Eve Galimany

• PhD
• PostDoc Position at Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC)

Through altered freshwater flow regimes and excessive anthropogenic nutrient input, many estuaries around the world are showing signs of eutrophication. As shellfish can alleviate some of these issues through their water filtration capacity, shellfish habitat restoration efforts have increased markedly in the past decade. This study quantifies, for...

Holothurians provide important ecosystem services by enhancing sediment health through bioturbation. The sea cucumber Parastichopus regalis has a wide distribution in the Mediterranean Sea. Even though it is a commercially exploited species, little is known about its ecological traits and there is no information on the bioturbation potential result...

The long-time fishery tradition on the Mediterranean coastal region without a biological-base management strategy has led to an overexploitation of the main fishing resources. To overturn this trend, the European Union implemented the Western Mediterranean Multi-Annual Plan (WMMAP) aiming to better manage key commercial species caught by bottom tra...

Ocean ecosystems have been subjected to anthropogenic influences for centuries, but the scale of past ecosystem changes is often unknown. For centuries, the European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis), an ecosystem engineer providing biogenic reef habitats, was a culturally and economically significant source of food and trade. These reef habitats are now...

Anthropogenic activities have impacted marine ecosystems at extraordinary scales. Biogenic reef ecosystems built by the European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis) typically declined before scientific monitoring. The past form and extent of these habitats thus remains unknown, with such information potentially providing valuable perspectives for current m...

The Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus, is one of the most valuable fishery resources in many coastal countries of the Mediterranean Sea and the northeastern Atlantic Ocean. In the Mediterranean Sea, several stocks are being overexploited, with ecological, economic, and social consequences. To perform an adequate stock assessment and provide guida...

Anthropogenic activities have impacted marine ecosystems at extraordinary scales. Biogenic reef ecosystems built by the European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis) typically declined prior to scientific monitoring. Collating >1,600 records published over 350 years, we created a highly resolved (10km2) map of historical oyster reef presence across its biog...

Ocean ecosystems have been subjected to anthropogenic influences for centuries, but the scale of past ecosystem changes is often unknown. For centuries, the European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis), an ecosystem engineer providing biogenic reef habitats, was a culturally and economically significant source of food and trade. These reef habitats are now...

The deep-water rose shrimp is a main resource for the GSA 6 bottom trawling fleet. In the last decade, landings have increased without a clear understanding of the causes. This study aims to analyze this trend, potentially related to changes in environmental conditions. Results showed an increase in the species' landings, which spread northwards al...

The European Union Data Collection Framework (DCF) states that scientific data-driven assessments are essential to achieve sustainable fisheries. To respond to the DCF call, this study introduces the information systems developed and used by Institut Català de Recerca per a la Governança del Mar (ICATMAR), the Catalan Institute of Research for the...

The seafloor of the Mediterranean Sea accumulates marine litter (ML), an area where bottom trawlers operate and can accidentally catch the litter from the seafloor. This study aims to describe and quantify the ML caught by bottom trawlers along the Catalan coast (NW Mediterranean Sea) and estimate the potential of the bottom trawl fleet to extract...

The Ebre Delta (NW Mediterranean), which is considered a highly vulnerable ecosystem, is one of the most important European wetlands and belongs to the Natura 2000 network. The present study aims to characterize the benthic megainvertebrate communities inhabiting the Ebre Delta soft-bottom infralittoral to acquire faunistic and biological knowledge...

The production of urban waste has increased in the past decades leading to its mishandling. The effects on public health, economy, and wildlife that waste mismanagement can have are forcing governments to increase their efforts in detecting and mitigating the presence of waste. Identifying and monitoring sentinel species to assess the presence of u...

The development of tourism and intensification of agriculture has released large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus into the Mar Menor coastal lagoon in South‐east Spain, resulting in a phytoplankton bloom in 2016. This bloom turned the clear and transparent waters turbid and greenish, and killed approximately 85% of benthic macrophytes. Nutrient b...

Discards represent a loss of natural resources and negatively affect the sustainability of fisheries. Information on discards, such as diversity and size of the species discarded is essential to better manage trawl fisheries. Thus, this study aims to gain knowledge on discards from the Catalan bottom trawl fisheries in the NW Mediterranean Sea to o...

