A research group at the Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), our mission is to help solve important environmental issues related to climate change and changes in biodiversity.
Dedicated to unraveling environmental complexities, our team at MERS combines expertise and passion to drive cutting-edge research in marine and environmental biogeosciences, contributing to a deeper understanding of our changing world.
Patrizia Ziveri catalyzes her research on the ocean and coastal systems addressing natural and human-driven marine processes and sustainability challenges. Before joining ICREA, she obtained her PhD at the University of Padua (Italy) / University of South Carolina (USA), focusing on the impacts of El Niño climate oscillations on calcareous phytoplankton in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. After a postdoc at USC, she moved to the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, as a research scientist / associate professor. She led the first European coordinated effort to address ocean acidification in the Mediterranean Sea (2011-14). She was the Scientific Director of the ICTA-UAB Center of Excellence ‘María de Maeztu’ (2015-20).
She focuses on multidisciplinary investigation from target marine organisms at the base of the food web, to marine microplastics and biogeochemical processes. With MERS she works on the ocean in a changing climate and under human pressure, linking CO2 dynamics, climate change and target marine processes such as biocalcification, CaCO3 production and dissolution. She is interested in pressing threats to the marine environment and their societal relevance, such as ocean acidification, warming and oxygen loss in different regions, both in coastal systems and open seas, from social to biogeochemical processes. She also supports socially relevant marine studies in coastal Africa.
ICREA | ORCID | Google Scholar | patrizia.ziveri@uab.cat
Valentí Rodellas is a postdoctoral researcher at ICTA-UAB. His research is focused on the interactions between groundwater and surface water bodies, particularly on the fluxes of water and solutes (e.g. nutrients, metals, carbon) delivered by submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) to the coastal ocean.
He obtained his BS and MS degrees in Environmental Sciences at the UAB (2008 and 2009, respectively). He earned his PhD in Environmental Science and Technology at the UAB in 2014, with a thesis focused on the use of radium isotopes as tracers to quantify the fluxes of water and nutrients driven by SGD into the Mediterranean Sea, from local to basin-wide estimates. From 2015 to 2019, he was a postdoctoral fellow at CEREGE (Aix-Marseille Université, France), at first holding a fellowship co-funded by the PRESTIGE programme (MSCA-COFUND) and then granted with the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (MSCA-IF). Since April 2019, he is holding a Beatriu de Pinós postdoctoral fellowship (Catalan Government) at the ICTA-UAB.
ORCID | Valenti.Rodellas@uab.cat
Michaël Grelaud studies the multifaceted impacts of ocean acidification, warming, and anthropogenic pollution on Mediterranean marine ecosystems, particularly on marine planktonic calcifyiers and their role in marine biogeochemistry and ecosystem dynamics..
He obtained his PhD in Geosciences of the Environment from the University of Aix-Marseille III in 2008, focusing on El Niño’s impact on marine calcareous phytoplankton along the North American Pacific margin. In 2009, he began a postdoc at ICTA with P. Ziveri, studying the Mediterranean phytoplankton’s response to climate change. He has since researched the effects of ocean acidification and warming on Mediterranean calcifiers due to human-induced climate change. Specializing in paleoceanography and paleoclimatology, he manages SYRACO, a coccolith recognition system. In 2017, he added to his research line another issue threatening the Mediterranean Sea, the marine plastic (micro)litter.
ICREA | ORCID | Michael.Grelaud@uab.cat
Geralt’s research centers on developing an overarching understanding of marine calcification in mechanistic terms. Gerald started to work on coccolithophores during his PhD at the AWI, Bremerhaven / University of Bremen, Germany. Gerald is interested in various aspects of coccolithophore cell biology, eco-physiology, diversity, geochemistry, and biogeochemistry. He has been working mainly on laboratory experiments investigating the response of coccolithophores to changing environmental parameters such as seawater carbonate chemistry, as well as cell biological experiments aimed at elucidating the complex biomineralization mechanism of coccolithophores. His work combines cell biology, mineralogy, and geochemistry to glean a deeper understanding of biologically controlled calcium carbonate formation.
