Gabriela Jorge-Romero

• PhD Student
• Researcher at Universidad de la República de Uruguay

Small-scale fisheries (SSFs) face numerous challenges, including resource overexploitation and precarious livelihoods due to limited or ineffective formal and institutional governance systems. In addressing the multifaceted challenges SSFs confront, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and livelihood security, understanding their adaptive cap...

Ecosystem services and societal goods and benefits provided by sandy beaches are increasingly affected by human stressors operating at different spatio-temporal scales. The core paradigm of sandy beach management hinges upon the cohesion and sustainability of the littoral active zone as a cohesive unit. However, as narrow open systems with permeabl...

The southwest South Atlantic Ocean (SWAO) is a highly dynamic region where subtropical and subantarctic waters converge, making it one of the world’s most productive marine areas. The SWAO is also one of the world’s most intense marine hotspots, with rising sea surface temperatures and climate-induced shifts in species distribution posing significa...

Sandy beaches, essential components of coastal landscapes, are increasingly threatened by urbanization, resource extraction, and climate change, jeopardizing their ecological integrity and scenic value. This study assesses the health and scenic quality of 100 sandy beaches along the Uruguayan coast, influenced by the Ro de la Plata estuary, using t...

The crisis in small-scale fisheries (SSFs) is worsened by weak governance structures, requiring urgent transformation. Participatory arrangements like co-management offer potential to enhance resilience in these socialecological systems. However, the performance of collaborative governance modes must be evaluated to support institutional learning,...

Climate change impacts on fishery resources have been widely reported worldwide. Nevertheless, a knowledge gap remainsvfor the warm-temperate Southwest Atlantic Ocean—a global warming hotspot that sustains important industrial and small-scale fisheries. By combining a trait-based framework and long-term landing records, we assessed species’ sensiti...

Sandy beaches are part of an integral social-ecological system whose management has to encompass the natural and societal features of the catchment and the adjacent marine area, as well as the beach itself. Using a multi-use and complex beach system in Uruguay, the La Coronilla and Barra del Chuy resort, we interrogate those natural and societal fe...

Despite the global occurrence of microplastic contamination on sandy beaches, evidence of microplastic distribution within beaches remains contradictory. When conflicting evidence is used to inform sampling surveys, it increases uncertainty in resulting data. Moreover, it hampers spatially explicit risk characterization of microplastic pollution to...

As a land-sea interface, the fingerprints of climate perturbations may be immediately and profoundly felt in sandy beaches and the macroinvertebrates they harbour. In particular, extreme climatological events can result in long-lasting or irreversible ecological changes, and therefore, it has become critical to understand how these ecosystems respo...

Between 2001 and 2009, a total of 38 aerial surveys were conducted in the Uruguayan Atlantic coast (30-35 º S) with the aim to study the general behaviour and habitat use patterns of southern right whales. A total of 489 whales were sighted, of which 95.5% were unaccompanied whales while 4.5% were cow-calf pairs. We photo-identified 54.4% of the wh...

Between 2001 and 2009, a total of 38 aerial surveys were conducted in the Uruguayan Atlantic coast (30-35 º S) with the aim to study the general behaviour and habitat use patterns of southern right whales. A total of 489 whales were sighted, of which 95.5% were unaccompanied whales while 4.5% were cow-calf pairs. We photo-identified 54.4% of the wh...

250 words) Copepods composition, distribution, and abundance at Montevideo Bay waters were studied to assess the impacts caused by industrial and anthropogenic sources on zooplankton community. Sampling was done at six stations during the cold (July – September/1997) and warm (January – April/1998) seasons. Copepods represented more than 80% of the...