The team of pollution experts at CoastProtect is committed to the health of our oceans.
The CoastProtect project team brings together a group of researchers specializing in ecotoxicology, committed to understanding the interaction between potentially toxic pollutants and brown macroalgae.
Our multidisciplinary training covers various areas of knowledge, allowing us to address the complexity of these marine ecosystems in a comprehensive manner.
Through collaboration between the research team and the work team, we aim to establish robust methodologies that allow us to analyze the effects of marine pollution.
Together, we strive to generate valuable knowledge that contributes to the health and sustainability of our oceans.
Research team
Jesús R. Aboal
Principal Investigator
Full Professor, Ecology Unit, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela.
I have focused my research on ecotoxicology, investigating aspects related to active and passive biomonitoring. Within this line I have worked on the optimization of the methodologies used, mainly in relation to the variability in the pollutant loading process (Potential Toxic Elements - especially Hg - nitrogen and organic compounds, mainly PAHs but also PCDD/PCDF and HCH).
This work has made our group a world reference in biomonitoring with terrestrial and aquatic bryophytes and brown macroalgae (although I have also worked with other organisms, mainly with terrestrial and intertidal molluscs and vertebrates such as micromammals and raptors). I have also investigated PTE biomagnification processes in both coastal and terrestrial ecosystem.
All this has resulted in the implementation of an Environmental Specimen Bank (which currently has more than 40,000 samples deposited). In addition, I have paid special attention to the study of the subcellular location of metals, both in mosses and brown algae, to evaluate their toxicity. On the other hand, I continue to work on the ecology of the Canarian laurel forest (biogeochemical cycles and community ecology).
Teresa Boquete
Principal Investigator
Marie Zambrano Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Ecology Unit, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela.
I seek to understand how organisms respond to environmental challenges and the potential ecological and evolutionary implications of such responses.
To do this, I focus on photosynthetic organisms, including bryophytes and seaweeds, and environmental pollution, especially, heavy metals. I combine an array of approaches including plant performance phenotyping, both in the field and in common garden experiments, genetics, epigenetics, and transcriptomics.
Also, I am strongly interested in the reproductive ecology of bryophytes, especially in the patterns of variation and the drivers of sexual expression, sex ratios, and sexual dimorphism in terrestrial mosses, and its consequences for dispersal and the genetic makeup of its populations.
J. Ángel Fernández
Member of the Research Team
Full Professor, Ecology Unit, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela.
My main interest is in the use of organisms to monitor the state of ecosystems and to understand their levels of contaminants and their potential effects.
Throughout my scientific career I have worked on the methodological optimisation of numerous biomonitors, for the terrestrial (i.e. mosses, tree leaves and needles, micromammals and birds of prey), the coastal (i.e. macroalgae and invertebrates) and the riverine environment (i.e. aquatic mosses and fish).
On the other hand, an important part of my research has focused on unravelling the cellular location of pollutants in organisms to determine their bioavailability and to relate this to the damage caused by their accumulation, obtaining more complete results from the ecotoxicological point of view.
Carlos Real
Member of the Research Team
Associate Professor, Ecology Unit, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela.
My lines of research are varied: the use of organisms for the detection and evaluation of pollutants in coastal, inland water and terrestrial ecosystems is the main and oldest
I also work on the study of the vegetation of the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, especially forests. In recent times I am also interested in computational models of forest ecosystems, both artificial (plantations) and semi-natural.
Rubén Villares
Member of the Research Team
Associate Professor, Ecology Unit, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela.
I have worked with indicator organisms in coastal marine ecosystems using macroalgae and invertebrates, as well as sediments.
My work was initially focused on the use of biomonitors in the study of coastal eutrophication processes and in the evaluation of heavy metal pollution in extensive studies on a regional scale. I have also participated in studies related to the use of macroalgae in the fertilization of agricultural soils.
Another line of research has been the use of aquatic bryophytes as indicators of the quality of river waters.
Research work team
Carme Pacín
Member of the Research Work Team
PhD candidate, Ecology Unit, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela.
My research focuses on analyzing temporal trends in brown algae of the genus Fucus, collected from the Galician coast between 1990 and 2021 across more than 170 sampling stations. Specifically, I investigate their content of Potential Toxic Elements (PTEs), Pb isotopic ratios, nitrogen content and its isotopic ratios, and the expression of enzymes related to nitrogen and phosphorus metabolism.
Furthermore, I examine the presence of silver nanoparticles and microplastics, changes in genetic diversity using the pool-seq technique, and changes in the algae's cell wall composition.
This holistic approach integrates ecological, physiological, and toxicological perspectives to provide a comprehensive understanding of the current state of these algae, which are crucial to the coastal ecosystems of the North Atlantic Ocean.
Antón Vázquez-Arias
Member of the Research Work Team
PhD candidate, Ecology Unit, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela.
I am interested in the impact of pollution by potentially toxic elements (PTEs) on the ecosystems, so I have worked on water, air and soil pollution, as well as its effect on organisms.
I started my PhD with the intention of developing a method to measure the extent of PTE pollution in coastal waters using seaweeds (especially in the genus Fucus, which are foundational brown algae in Atlantic coasts).
However, during the course of the PhD, we found that the mechanisms by which seaweeds take up PTEs are still unknown, so now I am focusing on understanding this mechanisms and the factors affecting them using techniques such as nanoscale imaging with NanoSIMS and synchrotron-coupled XRF, and genomics.