Joan Manuel Bruach Menchén is the laboratory technician of the Environmental Radioactivity Laboratory. With a background in Physics and more than 2 decades working in this laboratory, he performs most of the radiochemistry procedures needed to measure radioactive isotopes (e.g. 210Po, Uranium, Thorium) and takes care of the many detectors available (e.g. the Alpha and Gamma Spectrometers, Quantulus 1220, RaDeCC, Beta Counter).
ORCID | Joanmanel.bruach@uab.cat
Muntsa Roca Martí is a postdoctoral researcher interested in the ocean biological carbon pump (BCP), a mechanism that strongly influences atmospheric CO2 concentrations, and marine biogeochemical cycles and food webs. Muntsa conducted her PhD at ICTA-UAB and has 5 years of postdoctoral experience abroad at the Edith Cowan University (Australia), the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (USA), and Dalhousie University (Canada). Since 2023, Muntsa is back at ICTA-UAB with the objective to better constrain the magnitude of the BCP in a changing ocean by bringing together traditional and emerging methods across different disciplines.
ORCID | Montserrat.Roca.Marti@uab.cat
Graham Mortyn earned BS and MS degrees in Earth Science and a PhD in Oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography (University of California at San Diego, UCSD). Prior to academia he worked as a hydrogeologist. He was an Assistant Professor in California (California State University, Fresno, CSUF) before UAB arrival in 2004, joining the Department of Geography and ICTA.
Alan Alorda-Kleinglass’s research focuses on the social implications related to the ecosystemic services that SGD provides. His studies quantify the SGD-driven fluxes of solutes (e.g. nutrients, metals, pollutants) and focus on how those end up affecting the social perception among stakeholders and its derived conflict.
Aaron has a degree in Environmental Sciences at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (2016) and a master in Oceanography and Marine Management at the Universitat de Barcelona and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (2017). His PhD thesis at ICTA-UAB on Submarine Groundwater Discharge (SGD) and its social implications is being developed in the MERS group under the supervision of Dr. Jordi Garcia Orellana (ICTA-UAB) and Dr. Isabel Ruiz Mallén (UOC).
Júlia is a PhD student at ICTA-UAB and holds bachelor’s in Environmental Sciences and a master’s in Oceanography and Marine Management. In her research, she mainly uses radioactive geochemical tracers (radium and radon isotopes) to study land-ocean exchange processes. Her research aims to differentiate between different Submarine Groundwater Discharge pathways and their seasonal variations, providing insights into the dynamics of coastal groundwater fluxes and their implications for coastal ecosystem health in a global change planet.
In particular, her thesis is focused on Submarine Groundwater Discharge (SGD) to the sea and the associated solute fluxes, as well as the biogeochemical transformations that occur in the coastal aquifer before the discharge into the sea. Through her work, she seeks to understand the impact of these processes on coastal ecosystems.
ORCID | Julia.Rodriguez@uab.cat
Stéphanie Birnstiel holds a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences (Fluminense Federal University; Brazil) and a master’s degree in Marine Biology (University of Algarve; Portugal), which were partially pursued at the University of New South Wales (Australia) and at the Institute of Marine Sciences (Spain), respectively. Passionate about marine plastic pollution, she has studied its impacts on various organisms, such as mussels, oysters, seagrasses, sea turtles and bacteria. Her research aims to understand and predict the dispersion and accumulation of microplastics from the land-ocean interface to the open ocean and their impact on marine biota.
At ICTA-UAB, her project focuses on understanding and predicting the microplastic dispersion and accumulation in the marine environment. She hopes it will allow the assessment of the real impacts of plastic pollution in the ocean and help provide solutions.
ORCID | Stephanie.Birnstiel@uab.cat
Mouna Chambon has a dual education in tropical ecology and social sciences. She is committed to reconciling biodiversity conservation and community development. Her areas of interest include climate change, gender equity and conservation and sustainable use of marine and coastal biodiversity. From 2017 to 2018, she was awarded Laureate of the Mentorship Programme Women4Climate for her work as a project manager on gender and climate change for the youth-led NGO CliMates. She has also worked in the marine environment protection field and has significant field experiences in Sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar.
