International researchers gather in Palma to study marine connectivity and its implications for the protection and conservation of marine ecosystems in the Mediterranean.
June 26, 2015
The Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems, IFISC (CSIC-UIB), is hosting on June 29th and 30th a workshop gathering 15 scientists specialized in the study of the Mediterranean Sea. It aims at promoting the internationalization of scientific research about marine connectivity through the integrated interpretation of biophysical oceanography and population genetics. While these disciplines involve different methodologies and regions of interest, the participating scientists have been focusing their research in the Mediterranean basin. Bringing together these expertises to study marine connectivity from a multidisciplinary perspective will improve the design of Marine Protected Areas in the Mediterranean.
The HYDROGENCONNECT workshop (HYDROdynamic networks, population GENetics and oceanic CONNECTivity) originated from the need to take a multidisciplinary angle to apprehend the complexity of the ocean and to manage its ecosystems. Different approaches have been used to study the numerous factors influencing marine connectivity (the exchange of individuals among marine populations, primarily due to long-range transport of larvae by ocean currents) and how it affects the spatial distribution of organisms and its dynamics. This project proposes to investigate the interplay between population genetics and larval dispersal as derived from a new methodology which allows unifying those complementary approaches. It will improve the description of marine connectivity and inform a sound management of marine ecosystems, biodiversity and exploitable resources.
This initiative is supported by the ENVI-MED program which aims to support the internationalization of research in the Mediterranean, to strengthen the high-level collaborations with Mediterranean countries on the basis of mutual benefit and to contribute to the regional integration of the least developed countries in all aspects of the study of the Mediterranean Basin by promoting excellence in research and support for Euro-Mediterranean scientific communities. These objectives are achieved with the initiation of multilateral cooperation and by supporting the mobility of researchers as part of joint research projects and seminars, workshops and regional scientific conferences.
The next edition of the HYDROGENCONNECT workshop will take place in 2016 in Turkey.
List of participants:
The HYDROGENCONNECT workshop will gather in Palma 15 participants from the IFISC (Palma, Spain), the IMEDEA (Esporles, Spain), the Instituto Español de Oceanografia (IEO, Palma, Spain), the Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER, Sète, France), the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, Sète, France) and the Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS/METU, Erdermli, Turkey).
IFISC: Vincent Rossi (coordinator, vincent@ifisc.uib-csic.es), E. Ser-Giacomi, P. Monroy, C. Lopez, E. Hernandez-Garcia
IFREMER: S. Bonhommeau; A.-E. Nieblas, S. Arnaud-Haond
CNRS: N. Bierne, B. Porro
IMS/METU: B. Salihoglu, C. Guraslan, O. Ciftci
IOE: M. Hidalgo
IMEDEA: G. Jorda
