Who are we?

We are a team of researchers from marine biology and other backgrounds and disciplines.

Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn

Sylvaine Giakoumi

Sylvaine is a Senior Researcher at Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in Italy and the coordinator of CAMBioMed project. Sylvaine's research focuses on the study of the ecology, management, and monitoring of marine ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea. Her main research activity has been focused on exploring biodiversity patterns, addressing ecological questions, assessing the effectiveness of marine protected areas and incorporating this understanding in conservation planning, ecosystem-based management and monitoring.

Giorgio Aglieri

Giorgio is a research technologist at Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn. He is a marine biologist interested in the study of coastal biodiversity and ecology, employing a multidisciplinary approach which combines molecular tools and field observations. Experienced in population genetics and molecular taxonomy, he contributed to the understanding of jellyfish bloom dynamics in the Mediterranean Sea and to the first description and taxonomic revision of various invertebrate species. In recent years, Giorgio focused on the study coastal marine biodiversity using metabarcoding. He provided new insights into the potential of environmental DNA metabarcoding as marine biodiversity monitoring tool.

Antonio Di Franco

Antonio is a Senior Researcher at Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn. He is a marine ecologist that specializes in marine conservation, fish ecology, small-scale fisheries and coastal socio-ecological systems. His research activities are primarily centred on 3 interrelated axes: Assessing the effectiveness of marine protected areas (MPAs) for conservation of natural populations and management of exploited fish stocks with a focus on governance and management elements; Estimating patterns of connectivity and dispersal and their effect on fish populations to design effective networks of MPAs; Investigating MPAs, small scale fisheries and fishing resources as a socio-ecological system integrating both natural and human components and providing ecosystem service. He had leading roles in multiple projects (such as MAPAFISH-MED, SPILLOVER-MED, GreenList for MPAs, Reconnect, FishMPABlue 2, FishMPABlue 2 Plus, Safenet, FEAMP Campania) on the role of MPAs as area-based conservation and management tool.

Manfredi Di Lorenzo

Manfredi is a Researcher at Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn. His research interests are focused on the conservation of marine ecosystems that can be used to guide effective management of human activities. Through the study of fish ecology and behavior I am concerned with the design and effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas and the human activities associated with them, such as the management of artisanal fisheries. For the past 10 years I have been involved in the conservation of Mediterranean elasmobranchs with research ranging from the study of their biology and ecology to their spatial distribution. To investigate all of the above, I use various techniques and tools including visual census, acoustic telemetry, field experiments, laboratory activities, fishing vessel embarkations, systematic reviews, meta-analysis, and local ecological knowledge (LEK).

Laura Tamburello

Laura Tamburello is a Researcher at Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn. Her research focuses on the ecology of intertidal and subtidal rocky reefs. She investigates how natural processes and human stressors affect benthic communities, focusing on climate change, invasions, and habitat transitions driven by pollution or overgrazing.

University of the Aegean

Maria Sini

Maria is a marine ecologist specializing in biodiversity assessment, ecological mapping and monitoring, and the conservation of marine ecosystems. Her research focuses on fish and benthic communities in the Mediterranean Sea, exploring their responses to pressures such as invasive species, climate change, and fishing. She has worked extensively on health status assessments, restoration of vulnerable species and habitats, and ecosystem-based management. She is an experienced scientific diver, actively involved in the development of non-destructive sampling methods. She has contributed to over 23 research projects and developed specialized software such as PhotoQuad® for seabed image analysis and Cavetopo for underwater cave mapping. With 45 peer-reviewed publications, and more than 60 conference presentations, her work emphasizes marine ecology through SCUBA diving, and biodiversity assessment using advanced tools.

Stelios Katsanevakis

His research focuses on marine conservation, ecological monitoring, and the impacts of biological invasions on biodiversity and ecosystem services. He has participated as coordinator or principal researcher in >45 research projects, and was the Chair of the COST Action MarCons 'Advancing marine conservation in the European and contiguous seas'. He is currently coordinating the Horizon Europe project GuardIAS Guarding European Waters from Invasive Alien Species. He is (co)author of 239 peer-reviewed articles in international journals, and his work has received >20,000 citations (scholar.google). He is included among the top 1% scientists worldwide in Marine Biology, based on Scopus standardized citation metrics.

