Grupo de investigación “Ecología y Ordenación de Ecosistemas Marinos Costeros”

Departamento de Ecología e Hidrología, Universidad de Murcia (Spain)

Specific skills:    The Department of Ecology and Hydrology of the University of Murcia is formed by 12 professors and nearly 40 postgraduate and PhD students, as well as postdoc researchers, covering mainly 3 lines of research: terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecology. The research group involved in the project (Ecology and Management of Marine Coastal Ecosystems) is working in several lines of research: (i) biology and ecology of reef fish assemblages: habitat, spatial and temporal dynamics of adults, recruits and larvae, genetic structure, trophic structure, age, growth; (ii) ecology of coastal lagoons: planktonic assemblages, hydrography, jellyfish blooms, demersal fishes, trophic structure, biomass spectra etc.; (iii) environmental impact assessment: biological indices, bioindicators, effect of human activities (aquaculture, coastal works, waste waters, trawling fisheries etc.) on benthos and fishes; (iv) biology and ecology of echinoderms; and (v) management of marine ecosystems: MPAs, artificial reefs, integrated coastal management. The group has been involved in the ecological assessment of fish assemblages, MPAs and/or fishing resources in the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and South Pacific coasts. Prof. Dr. Julio Sánchez Meca, from the area of Behaviour Sciences Methodology and the research group in Research Methods and Evaluation in Social Sciences, has a long experience in meta-analysis tools development and applications and statistical power analysis. Ms. María Giménez Casalduero is associate professor of environmental law at the University of Murcia, and has specific skills and professional experience on environmental management at regional, national, European and international level.

 Role in the project: Co-ordinator of the whole EMPAFISH project; participating in WPs 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6; supplying data from case studies #1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9

 Track record on MPAs and/or fisheries (max. 5 works): 

García Charton, J.A. & Pérez Ruzafa, A. (1999) Ecological heterogeneity and the evaluation of the effects of marine reserves. Fisheries Research 42: 1-20

García Charton, J.A., Williams, I., Pérez-Ruzafa, A., Milazzo, M., Chemello, R., Marcos, C., Kitsos, M.-S., Koukouras, A. & Riggio, S. (2000) Evaluating the ecological effects of Mediterranean marine reserves: habitat, scale and the natural variability of ecosystems. Environmental Conservation 27(2): 159-178.

García Charton, J.A., Pérez-Ruzafa, A., Sánchez-Jerez, P., Bayle-Sempere, J.T., Reñones, O. & Moreno-Lampreave, D. (2004) Multi-scale spatial heterogeneity, habitat structure, and the effect of marine reserves on Western Mediterranean rocky reef fish assemblages. Marine Biology 144: 161-182.

González Wangüemert, M., Pérez Ruzafa, A., Marcos, C. & García Charton, J.A. (2004) Genetic differentiation of Diplogus sargus (Pisces: Sparidae) populations in SW Mediterranean. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 82: 249-261.

Pérez-Ruzafa, A., González-Wangüemert, M., Lenfant, Ph., Marcos, C. and García-Charton, J.A., 2006. Effects of fishing protection on the genetic structure of fish populations. Biological Conservation 129: 244-255.

EC projects:         ECOMARE, MAS3-CT97-0155, partner

                                  BIOMEX, Q5RS-CT-2002-00891, partner