Partners & networks
Given the multidisciplinary nature of the issues and problems facing marine resource management, the SMEG group has strategic collaboration with other colleagues throughout the world, from both Universities and Research Institutes.
Partners
Meet Our Partners
Dr. Marta Coll
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Her research focuses on understanding patterns and processes that characterise marine ecosystems and, in particular, changes of, and threats to, marine biodiversity. She studies population, community and food-web dynamics linked with human activities (such as fisheries, climate change, eutrophication, and invasive species), and how these translate into changes in ecosystem structure and functioning, and services that humans obtain from the ocean. She develops and applies a variety of ecological analyses such as ecosystem modelling techniques and statistical tools, and she uses historical data, fisheries statistics, experimental results and field data sets.
Dr. Virgilio Gómez
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He is a mathematician with a PhD in Statistics from the University of Valencia (Spain). Currently, he is an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Castilla-La Mancha. His main research areas are Bayesian statistics, computational statistics and spatial statistics. He has developed number of R packages available on CRAN about spatial modeling and Bayesian inference. Also, he has co-authored a number of books on spatial data analysis and Bayesian statistics.
Juan Pablo Zurano
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I’m geneticist with a master degree in Systematic and Evolution and a PhD in Biological Science. I’m broadly interested in Macroecology, Evolutionary ecology and Data Science in R. Mainly, I have worked correlating traits of species (almost always using multivariate analyses) with the environment characteristic that inhabit. Currently, I’m collaborating in some projects with neotropics species (mammals, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates) using phylogenetic comparative methods
Dr. Paul Kinas
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Graduated in Oceanography from the Federal University of Rio Grande (1979), Master in Statistics from the University of São Paulo (1985) and PhD in Statistics from the University of British Columbia, Canada (1993). He is currently a full professor at the Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics at FURG (Brazil). His research interests are in statistical modeling in the environmental sciences, with emphasis on applied Bayesian analysis.
Dr. Facundo Llompart
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I’m a marine biologist from the Austral Center for Scientific Research (National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Argentina) and full Professor of the Institute of Polar Sciences, Environment and Natural Resources (National University of Tierra del Fuego). My research interest focused on 1) how marine fish assemblage of the South West Atlantic and the Southern Ocean respond to environmental drivers at different spatio-temporal scales; 2) the life history traits of notothenioids fish in Antartic and Sub-Antartic environments; 3) the assessment of recreational and small scale recreational fisheries in Patagonia
Dr. Rocio Joo
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I’m a numerical ecologist. My research is focused on movement ecology; particularly in the development and adaption of statistical methods for the analysis of trajectories of animals and human predators (i.e. fishers). I currently hold a postdoctoral position at the University of Florida (USA). I am also a member of the trajectometry research group PathTIS and the Statistical Ecology group in France.
Dr. Anabel Forte Deltell
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She is graduated in mathematics and statistics with a PhD in Statistics from University of Valencia. Now she is working as a lecturer at the Statistics and Operational Research department of University of Valencia. Her research topics cover many fields of statistics as, for instance, spatial analysis or joint modeling of longitudinal (or panel) and time-to-event data with her main interest being Bayesian model selection and, in particular, Objective Bayesian variable selection. Her dissertation (2011) entitled “Objective Bayes Criteria for Variable Selection” focuses on this last topic.
Dr. Facundo Muñoz
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I am a mathematician and PhD in statistics graduated at the University of Valencia (Spain). My interests include Bayesian methods, Spatial and temporal statistics and Epidemiology. I currently working in genetic evaluation of forest resources and developing an R-package that implements several statistical models.
Dr. Nerea Lezama
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She is a marine biologist with a PhD in Fisheries and Conservation from AZTI-Tecnalia (Spain). She is currently holding a postdoctoral position at the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) (San Diego, USA). Her research focuses on the conservation and management of species taken incidentally in tropical tuna purse seine fisheries (bycatch); studying the biodiversity and the oceanographic characteristics that describe their spatial distribution in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Her main research interests are ecological modeling, spatial ecology, oceanography and ecosystem-based management approaches for the conservation of marine top predators.
Raul Vilela
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My work mainly focuses in the use of Species Distribution Models and spatial analysis to support marine spatial planning and improve marine resources management. My current research aims to assess and improve mitigation measures on cetaceans and birds in offshore wind farms in Germany. Formerly, I worked on spatial modelling of fisheries discards and on-board observer’s data at the Spanish Institute of Oceanography and on the reduction of illegal fishing and the development of the Marine Protected Areas network of Gabon.
Eurico Noleto
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I am a biologist with a Master’s Degree in Biological Oceanography, Federal University of Rio Grande, Brazil (2015) anda Ph.D. in Aquaculture from the State University of São Paulo, Brazil (2018). My experiences are in the area of R Shiny development, Probability and Statistics, with an emphasis on Bayesian Modeling, working mainly in the following subjects: Fishery Biology, Aquaculture and Behavioral Biology. My current research aims to explore the local and continental patterns of the aquaculture industry by developing an interactive dashboard atlas (https://euriconoleto.shinyapps.io/projectaqui).
Reinaldo Javier Rivera
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I am a biologist in natural resource management. I have a Master degree in Zoology and a Doctorate in Systematics and Biodiversity at the University of Concepción. My main interests are the study of the patterns and causes of biodiversity in space through the integration of phylogenetic and spatial approaches and the geographic information systems applied to the natural sciences. My research is focused on: (1) study of the patterns and causes that structure the richness of species in terrestrial and freshwater environments, (2) biogeography (methods and approximations for the delimitation of areas of endemism), (3) geographic information systems applied to the natural sciences. I have participated in research projects funded by the government of Chile (Fondecyt and FIPA). I have been responsible, in the undergraduate teaching, for the Computational Biostatistics and Biogeography laboratories. In postgraduate, I have been in charge of the course on Geographical Information Systems for Marine Ecology (Catholic University of the Santísima Concepción). I have been invited to teach the GIS courses at the National University San Agustín, Perú and at the II Jornadas Paraguayas de Zoología, Paraguay.
Blanca Orue
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I have a BSc in Marine Science, a MSc in Oceanography from Cádiz University and a PhD thesis in Ecology. My research topic is related to increase the knowledge about the behavior and ecology of tuna and non-tuna species associated with floating objects at different spatial-temporal scales using acoustic data automatically collected by the echo-sounder buoys attached to drifting fish aggregating devices (DFADs). Specifically, I am using Hierarchical Bayesian spatiotemporal models to study the habitat preferences and distribution of tuna and non-tuna species associated with DFADs in the Indian Ocean.
Dr. Priscila F. M. Lopes
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I am a professor with a background in Ecology doing interdisciplinary research with small-scale fishing communities. I investigate how to integrate local ecological knowledge into fisheries management as a way to close knowledge gaps and to increase local involvement in conservation. I am also concerned with the factors that drive or undermine socioecological resilience among fisher folks.
Dr. Toni Barber
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I am a PhD Biologist from Spain, specialized in Bioclimatology, Potential Vegetation, Plant Ecology, Ethnobiology and Ethnoecology. My research has one of its focuses on the ecosystems of the coastal landscape, integrating botanical and anthropological perspectives. I am particularly interested in the impacts of historical and climatic changes on ecosystems and in contributing to modeling studies of the temporal evolution of synecological structures in nature. In addition, I have more than 20 years of teaching experience in various institutions.