Workshop on Adaptive Management of Kelp Forests

Last week, the Laboratory of Spatial Ecology organized, together with CIIMAR, a Workshop on the Adaptive Managament of Kelp Forests, in Porto (Portugal).

Pablo F. Méndez and L. Santamaría facilitated the workshop, which was part of the Marine Biodiversity case study of the BiodiversityKnowledge Project - a project aimed at facilitating the flow of knowledge between biodiversity experts and users in Europe.

During the workshop, the participants used techniques of group model building to develop recommendations for the managment of European kelp forests.

Keep an eye on this blog for the policy brief and other products generated in the workshop.

Ducks matter, even many miles away

Two new publications are now out.

They are part of the PhD thesis of Duarte Viana, based at Doñana Biological Station and focused on the long-distance dispersal of aquatic organisms by waterfowl - in which we are lucky to collaborate.

This one is already published and was selected for F1000Prime:



Viana, D.S., Santamaria, L., Michot, T.C., Figuerola, J. (2013) Migratory strategies of waterbirds shape thecontinental-scale dispersal of aquatic organisms. Ecography 36: 430-438.

And this one is available on early view:

Viana, D.S., Santamaria, L., Michot, T.C., Figuerola, J. (2013) Allometric scaling of long-distance seed dispersal by migratory birds. The American Naturalist 181: 649-662.


Congratulations to Duarte for two really cool pieces of work.

Image by Steve Garvie from Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland (EurasianTeal in flight) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Field campaign in Morocco

Last April 21-26th, we completed the second sampling campaign of project Quemomar, born from the interdisciplinary cooperation of three different departments of IMEDEA (Global Change Research, Marine Resources & Ecology and Biodiversity & Conservation).

The project, funded by the Spanish Cooperation Agency, analyzes the influence of the Mouluya River on the bio-geo-chemistry of its coastal zone.

The sampling, by a team of two Moroccan and four Spanish researchers, involved outings into the sea in two small boats and an extensive sampling along the river course.

It was an amazing experience, both natural and socially...