Shellfish reefs have been lost from bays and estuaries globally, including in the Swan-Canning Estuary in Western Australia. As part of a national program to restore the ecosystem services that such reefs once provided and return this habitat from near extinction, the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis was selected for a large-scale shellfish reef co...

Presentation of RemediOS Project (about oyster nutrient bioextraction for the Mar Menor, SE Spain) at the Ocean Decad Laboratory 'Restoring oysters for a healthy ocean', held on 10 March

Seas and oceans represent most of planet Earth. The good health of their waters is crucial to sustaining life, not only of aquatic ecosystems but also of terrestrial ones. But this health is threatened by what’s called marine litter, the remains of all kinds of objects and materials, which are currently one of the main causes of pollution, creating...

Ecosystem services are the benefits that societies obtain from ecosystems. This concept originated in the 1970s and gained importance when the United Nations launched the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2005 (http://millenniumassessment.org). The objective of this assessment was to analyse the consequences of change in ecosystems for human well-...

The sea cucumber Parastichopus regalis is a fished resource in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea but there are no studies about its reproductive biology. The aim of the present study is to characterize the reproductive ecology of P. regalis including its sex ratio, a description of the gonad and the reproductive cycle to help the implementation of...

Understanding the structure and function of infaunal communities is useful in determining the biodiversity and ecosystem function of shallow estuaries. We conducted a survey of infaunal communities within three separate water basins [Mosquito Lagoon (ML), Indian River (IR), and Banana River (BR)] in the larger Northern Indian River Lagoon, FL, Unit...

Brown tides formed by Aureoumbra lagunensis decrease light penetration in the water column and are often followed by hypoxic events that result in the loss of fish and shellfish. To understand the ability of bivalve filter feeders to control and prevent A. lagunensis blooms, we exposed eastern oysters ( Crassostrea virginica ), hooked mussels ( Isc...

We built a simulation model based on Dynamic Energy Budget theory (DEB) to assess the growth and reproductive potential of the Manila clam Ruditapes philippinarum under different temperature and pH conditions, based on environmental values forecasted for the end of the 21st c. under climate change scenarios. The parameters of the DEB model were cal...

Small crabs belonging to the family Pinnotheridae are characterized by living inside mainly bivalves. In European waters the recently-described pea crab Pinnotheres bicristatus increased to five the known number of pinnotherid species. The know distribution of the recently-described pea crab Pinnotheres bicristatus encompassed the area between the...

In 2011, the Indian River Lagoon, a biodiverse estuary in eastern Florida (USA), experienced an intense microalgal bloom with disastrous ecological consequences. The bloom included a mix of microalgae with unresolved taxonomy and lasted for 7 months with a maximum concentration of 130 μg chlorophyll a L−1. In 2012, brown tide Aureoumbra lagunensis...

Gastropod shells may present large spines and sharp shapes that vary according to environmental, taxonomic, and evolutionary factors. In these cases, classic morphometric methods used to study shell contour might not provide a clear representation of morphological shell based on angular decomposition of contour. The present study analyzed and compa...

Eutrophication is a challenge to coastal waters around the globe. In many places, nutrient reductions from land-based sources have not been sufficient to achieve desired water quality improvements. Bivalve shellfish have shown promise as an in-water strategy to complement land-based nutrient management. A local-scale production model was used to es...

Parastichopus regalis is an epibenthic holothurian common in the Mediterranean Sea and the NE Atlantic, which feeds on the upper layer of the sediment playing a significant role on soft-bottom dynamics. Whether or not P. regalis is able to select the sediment ingested by size is the question of this study. For this purpose, a comparison between gra...

Fisheries are one of the main economic sectors affected by marine litter, which can damage gear, reduce catch, and require time to repair or clean nets. This study aims to evaluate the type and density of marine litter in two shallow fishing grounds in the NW Mediterranean Sea, both belonging to the Natura 2000 network. Moreover, it quantifies the...

Interest in sea cucumber aquaculture is increasing worldwide for both consumption and ecological purposes. In the NW Mediterranean there is only one commercially exploited and edible sea cucumber, Parastichopus regalis, whose muscles are considered a culinary delicacy. With the aim to understand the potential for P. regalis to be grown in aquacultu...