Mouna started a PhD project on the Gender and small-scale fisheries in a climate change context: a case study from coastal Kenya funded by the ICTA-UAB ´Maria de Maetzu´ unit of excellence and in collaboration with LICCI project. This doctoral project is at the interface between natural and social sciences and will explore the gendered patterns in local perceptions of climate change impacts and the state of scientific knowledge related to these impacts. The focus is on small scale fisheries.
Irene is an environmental scientist originally from Barcelona, interested in understanding the impacts of global change on coastal wetlands. Her research focuses on characterizing anthropogenic impacts derived of human activities like mining and intensive agriculture, and evaluating the effects of restoration in coastal wetlands, all with a multidisciplinary approach that includes the use of radioactive and stable isotopes.
Graduating with a degree in Environmental Sciences from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 2020, I furthered my education with a master’s degree in Ecology, Environmental Management, and Restoration from the University of Barcelona in 2021. Presently, she is pursuing my PhD at ICTA, focusing on the characterization of anthropogenic influences on coastal wetlands, primarily researching the Mar Menor coastal lagoon (SE, Spain). Beyond academic interests, she has a profound love for literature, art, hiking, and swimming.
Falilu Adekunbi studies ocean acidification impacts on marine phytoplankton calcifers. Impact of climate change on coastal/marine nutrient biogeochemistry, and Coastal marine environmental pollution and productivity. Born in the city of Lagos Nigeria, Falilu is graduate of Fisheries and aquatic science with Honours at the Lagos State University. In 2012, he obtained a Master degree with Distinction in marine sciences with specialization in pollution management at the University of Lagos. He is a second- year PhD student in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Lagos Nigeria. Until date Falilu is a Researcher at the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR) where he conducts research on Nigerian marine and coastal system in the Chemical & Physical Oceanography Department.
Ariane Arias-Ortiz is a RyC researcher in the Physics Department at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She is interested in carbon biogeochemical cycling, ecosystem-atmosphere interactions, and the use of radionuclides in environmental materials to study present, past, and future processes.
Her work focuses on understanding the capacity of wetlands to store carbon and their potential contributions to nature-based climate solutions. Ariane and her team combine micrometeorological measurements with the analysis of stable and radioactive isotopes in soils and water to study carbon and energy flows between wetlands, the atmosphere, and adjacent water bodies, providing insights into how these fluxes respond to disturbance, land management, and a changing climate.
ORCID | ariane.arias@uab.cat
Arturo Lucas researches marine planktonic calcifiers’ biodiversity and their role in marine CaCO3 production, focusing on modern dynamics and interactions in the carbon cycle. Hestudied Environmental and Marine Science, and his interest converges from a broad background in ecology, marine biogeochemistry, and (pale)oceanography.
He joined the Marine and Environmental Biogeosciences research group at ICTA-UAB as a PhD student in the frame of the BIOCAL project, where he will focus on the biodiversity of marine planktonic calcifiers, at the base of the food web, that have played a key role in marine CaCO3 production since the Mesozoic. He will consider different temporal scales to better understand the mechanisms of diversity change, but also focus on modern dynamics in strategical biogeochemical gradients. As planktonic calcifiers dominate the pelagic carbonate budget and production and can alter the buffering capacity of the ocean, his research will fill gaps on how much calcium carbonate is produced and what are the interactions between the groups regarding their implications in the carbon cycle.
Thais Macedo is a biologist with a Masters in Ecology from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. She is involved in long-term monitoring research programs of marine systems with a focus on population dynamics and climate change impacts. For her PhD research, she will join social and ecological sciences to investigate changes in small-scale fisheries on Maio Island, Cape Verde, from a historical perspective. The project also aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Maio’s marine protected areas and to provide management recommendations based on the prediction of future social-ecological scenarios. This project arose from a collaboration between the MERS and TRADITION research groups with the Maio Biodiversity Foundation (FMB), a local environmental NGO in Maio, where Thais is the coordinator of the marine and sustainable fishery program.
