Research team

The scientific project is led by Meritxell Genovart, researcher at the Theoretical and Computational Ecology Group of CEAB (Theelab, CSIC).

Meritxell Genovart

During the last decades and with the main aim of understanding the factors that drive population dynamics, Meritxell Genovart and the people of its group, carries out the long-term monitoring of some species of seabirds, such as the Audouin gull Larus audouinii in the Delta del Ebro (since 1994) or in some other recently occupied colonies, or of the Scopoli’s shearwater Calonectris diomedea in the islet of Pantaleu (Mallorca) or in the island of Aire (Menorca).

Long-term monitoring sites. From left to right, at top, two Audouin gull colonies: Punta de la Banya, in the Delta del Ebro, and the port of Barcelona. And bottom, Scopoli’s shearwater colonies: Islet of Pantaleu (Mallorca) and Illa del Aire (Menorca)

With data from this monitoring, and through mathematical formulas, we estimate the demographic parameters of the species and populations (such as survival, recruitment, fertility or dispersion) and identify the main factors driving population dynamics; we explore the influence of endogenous processes (such as density-dependence), and exogenous processes (such as climate, intensity of predation or mortality from anthropogenic causes) in the population dynamics of these species in space and time, and in their extinction probabilities.

Because some of our studies revealed that one of the main threats to some of these species was fisheries bycatch, and that there was a lack of data in many cases to allow giving robust answers for management, one of our research lines focus on fisheries bycatch on marine megafauna (seabirds, turtles, mammals and sharks and rays).

These data, together with those obtained through collaboration with people who carry out monitoring of other species, and those obtained through experimental approaches (quantitative behavior in model organisms), allow us to search for general patterns of response to environmental perturbations, both anthropic and natural, and to seek for a better understanding of the resilience of the biological systems, that is, its ability to resist environmental changes.
One of our main research interests focuses on analyzing individual and population responses to environmental disturbances with a double final objective: to move towards a more reliable predictive ecology and, as a consequence, to be able to provide a better scientific guidance for Biodiversity conservation.

CREAF Developers

Bernat Claramunt

Bernat Claramunt has been involved in designing and coordinating the project.

I am Doctor, researcher at CREAF and professor of Ecology at the Department of Plant Biology, Animal Biology and Ecology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

During my scientific career, I have worked in various fields of forest and animal ecology, in arid and semi-arid systems around the world, and in mountain communities. I have recently focused his activities in the Pyrenees, leading projects related to the effects that global change may have on the alpine community, in relation to its distribution, the interactions between the various species, and how the human presence changes them.

Finally, I lead various citizen science projects, and participates in the development of various tools that are related to it. I have been part of the Scientific Committee of the Pyrenean Observatory of Climate Change (OPCC, Biodiversity Action) until 2014, and of the European Mountain Research Advocacy Network of the Mountain Research Initiative (MRI) until 2016. I am currently part of the Advisory Board of the Pyrenean Observatory of Climate Change (OPCC), I am CREAF representative in Euromontana, and the coordinator of the Network for European Mountain Research (NEMOR).

Agustí Escobar

Agustí Escobar has been in charge of developing the Android and IOS versions of the apps, as well as creation and maintenance of the site you are reading.

I work at CREAF as full stack developer. I design and implement mobile and web apps, with a strong geospatial component.

SEO/BirdLife

With 65 years of history, SEO/BirdLife is the longest-running environmental NGO in Spain, representative of BirdLife International in the country. Considered of Public Utility, its mission is to conserve biodiversity with birds as a flag, based on the study and the best available knowledge, and with the participation and involvement of society.

Work at sea is covered by its marine program, which for more than two decades has paid special attention to interactions between seabirds and fisheries, both at national and international level, and working on the one hand on the ground, and on the other hand in policy issues. In recent years stands out the work conducted in collaboration with Mediterranean fishermen to study and find solutions to the problem of bycatch, one of the most worrisome threats to various species of seabirds. This line gained strength with a project in collaboration with BirdLife International, the Seabird Task Force (2014-2017), and has been consolidated with the ZEPAMED (2018) and ZEPAMED II (2019) projects. These projects are part of the Pleamar program of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition (MITECO), and are co-financed with the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF). In both, special attention has been given to the involvement of fishermen to collect information (through data collection logbooks) and to seek solutions to bycatch (developing and testing different mitigation measures). Predictably, this work will be extended in 2020 to the Atlantic coast.

Pep Arcos

Pep Arcos. Coordinator of the SEO/BirdLife marine program, working in the organization since 2005, after completing his doctoral thesis and postdoctoral studies studying the interaction between seabirds and fisheries.

Vero Cortés

Vero Cortés. SEO/BirdLife marine officer, joined the organization in 2018 within the framework of ZEPAMED project, after completing her doctorate on seabird bycatch in the Spanish Mediterranean.

Beatriz Barajas

Beatriz Barajas. SEO/BirdLife marine policy officer, joined SEO/BirdLife in 2019 to support the policy work of the marine program.

Toni Mulet

Pleamar projects also have a team of collaborators who work closely with fishermen on the territory. Carles Tobella (north of Barcelona and south of Girona), Pere Josa (Tarragona), Toni Mulet and Ana Orts (Alicante and Murcia), and David García, María Fargas and Claudia Pich (Balearic Islands).

Carles Tobella

Pere Josa

María Fargas

Ana Orts

David García

Claudia Pich