FOL participates in the International Conference for Young Marine Researchers 2021

Xochitl, Diego and Alba attended this year’s ICYMARE as session hosts and presenters.

The International Conference for yound marine researchers, organized by the Bremen Society for Natural Science took place from the 21st to the 24th of September. Xochitl, together with the Ph.D. student Michael Kriegl, were host of session 13 (Tropical marine ecosystems in the Antrhopocene). The session started with Prof. Nick Graham presenting a holistic view of the development of the coral reefs in Seychelles, followed by five more insightful presentations by talented early career scientists.

Also, Diego Salgueiro Otero took part in the Session 2 (The impacts of climate change over human marine activities and their management) of this International Conference to present his recent work (with Michele Barnes and Elena Ojea as co-authors) on Climate adaptation pathways and the role of social-ecological networks in small-scale fisheries. This investigation aims to contribute to novel theoretical frameworks using the Galician small-scale fisheries as the empirical case study. Their findings demonstrate two main ideas: 1) fishers facing climate change impacts follow a common adaptation pathway suggested by the Adaptation Framework and 2) social ties influence significantly the way fishers adapt to climate change. These insights have a crucial implication for SSFs more broadly as well as for cross sectorial adaptation theory. After an enriching discussion session where the panelists debated about the current situation of fisheries, climate change adaptation and the role of science in society, they also identified the challenges in this field and recommend multiple directions to tackle these problems in the Anthropocene.

Alba Aguión also took part in the conference, presenting in Session 9 (Understanding and meeting the current challenges of marine invertebrate conservation) one of her PhD chapters. Her work, co-lead with the professor Teresa Cruz and part of the project PERCEBES, explores the large-scale dynamics of the reproduction and recruitment of barnacles in SW Europe (France, Spain and Portugal) and their potential linkages with environmental variables. This study is one of the few that exist where standarized protocols during the same time frames are conducted at a large spatial scale to understand the biological dynamics of a marine invertebrate. This work is currently under review, and we hope to be able to share it soon!

We hope to see you next year ICYMARE!