Join Our Lab

• University students in the final year of a bachelor’s or official master’s degree during the 2024-2025 or 2025-2026 academic year.
• Bachelor’s degree GPA: 7.5

What We Offer:

Fellowship: 4,200€ (600€/month)

Duration & Weekly Hours: 7 months, 20 h/week

Requests: https://sede.csic.gob.es/tramites/programa-jae/jae-intro-2025

JAEINT25_EX_0681: Analysis of marine trophic networks and their applications for conservation and management.

The principal investigator (IP) will be Marta Coll.

Feeding behavior and the ecology of organisms play an important role in marine connectivity, as species move or prey on organisms from different habitats. In doing so, they establish ecological links that substantially contribute to the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems. Describing and understanding these links is essential for managing ecosystems from an integrative perspective. This study will update an extensive trophic database detailing the trophic interactions between marine organisms in the Mediterranean Sea, including over 34,000 records and more than 2,400 entities (bacteria, chromists, protozoa, plants, and animals). The majority of the data comes from stomach content analysis, followed by stable isotope analysis and DNA metabarcoding records. The study will conduct laboratory work to generate new information on the trophism of marine organisms and will also use the Mediterranean trophic database to (1) characterize the available knowledge on trophic ecology in the region, (2) quantify the relationship between the main trophic links of species and their traits (e.g., habitat, taxon), (3) assess marine trophic network properties, and (4) develop extinction scenarios for different taxonomic groups (e.g., elasmobranchs, predators, etc.).

JAEINT25_EX_0986: Joint dynamics and interactions in a complex marine-terrestrial socio-ecological system: Causes of the Audouin’s Gull collapse in the Ebro Delta.

The principal investigator (IP) will be Francisco Ramírez.

The Ebro Delta is a key area of immeasurable value for the nesting of numerous seabird species. Specifically, at Punta de la Banya, we find an important population of Yellow-legged Gull and Audouin’s Gull. Both species rely on marine trophic resources, both through active fishing and the utilization of discards from the intense fishing activity in that area. By the late 2000s, the population of Audouin’s Gull suffered a sharp decline, primarily due to a dispersal process, dropping from hosting over 70% of the global population in 2006 to only 3% in 2017. During this same period, changes in fishing regulations intensified the pressure on pelagic species such as sardines, the primary food resource for these gulls. At the same time, the recovery plan for the Atlantic bluefin tuna, a natural predator of pelagic species, increased the pressure on small pelagics, possibly reducing the food availability. Meanwhile, the population of Yellow-legged Gull, a direct competitor of Audouin’s Gull, continued to grow thanks to its ability to exploit various resources associated with human activity. This master’s thesis, developed in collaboration with the Institute of Marine Sciences (CSIC), the Centre for Advanced Studies of Blanes (CSIC), and the Centre for Mathematical Research, aims to analyze the interactions and joint dynamics of this complex socio-ecological system through mathematical modeling, with an emphasis on non-linear dynamics both analytically and numerically. The work will focus on the population changes of Audouin’s Gull and its possible relationship with fishing regulations and their effects on the marine ecosystem.

JAEINT25_EX_0936: Functional traits of mesopelagic fishes past and present.

The principal investigator (IP) will be Konstantina Agiadi.

Mesopelagic fishes are a major component of pelagic food webs and play an important role in the biological carbon pump though their diel vertical migration, but they have been generally understudied until recently. The aim of this project is to obtain specific functional traits of some of the most common mesopelagic species, namely lanternfishes, for the present day and the deep past. Morphological, physiological, behavioral and life-history traits of selected species will be reconstructed by analysing otoliths collected from live-collected fish specimens as well as fossil otoliths recovered from marine sediments. Biogeochemical and paleontological approaches will be combined to discuss changes in traits such as body size, trophic level, metabolic rate, and migration capacity.

JAEINT25_EX_0960: Monitoring the contemporary biodiversity crisis in the Mediterranean Sea using digital data from recreational fishing.

The principal investigator (IP) will be Valerio Sbragaglia

The Mediterranean Sea is a global marine biodiversity hotspot, which is facing a biodiversity crisis. Many aspects of such crisis remain unsolved because of the lack of the necessary ecological and socio-economic information to guide decision-makers. Emerging digital research approaches (conservation culturomics and iEcology, which use digital data to study human-nature interactions and ecological patters) can fill this gap by providing an unprecedented volume of data to advance monitoring and research on biodiversity conservation from an ecological and human-dimension perspective. Recreational fishers play a central role for two main reasons. First of all, the impact of recreational fishing on marine ecosystems is not well understood due to constrains in monitoring activity. Therefore, the development of a cost-effective monitoring tool will increase our understanding of the impact of recreational fishing on Mediterranean ecosystems. Second, recreational fishing has a huge under-explored potential for monitoring marine ecosystems. For example, European marine recreational fishers are estimated to be around 8.7 million (1.6% of the total population), with an estimated 77.6 million days fished per year. Therefore, recreational fishing catches constitute a widespread spatio-temporal network of samples that – if properly analysed – can provide an unprecedented body of information, especially for marine environments where sampling is constrained across time and space. This JAE project will be integrated within the context of my research activity aiming to approach complex problems with an integrative research approach. The student will be introduced to the emerging research approaches of conservation culturomics and iEcology. Research activity will be developed at the Institute of Marine Sciences in Barcelona. The main responsibilities of the student