Dr. Fernando Tuya

Seagrasses are key habitat-formers on shallow soft bottoms, where a range of human actions may erode their performance and resilience. Fertilization has been widely demonstrated to negatively impact on seagrass health. In a recent study, we demonstrate that the maintenance of seagrass clonal integration buffer against the pervasive effects of fertilization, hence promoting seagrass resistance, whereas the response of associated epiphytes and epifauna is irrespective of seagrass clonal integration. Feel free to download the paper from the “publications” section.

Holothurians, so-called sea cucumbers, are understudied creatures in spite of their large presence in almost any marine habitat from the intertidal to the abyssal plains. Functionally, their contribution to the recycling of nutrients and organic matter is paramount. Two papers dealing with the ecology of holothurian on subtidal habitats of the Canaries have just come out. In the first contribution, we described the abundance size structure and colour patterns of the 3 most conspicuous holothurians species across the archipelago. The second paper deals with the feeding and movement of Holothuria santori, connecting their feeding patterns with the availability of organic matter and the gonadal maturation phases of this species, and describing their nocturnal incursions around their shelters. For more info, download the papers from the “publications”.