As shellfish aquaculture moves from coastal embayments and estuaries to offshore locations, the need to quantify ecosystem interactions of farmed bivalves (i.e., mussels, oysters, and clams) presents new challenges. Quantitative data on the feeding behavior of suspension-feeding mollusks is necessary to determine important ecosystem interactions of...

The feeding behavior of three species of mussels, the native Ischadium recurvum and the invasives Mytella charruana and Perna viridis, was studied in an invaded ecosystem in Florida (USA). In situ feeding experiments using the biodeposition method were performed along a salinity gradient in four different locations along the St. Johns River. Water...

Shellfish aquaculture is gaining acceptance as a tool to reduce nutrient over enrichment in coastal and estuarine ecosystems through the feeding activity of the animals and assimilation of filtered particles in shellfish tissues. This ecosystem service, provided by the ribbed mussel (Geukensia demissa), was studied in animals suspended from a comme...

Land-based management has reduced nutrient discharges; however, many coastal waterbodies remain impaired. Oyster "bioextraction" of nutrients and how oyster aquaculture might complement existing management measures in urban estuaries was examined in Long Island Sound, Connecticut. Eutrophication status, nutrient removal, and ecosystem service value...

Eastern oysters Crassostrea virginica and hard clams Mercenaria mercenaria are key organisms for both the ecosystem services they provide and for their commercial value, but their populations have declined greatly worldwide. In an attempt to understand the interaction between bivalve physiology and environmental conditions, filter-feeding assays we...

The sub-tropical mussel Mytella charruana has been reported as invasive along the southeast coast of the USA since 1986. This mussel has been found to negatively impact the keystone species in its invaded range, the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica. To date, however, no mechanism for this negative impact has been determined. To elucidate the ro...

The growth and reproductive biology of the sea star Astropecten aranciacus was investigated on the continental shelf of the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. Sea stars were captured monthly in two bathymetric ranges (5-30 and 50-150 m) between November 2009 and October 2012. Bathymetric segregation by size in A. aranciacus was detected: small individ...

Aquaculture enhances food availability and provides economic and social benefits to coastal communities but there are concerns about the ability of the environment to sustain aquaculture expansion. Farming operations release particulate organic matter (unconsumed feed and fish feces) and inorganic nutrient excretions. The organic wastes settle onto...

The Indian River Lagoon, located on the Atlantic coast of Florida (USA), is one of the most diverse estuaries in the country gathering both temperate and subtropical species. The enormous biodiversity of the Lagoon has been recently threatened by multiple, massive, phytoplankton blooms since fall 2011. As a consequence, the sea grass coverage of th...

Coastal systems are some of the most widely invaded ecosystems on earth. Non-native and invasive species may have a negative effect on local biodiversity and can out-compete local species eradicating native fauna. The invasive mussel, Mytella charruana, was found in the Mosquito Lagoon (FL) in 2004 and has been reappearing ever since. In order to d...

Astropecten species inhabit soft-bottom habitats worldwide, from intertidal areas to the deep sea. Sympatric Astropecten species (Astropecten aranciacus, Astropecten irregularis pentacanthus, Astropecten platyacanthus Astropectenjonstoni and Astropecten spinulosus) occur in the shallow coastal area of the Maresme coast (northwestern Mediterranean S...

Eutrophication is a serious threat to the function and services supported by coastal ecosystems. Hypoxia and loss of seagrass can have cascading impacts on fisheries and aquaculture. Legislation aimed at reducing nutrient impacts includes the US Clean Water Act and EU Water Framework Directive, which focus on reductions of land-based nutrient sourc...

The Indian River Lagoon (IRL) encompasses 3 estuarine sub-lagoons that span over 250 km of the east coast of central Florida. In recent years, phytoplankton blooms have increased in occurrence and severity within the IRL. While these blooms have long been ascribed to increased nutrient loading, there are likely multiple, complex factors driving the...

The smooth clam Callista chione is an Atlantic-Mediterranean species that is commercially exploited in several European countries. Several aspects of its reproduction were studied in a coastal location of the northwestern Mediterranean as a tool for sustainable fisheries management. Gonadal development was classified into 6 different stages, rangin...