Maria Zotou

Her field of interest and PhD topic includes studying vulnerable species and habitats of the Mediterranean Sea, actively involving citizens in research initiatives (via citizen science projects), and training AI tools to empower marine monitoring. She is a scientific diver with expertise in non-destructive methodologies through underwater visual surveys. She holds a MSc degree in Integrated Coastal Management and has graduated from the Department of Marine Sciences, University of the Aegean. She has participated in research projects regarding the distribution of Greek marine biodiversity and invasive species, the ecology of protected species, mass mortality events of marine species, and effective coastal zone management. She has (co)authored 8 scientific papers in international peer-reviewed journals.

Orestis Papadakis

Orestis is currently working on his PhD thesis in the field of Applied Marine Ecology, He holds a MSc degree in Integrated Coastal Management and has graduated from the Department of Marine Sciences, University of the Aegean. In addition, he has participated and worked, both in academic research programmes and in the private sector, in the fields of Marine Biology, Marine Ecology, Aquaculture and Aquariums, in Greece, France, and New Caledonia. His research activity focuses on Applied Marine Ecology and conservation/restoration methods of degraded coastal ecosystems and threatened/protected marine species, using scientific diving. Since 2020, Orestis is working on scientific projects at the Department of Marine Sciences of the University of the Aegean, as an external collaborator. In November 2021 he started his PhD thesis on “Monitoring, conservation and restoration of endangered Mediterranean Marine Animal Forests (MAFs)”. The aim of his thesis is to document the impacts of the pressures on coastal populations and habitats and to search for methods for their conservation and restoration. Since 2022, he is actively participating in the multinational European LIFE-PINNARCA project, concerning the monitoring, protection, and restoration of the critically endangered fan mussel, Pinna nobilis.

Giulia Pitarra

Giulia Pitarra is a marine biology researcher at the University of Aegean currently working on protected species conservation projects. Her main field of expertise is Mediterranean coral reef monitoring and restoration.

Yiannis Koutoulakis

Yiannis Koutoulakis is an undergraduate student in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of the Aegean. With a deep passion for the sea and years of experience as a diving instructor, Yiannis will be joining the CAMBioMed project as a fieldwork diver.

Stockholm University

Karin Ahlberg

Karin Ahlberg is social anthropologist based at Stockholm University and the University of Bremen and the PI for BIOrdinary: Biodiversity dilemmas in ordinary places and The environmental afterlives of the Suez Canal. Karin is interested in oceans, more-than-human mobility, global shipping, and currently investigates the cultural, social and economic impacts of changing Mediterranean seascapes, alien marine species arriving from the Suez Canal and other alterations in biodiversity.

CSIC

Emma Cebrian

I am a community ecologist, interested in understanding how different drivers of global change are affecting marine ecosystems functioning. Most of my research is focused on direct and combined effects of major disturbance sources related to global change, such as pollution and global warming. I am also involved in the study of marine bioinvasions of macroalgae and their impacts on benthic ecosystems. By better understanding the ongoing threats to marine ecosystems, I can also direct my research towards the development and assessment of tools for restoration and conservation of macroalgal communities.

Joaquim Garrabou

I'm currently a senior researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences of the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) in Barcelona (Spain). I'm applying a multidisciplinary approach to the study of climate change effects in the conservation of Mediterranean marine biodiversity. In this framework, I devoted most of my career to analysing the role of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as tools to counteract the negative effects of human activities. I have also been especially active in developing collaborative initiatives to cope with large-scale and long-term scales unavoidable for the study of global change effects. As main milestones of these initiatives, I'm coordinating and promoting collaborative networks of observation of the current warming trend in the Mediterranean, mainly supported by MPA's managers and volunteers. The ultimate objective of my research is to enhance science-based management strategies to inform adaptation plans of coastal areas and the sustainable use of marine resources.

Paula López-Sendino

I'm a marine biologist interested in the conservation of marine ecosystems. I started my career at Centre d'Estudis Avançants de Blanes (CSIC) working with macroalgae quality indicators (Carlit Methodology) and invasive seaweeds in Cabrera National Park. However, I am currently working at Institute of Marine Sciences (CSIC) in Barcelona with coastal macrobenthic organisms, specially corals, and their response to climate change impacts. For the last 10 years I have been involved in the participatory area of the Marine Citizen Science program, developing training sessions and engagement strategies to involve scuba divers in citizen science monitoring. My aim is to contribute to the conservation of marine ecosystems.