Nani holds a master’s degree in marine science from the Université Côte d’Azur and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has worked as an engineer, analyst, and researcher. As an engineer, he invented bottom-up ways to repurpose plastic bags in Tanzania. As an analyst, he worked for the government of San Francisco to inform the city’s climate action plan. As a researcher, he studied seagrass soil carbon disturbances from boat anchoring. Now, Nani is an INPhINIT fellow at ICTA-UAB researching the science-policy nexus of blue carbon.
Athina Kekelou studies global change’s effects on marine ecosystems, emphasizing biodiversity and fish dynamics using sedimentary records. Her research seeks insights into environmental shifts and aims to refine understanding of fish remains and otolith geochemistry. Originating from Messolonghi, Greece, she pursued a Bachelor’s in Biology at the University of Crete. Intrigued by marine ecosystems, her thesis explored the impact of high temperatures on fish development. This curiosity persisted during her Master’s in Environmental Biology, where she studied the effect of cyanobacteria-induced hepatotoxins during Harmful Algal Blooms on the fish physiology. A six-month Erasmus+ internship at the University Autonomous of Barcelona expanded her opportunities, contributing to a microplastics project under Patrizia Ziveri’s guidance.
Currently, her Ph.D. project focuses on the transformation of marine food webs amidst climate change, integrating studies on biodiversity and fish dynamics. Sedimentary records offer insights into past environmental conditions and communities, facilitating the reconstruction of fish and food web dynamics. Despite common assumptions, further research is required to fully understand otolith geochemistry and refine proxy interpretations.
William Gray is a visiting scientist in the MERS group. He uses the elemental and isotopic geochemistry of foraminifera to reconstruct climate and carbon cycling and is particularly interested in pairing proxy records and climate model output to understand climate and carbon cycle dynamics. While visiting the MERS group he will work on better understanding the role of calcifying organisms in the calcium carbonate and alkalinity cycle.
ORCID | william.gray@lsce.ipsl.fr
Meryem Upson is currently a research technician at the MERS Group working with Valenti Rodellas Vila. She is principally concerned with the identification of Submarine Groundwater Discharge locations using remote sensing methods. Having graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Geography from McGill University in Canada, she pursued her education at Utrecht University in the Netherlands with a master’s degree in Earth Science, with a specialization in coastal dynamics. She completed her master’s degree with a research internship at ICTA-UAB, working with Patrizia Ziveri and Muntsa Roca Marti on the Biological Carbon Pump.
meryem.upson@uab.cat
Angèlica is PhD student at MERS. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (2023) and a Master’s degree in Meteorology from the Universitat de Barcelona (2024). Her research focuses on analyzing energy fluxes and greenhouse gas exchanges between the atmosphere and the ecosystem in the Ebre Delta using the eddy covariance technique. She explores how changes in meteorological conditions and diverse wetland and agricultural management strategies influence these interactions. Angèlica aims to contribute to climate change mitigation strategies by understanding local carbon sequestration. processes.
Sven Pallacks is originally from Memmingen, Germany. He completed his PhD at ICTA-UAB and his research focuses on using skeletal remains to reconstruct past changes in marine ecosystems, particularly in the Mediterranean Sea, to understand the impact of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and unsustainable exploitation of coastal resources. Supervised by Patrizia Ziveri and Graham Mortyn, his work aimed to distinguish human influence from natural variability in marine ecosystems under accelerated climate change. Sven’s academic journey included studies in Geography at Heidelberg University, a master’s at Autonomous University of Barcelona, and a marine geosciences master’s at Bremen University.
Marc Diego Feliu is graduated in Environmental Sciences for the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). He is a PhD candidate at MERS research group from the Institut de Ciència I Tecnologia Ambientals (lCTA). His main research focus is on the use of radionuclides to evaluate environmental processes, specifically land-ocean interactions such as Submarine Groundwater Discharge (SGD).