Bivalves and sea stars play an essential ecological role in the structure of benthic communities, being usually considered as key species. Shallow littoral bottoms in the northwestern Mediterranean are stressed by natural and anthropogenic impacts. As an example, in the Maresme coast (northwestern Mediterranean Sea) sand deposits are used to combat...

In 2011–12, a field study demonstrated that ribbed mussels from two locations in the north-east Atlantic Coast of the USA used different feeding strategies to adapt to widely differing seston characteristics and achieve the same absorption efficiency. To investigate whether there was local, genetic adaptation of mussels in the two contrasting sites...

Bivalves are considered key species in many marine communities and the decline of their populations usually causes changes in the structure of the ecosystems. The aim of the present study was to investigate changes in the spatial distribution and population structure of an exploited shellfish bed of Callista chione at a location of the northwestern...

The ribbed mussel (Geukensia demissa) is a keystone species in the salt marshes of the North American Atlantic coast. We investigated the clearance rates (CRs) and pathology of ribbed mussels exposed to cultures of two toxic algae, Aureococcus anophagefferens and Heterosigma akashiwo, for 5 d and contrasted the results with mussels fed the nontoxic...

The Atlantic ribbed mussel, Geukensia demissa, is found in salt marshes along the North American Atlantic Coast. As a first step to study the possibility of future cultivation and harvest of ribbed mussels for nutrient removal from eutrophic urban environments, the feeding behavior of ribbed mussels in situ was studied from July to October 2011. Tw...

The ribbed mussel (Geukensia demissa, Dillwyn 1817) is a dominant benthic filter-feeder in salt marshes along the North American Atlantic Coast. It has been proposed that the cultivation and harvest of ribbed mussels could be used to bioremediate the eutrophication of coastal waters. To accomplish this, mussels would be grown in suspension culture...

The feeding behavior of the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis was investigated in the field on top of a mussel raft in Alfacs Bay, NW Mediterranean Sea. The experiments were performed in November 2006 and February, April and July 2007 using a flow-through filter feeding device. Total particulate matter (TPM), particulate organic matter (POM) and par...

Spontaneous HAB occur in the aquatic ecosystem where filter feeding bivalves, such as mussels (Mytilus edulis), are harvested around the world. The effects of different species causing HAB upon bivalves are still under investigation. To contribute understand these relations, mussels were collected from Long Island Sound (USA) and exposed to the tox...

Alfacs Bay is a N.W. Mediterranean estuary important for mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis) aquaculture. During studies at the site, fiberglass particles were detected. The presence of fiberglass occurred naturally in the water throughout the study period (November 2006 to July 2007). An investigation was undertaken into its role in the feeding beh...

Eight cases of disseminated neoplasia were found among 540 specimens of Mytilus edulis collected from an intertidal beach in Connecticut in western Long Island Sound. This was unusual, because disseminated neoplasia is very rare in M. edulis but causes epizootic mortalities in another mussel species, M. trossulus. According to histology, mussels sh...

The harmful dinoflagellate Prorocentrum minimum has different effects upon various species of grazing bivalves, and these effects also vary with life-history stage. Possible effects of this dinoflagellate upon mussels have not been reported; therefore, experiments exposing adult blue mussels, Mytilus edulis, to P. minimum were conducted. Mussels we...

Mussels (Mytilus edulis) were exposed to cultures of the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium fundyense or the non-toxic alga Rhodomonas sp. to evaluate the effects of the harmful alga on the mussels and to study recovery after discontinuation of the A. fundyense exposure. Mussels were exposed for 9 days to the different algae and then all were fed Rho...

The effects of exposure to the type species for Karlodinium veneficum (PLY # 103) on immune function and histopathology in the blue mussel Mytilus edulis were investigated. Mussels from Whitsand Bay, Cornwall (UK) were exposed to K. veneficum (PLY #103) for 3 and 6 days. Assays for immune function included total and differential cells counts, phago...

Growth and mortality of mussel seed from two different Mediterranean ecosystems, a small semi-enclosed bay (Fangar) and an open sea area (Masnou), were investigated in Fangar Bay (Ebro Delta) using standard procedures. Mussel sampling was performed on a monthly basis from October 2002 to August 2003, in conjunction with monitoring of hydrobiologica...