Cristina Galobart

I am a marine ecologist interested in the conservation and restoration of coastal marine ecosystems threatened by human activities. I recently defended my thesis at the Centre d'Estudis Avançats de Blanes (CEAB-CSIC), supervised by Dr Emma Cebrian and funded by Fundación Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno. I am currently working on the evaluation of restoration success through ecosystem functions and services. I examine the recovery of macroalgal biodiversity using both traditional taxonomic and functional-trait approach. I also investigate the recovery of other groups of organisms, such as macroinvertebrates, using molecular techniques (metabarcoding), and ecosystem processes like primary production and respiration. During my PhD I have also collaborated on research projects aiming to understand the effects of habitat fragmentation on the biodiversity of marine forests. Much of my research is based in the Mediterranean Sea, but I also have experience in macroalgal ecology from the northeast Atlantic and southeast Australia.

Uxue Moreda

I graduated in Biology (UPV/EHU) and specialized in Marine Biology through the Erasmus Mundus Master's program in Marine Environment (MER+). My main area of interest is benthic ecology, with a particular focus on macroalgae, including ecosystem functioning and the impacts of human activity and climate change. The primary goal of my research is to promote the conservation of marine ecosystems dominated by macroalgal forests through innovative, multidisciplinary, and applicable science. Currently, I am pursuing a PhD with a Predoctoral Fellowship from the Basque Government, studying Laminaria rodriguezii forests, an endangered deep-water kelp species endemic to the Mediterranean Sea.

Toni Vivó

I'm a marine ecologist specialized in invasion, trait-based and computational ecology. I graduated as an environmental biologist at the UAB and then went on to do a MSc in Marine Ecology at UIB. After spending the last almost 4 years in Denmark, doing my PhD thesis at the Technical University (DTU), I have now returned to Catalonia to start a postdoctoral position at the CEAB. I am interested in the study of biodiversity patterns at regional or global scales, both taxonomically and functionally, and about how biodiversity has changed and been affected by global change. I did my thesis on the ecology of biological invasions, exploring how introduced species can establish themselves in new areas, what characteristics might give them an advantage over native species, and how ecological theory could be applied to improve prevention efforts for future invasions.

UNIPI

Fabio Bulleri

Fabio Bulleri received his PhD in Marine Ecology at the University of Sydney (Australia) in 2003 and he is now Associate Professor at the Department of Biology of the University of Pisa. He has conducted extensive research on the interactions between marine herbivores and primary producers, the mechanisms regulating the establishment and spread of introduced seaweeds and the role of positive species interactions in structuring marine communities and sustaining ecosystem functioning under changing climates.

Delft University of Technology

Jan van Gemert

Jan van Gemert received a PhD degree from the University of Amsterdam in 2010. There he was a post-doctoral fellow as well as at École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Currently he leads the Computer Vision lab at Delft University of Technology. His research focuses on visual inductive priors for deep learning for automatic image and video understanding.

Daniel Pelsmaeker

Daniel Pelsmaeker is a Computer Science Postdoc working as part of the Research and Engineering Infrastructure Team (REIT) of Delft University of Technology. While he has a background in programming languages, as a research engineer he works on a variety of topics and projects.

UVIGO

Elena Ojea

Elena Ojea is a senior researcher at the University of Vigo. She holds a degree in Environmental Sciences and a PhD in Economics. Elena joined the university of Vigo in 2016 and launched Future Oceans Lab, a research group on marine systems and climate change. Since 2018, her work has been supported by the Oportunius program of the Galician government.

Silvia Rayo

Silvia Rayo joined the Future Oceans Lab team at the University of Vigo as a research assistant, contributing to various European projects. She holds a degree in Marine Sciences from the University of Barcelona, and a master's in Integrated Management of Coastal Areas from the University of Cadiz.

Fucalean forests

Ljiljana Iveša

Ljiljana Iveša is a senior scientist at the Center for Marine Research in Rovinj, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Croatia. Her field of research includes taxonomy and ecology of macrophytobenthos (seaweeds and seagrasses), ecology of coastal habitats of the natural rocky shore and artificial hard surfaces and assessment of the ecological status of coastal waters using macroalgal assemblages. Her current research is focused on ecology of canopy-forming species of the order Fucales and distribution patterns of non-indigenous species.

Edi Gljušćić

Edi Gljušćić is an assistant at the Center for Marine Research in Rovinj, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Croatia. His field of interest includes marine conservation biology as well as marine ecology. Currently, his work is focused on the ecology and restoration of canopy-forming fucalean species habitats, especially in the mediolitoral zone and rockpools.

Andrea Bilajac

Andrea Bilajac is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Marine Research in Rovinj, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Croatia. His field of interest includes the ecology of benthos, with an emphasis on canopy forming Fucalean macroalgae. Currently, he works on the assessment and enhancement of the conservation methods of fucalean forests in the northern Adriatic.