His doctoral thesis is focused on the use of radionuclides to evaluate environmental processes, specifically the land-ocean interactions such as Submarine Groundwater Discharge (SGD). He also participated actively in two national projects NUREIEV (CTM2013 -44598-R) and MEDISTRAES (CGL2013-48869-C2-2-R) and in the international project FROST (Filchner Ronne Outflow System Tomorrow) where he joined an oceanographic campaign at Antarctica from January to March 2018.
Eloise Littley was a postdoc in the MERS group at ICTA-UAB with a two year fellowship in the Maria de Maeztu unit of excellence program. She has a lifelong interest in climate and the environment, growing up in the British countryside. In 2015, she graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Geoscience. Here she began to focus her work on oceanic and coastal systems, looking at nutrient dynamics, redox and marine pollution in her undergraduate thesis. Her PhD, with the STAiG group at the University of St Andrews, examined the role of the high latitude North Atlantic Ocean in abrupt climate change during the last glacial period. Using boron isotope and trace element techniques she was able to build a comprehensive picture of CO2 storage, ocean circulation and sea ice dynamics in the region.
Her research at ICTA-UAB centred on CO2 and the northern high latitude oceans, looking at the effects of more recent environmental change on the marine carbonate system, biogeochemistry and ecology of the Barents Sea.
Carlos René Green Ruiz’s research mainly focuses on marine and coastal pollution, particularly in potentially toxic elements in environmental compartments and the dispersion of microplastics as emerging contaminants. Hehas a degree in Marine Geology from the Autonomous University of Baja California Sur and a master’s and a doctorate in Marine Sciences and Limnology from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He did a one-year post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California at San Diego and a sabbatical year at the University of California at Santa Cruz, followed by a sabbatical year at the Autonomous University of Barcelona with the Environmental Radioactivity Research Group at Barcelona (GRAB).
He is also involved in science communication and environmental education, participating in events such as the Regional Children’s Meetings for the Conservation of the Gulf of California and for the Protection of Sea Turtles.
Richard Norris is a Distinguished Professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. His work focuses on micropaleontology, warm climate dynamics, and human impacts on marine ecosystems. He leads a program at MERS studying the history of Mediterranean fisheries over 10,000 years. Norris co-led the “Empire Expedition,” collecting cores in the Aegean and Adriatic oceans to study fisheries’ impact on Europe’s first settled societies.
His research contrasts past fisheries productivity during the “Green Sahara” with today’s “Mediterranean Climate,” informing future oceanographic changes. Norris has a BS from UC Santa Cruz, an MS from the University of Arizona, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.
Henrique Back’s research focuses on understanding marine plastic pollution through the lenses of artificial intelligence. Growing up in Florianópolis, an island in southern Brazil, Henrique was always connected to the ocean. He started his studies on 3D printing of bioabsorbable medical devices, but soon shifted his attention to the study of marine microplastics. He obtained his master’s in materials science and he’s particularly interested in machine learning (ML) applications in research. As part of the ECO Sailboat group in Florianópolis, he is involved in outreach with schools, seaweed aquaculture and traditional peoples. Henrique was at ICTA-UAB for a research stay under the supervision of Patrizia Ziveri.
Laura Simon-Sánchez was a PhD student at ICTA-UAB, researching microplastic pollution in the Mediterranean Sea. She holds a BSc in Natural Environment Engineering and a Master’s in Interdisciplinary Studies in Environmental, Economic and Social Sustainability. The main focus of her research is to understand the sources, fate, and fluxes of microplastic pollution in the Mediterranean Sea, particularly in transitional environments like river deltas.Her project investigated microplastic fate in transitional systems and accumulation areas like the Ebro Delta and Mediterranean island beaches.
Griselda Anglada Ortiz completed her Ph.D. at UiT in Tromsø, Norway, focusing on the impact of ocean acidification on marine calcifiers in the northern Barents Sea under The Nansen Legacy Project. She holds a BSc in Environmental Sciences, an MSc in Oceanography and Marine Management, and an MSc in Secondary and Upper Secondary Education (Science specialization). Her research focused on the impact of ocean acidification on marine calcifiers in the northern Barents Sea and compared their shell condition to the fossil record, including studying living marine calcifiers like pteropods, foraminifera, and coccolithophores, their contribution to carbon budget and fluxes, and comparing their shell condition to the fossil record over the last 12,000 years.
