WWF to study the global trade networks of sharks and rays to improve verification, mislabelling and traceability processes. 

I strongly believe in applied science and increasing communication between science and policy makers, so the best available science is incorporated into marine resources management and policy at local and international levels. My teaching experience extends to undergraduate students, post-docs and experienced researchers. My work has reached considerable media attention, as indicated by the 15+ news and press releases in national and international media. Also, I have ventured into the field of popular science documentaries as producer and director of the short film entitled: "Larvae: the ocean travellers”.