I am interested in understanding the extent to which climate change (both warming and acidification) will affect coral reefs ecosystems. All the experiments I am doing use environmental shifts that are associated with global change, thus providing information specific to coral reef evolution, as well as insight into fundamental evolutionary processes such as acclimatization and adaptation. My vision is to scale-up species responses to the reef community level, providing tools to predict the effects of climate change on coral reefs.


Topic 1: Effect of ocean acidification and warming from single species to ecosystem

  • Limpets, bivalves, Mediterranean shallow-water corals, bryozoan.
  • Tropical coral, sea anemone, calcareous seagrass epibionts, invertebrates’ settlement.
  • Shallow water ecosystem in the Med Sea; soft benthic community in the Gulf of California

Topic 2: Corals and molluscs geochemistry and ultrastructure as proxy for past climate fluctuations

  • Boron isotopic (δ11B) and elemental systematics.
  • Lithium isotope compositions (7Li/6Li); carbon (δ13C), oxygen (δ18O) and trace element records on skeletons.

Topic 3: Nutritional status and symbiotic relationship in Mediterranean corals
Topic 4: Thermal stress responses of Mediterranean corals