ORCID | griselda.a.ortiz@uit.no
Miguel Mallo’s main research focus was assessing and identifying the effects of climate change and anthropogenic impacts on marine life, as well as evaluating the implications of these effects for humanity. He completed his Bachelor’s in Environmental Sciences and MSc in Sustainability at UAB with honors. His MSc thesis focused on planktic foraminifera in the Mediterranean Sea. He pursued a PhD at ICTA-UAB, where his research interests included assessing climate change and anthropogenic impacts on marine life and their implications for humanity. Born in 1991 in Ibiza, he developed a strong connection to nature, sparking his curiosity about the workings of the natural world.
Roberta’s main research focus is on the effects of ocean acidification and warming on marine calcifying organisms in the Mediterranean Sea. She completed her Bachelor of Arts (History and English) and Bachelor of Science (Honours I) at the University of Sydney, Australia. She studied marine biology and fisheries ecology at The University of Bergen, Norway. Her research focused on marine biology and climate change, including a year as a Research Assistant at The University of Sydney, conducting climate change experiments and collecting data on marine species in The Great Barrier Reef. As a PhD candidate, she focused on the effects of ocean acidification and warming on marine calcifying organisms in the Mediterranean Sea, aiming to contribute to the understanding of climate change impacts on marine life.
Sarah Paradis’ main research focus is on the impacts of deep bottom fish trawling on the seafloor, specifically assessing erosion caused by trawling gear, changes in sediment transport processes, and their effects on organic carbon biogeochemistry. She completed her PhD in Environmental Science and Technology at ICTA-UAB, focusing on the impacts of deep bottom fish trawling on the seafloor. Her research assessed the erosion caused by trawling gear, changes in sediment transport processes, and their effects on organic carbon biogeochemistry. She obtained her degree in Environmental Sciences at UAB in 2014 and pursued a joint Master’s in Oceanography and Marine Environmental Management at UB and UPC
ORCID | sarah.paradis@erdw.ethz.ch
GianLuigi de Tommasi is a PhD student at ICTA-UAB trained in Environmental science, Analytical Chemistry, Synthesis, and Development of Pharmaceuticals and Composite Materials. He developed his PhD within the MERS group under the supervision of Professors Patrizia Ziveri and Michaël Grelaud, in which he analyzes the interaction of chemicals and heavy metals with plastic membranes. The modification of the plastic surface by microorganisms provides a suitable charging condition for the adsorption of metal ions. Starting from the results of preliminary studies showing greater adsorption of chemicals on bioplastic films, the project will analyze the role of micro-fragments of bioplastic films as carriers in terrestrial and aquatic environments. The description of the adsorption phenomenon and the physicochemical degradation process of the membranes will be analyzed to study soil and water pollution phenomena.
ORCID | Gianluigi.deTommasi@uab.cat
Jordi Garcia Orellana was a leading figure in the application of artificial and natural radionuclides and stable isotopes in the study of environmental processes in both terrestrial and marine environments. He passed away in July 2022, having been a beloved colleague, researcher and secretary at ICTA-UAB, and associate professor of the Department of Physics at the UAB.
Since 2016, Jordi Garcia Orellana held a permanent position at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, holding management positions such as head of the Radiations Physics Unit and secretary of the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB). He participated in the Physics and Environmental Sciences’ degree programmes and was co-director of several PhD theses.
His current research focused on the role of submarine groundwater discharge on marine biogeochemical cycles; sedimentation processes and recent pollution over 100-200 years in aquatic environments; and the accumulation and distribution of radionuclides in NORM industries. He also studied issues such as anthropogenic pollution, blue carbon, anthropic impact on high mountain peatlands, the use of tracers for the determination of carbon flows from permafrost, and the distribution of artificial radionuclides in the oceans.
Joining forces with leading researchers and institutions worldwide, we strive to foster a collective understanding of marine and environmental biogeosciences.
