Finalising the paper on the relationship between the concentration of PETs in water and in Fucus vesiculosus transplants (live and devitalised).

8 October 2024

Under the leading of Antón Vázquez-Arias and against all odds (as shown at the beginning of the video), we have been collecting F.vesiculosus individuals for the preparation of transplants (live and devitalised) for one year. These transplants have been installed in 22 locations of the Galician geography in different nautical clubs (we thank them for their collaboration), together with autosamplers who have worked during the two weeks of transplantation. Today we already have the results and, in a few weeks, we will have a draft that will allow us to clarify the relationship between the concentration of PETs in the native algae, transplanted and the water in which they live.

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Jesús Aboal, as part of the USC “A Ponte do Ensino Medio” Program (https://www.usc.gal/es/campusterra/ponte-ensino), gave a talk about our research project on Wednesday, November 24th, 2025, […]
On July 23rd, we headed to Testal Beach (Ría de Noia y Muros) to determine the chlorophyll fluorescence and spectral reflectance of Fucus vesiculosus specimens.
On June 27rd, we visited Testal Beach (Ría de Noia y Muros) to collect Fucus vesiculosus specimens at different intertidal heights.

Marine ecosystems and the impact of heavy metal pollution (HM).

Marine ecosystems, especially those in coastal areas, are particularly vulnerable to heavy metal (HM) pollution since they are subject to both land- and ocean-based pollution sources. Due to their toxicity, persistence, and capacity to biomagnify in the food chain, HMs pose an important threat through lethal and sub-lethal effects at the individual level that might have far-reaching consequences at higher hierarchical levels: populations, communities, and even entire ecosystems.

The cascading effects of pollution can thus jeopardize ecosystems' integrity and undermine their resilience, especially when they impact species with critical ecosystem roles, like macroalgal foundation species.