The National Interuniversity Consortium for Marine Sciences (CoNISMa), the University of Palermo, and the University of Rostock conducted an online workshop on October 30 and 31. Here you can access to the agenda and the Speakers bios.
Speakers
Dr. Mike Kearney is a physiological ecologist in the School of BioSciences at The University of Melbourne. A childhood passion of looking for animals in the bush led him to wonder how they manage to survive in some places and not others, and hence to become an ecologist. His research is focused on ways to connect what we can measure about an organism’s basic survival skills and capabilities with what we can measure about their environments and how they change though space and time. From a theoretical point of view, this has led him to work in the fields of microclimate modelling, biophysical ecology and metabolic theory. He also has interests in the evolution of parthenogenetic organisms, palaeo-environments, life history and biogeography. Taxonomically his expertise is with reptiles and grasshoppers, but he enjoys studying all kinds of organisms, including plants.
Dr. Magda Chudzinska is a statistical consultant at SMRU Consulting Europe, University of St Andrews, Scotland. She is currently involved in multiple projects investigating the potential impacts of marine developments on marine mammal behaviour, physiology, distribution and population dynamics. Her main scientific interests include marine mammal foraging ecology, and understanding main physiological and environmental drivers behind their behaviour, especially movement. She is also involved in multiple projects aiming at improving the monitoring of marine mammals and the assessment of the impact.
Dr. Nina Marn is a biologist with enthusiasm for (and experience in) applied ecological modeling. Her PhD journey included applying the Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory to loggerhead sea turtles, and as part of it she also developed a module to quantify effects of plastic ingestion on sea turtle individuals and populations. In her later work, she continued to focus on DEB theory applications to individuals, be it aquatic creatures (turtles, fish, crayfish, and mussels) or terrestrial (lizards, birds), with an overarching aim to help understand better the responses of individuals to stressors - climate change, or anthropogenic pollution. Currently she is a research associate at Rudjer Boskovic Institute in Zagreb, Croatia, and an adjunct researcher of University of Western Australia in Perth, WA. Her talk will mostly focus on the most recent work on the greenlipped mussel, Perna canaliculus from New Zealand, but will also include some other examples of DEB applications
Dr. Brecht Stechele is an environmental engineer, with a passion for the marine environment. Alongside his engineering degree, he pursued a second master’s degree in marine Biodiversity and Conservation, broadening his understanding of sustainable management practices for marine ecosystems. His experience in the marine domain includes an internship at the European Commission and relevant legislative experience as a marine policy advisor for the Belgian Federal Government. During his employment at Ghent University, he contributed to innovative research projects developing the aquaculture technologies for blue mussels and flat oyster cultivation in offshore wind parks in the open North Sea. His doctoral research focused on restorative aquaculture of flat oysters, proposing innovative ecological and technological approaches for large-scale offshore oyster reef restoration. Currently, Brecht provides consulting services, offering creative solutions for nature restoration initiatives. He collaborates with various organizations and research institutes dedicated to scale up marine conservation and restoration efforts all over the world.
Dr. Mar Bosch-Belmar is an Assistant Professor of Ecology at the University of Palermo since 2021. Her research explores the impact of environmental stressors - both natural and anthropogenic - on marine ecosystems across various ecological levels, from individual organisms to entire communities. She primarily utilizes spatial analysis techniques to investigate how environmental factors such as temperature and salinity shape species distributions and drive interactions strengthen over time. Her work is particularly focused on integrating high-resolution environmental data into species distribution models (SDMs), which enable predictions of biodiversity patterns under rapidly changing environmental conditions. Through a combination of experimental research and ecological modeling, she aims to advance the development of innovative methodologies that incorporate metabolic responses of species and their interactions within shifting ecosystems. These models are crucial for understanding present ecological dynamics and forecasting future species distributions in the face of climate change, ultimately providing more accurate and ecologically informed tools for marine habitat conservation and management.
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