Patricia Baena

Institut de Ciències del Mar · Department of Marine Biology

Under the ongoing global change, a sustained reliance of symbiotic coral species on heterotrophy may support their resistance to climatic stressors. However, much remains unknown about the role of heterotrophy on coral reproduction, despite its key role in the persistence of coral populations and connectivity. In this study, we experimentally inves...

The Southern Ocean harbours rich deep-sea ecosystems with local hotspots of benthic biodiversity. Still, many species, including deep-water octocorals, remain undescribed despite the fact that the exploration of the deep-sea has improved thanks to recent technological advances. In this context, a new species of golden gorgonian has been collected a...

Cold-Water Corals play a paramount role in marine benthic ecosystems, increasing their complexity and providing spawning and nursery habitats to many species. However, due to their sessile lifestyle and ramified shape they are commonly entangled in nets and even by-caught during the practice of bottom-contact fishing, which includes impacts from bo...

Despite the general belief that the Southern Ocean harbors low fish biodiversity, the Weddell Sea hosts one of the richest fish communities in the region. Parallelly, the Weddell Sea is also known for the presence of dense and diverse macrobenthos. Most macrobenthic invertebrates, such as gorgonians, sponges and bryozoans, are considered ecosystem...

Although Astrospartus mediterraneus (Risso, 1826) is an emblematic Mediterranean species, limited information is currently available, as it has not received much attention from the marine scientific community to date. In this context, an unusually high abundance of this basket star was observed in 2018 as part of the by-catch of local artisanal fis...

The "Gorgònia Barcelona" project was born in 2021 in Barcelona, one of the cities with more inhabitants of the Mediterranean, in collaboration with the Catalan Federation of Subaquatic Activities (FECDAS) and local social associations. This project counts with the support of the City Hall of Barcelona and the community of practices of biosciences &...

During the 20th and 21st centuries, the growing demand for marine resources by Mediterranean countries has led to a gradual increase in fishing pressure. As a result, both coastal and continental Mediterranean waters have suffered from the impacts of trawling and, to a lesser extent, of artisanal fishing with longlines, trammel nets and other minor...

Fishing is one of the human activities with the highest impact on seabeds. During the past hundred years it has gradually expanded to deeper waters, and almost all continental shelf and slopes worldwide have now been fished to some extent. In EU managed fishing grounds between 200 and 1000 m depth, it is estimated that bottom trawling has impacted...

Astrospartus mediterraneus (Risso, 1826) (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) is an emblematic Mediterranean species yet, it has few reports and hasn't received much attention from the marine scientific community to date. In the framework of a project to assess how to mitigate the impact of artisanal fishing on benthic communities at the Site of Community...

Cold-water coral (CWC) gardens, mainly composed of gorgonians, soft corals and black corals, support a highly diversified associated mobile fauna, representing a key benthic habitat on the Mediterranean continental shelf. These communities are vulnerable to bottom-contact fishing gears, including trawling and small-scale fishing. In the frame of a...

The negative effects from recurrent industrial fishing are widespread in the Mediterranean Sea waters, being the conservation status of the benthic ecosystems especially critical in the Catalan continental margin (NW Mediterranean Sea), which is identified as a hotspot of ecological importance due to the high concentration of endangered, threatened...

Cold-water gorgonians dwelling on the continental shelf are a common by-catch of bottom-contact fishing practices. Given the slow growth and limited recruitment of cold-water gorgonians, the impact of fishing activities may seriously compromise the conservation of the highly complex coral gardens communities. For this reason, the development of eff...

Cold-water coral (CWC) habitats dwell on continental shelves, slopes, seamounts, and ridge systems around the world’s oceans from 50 to 4000 m depth, providing heterogeneous habitats which support a myriad of associated fauna. These highly diverse ecosystems are threatened by human stressors such as fishing activities, gas and oil exploitation, and...

Exploration of the ocean is still one of the greatest challenges facing humankind. In the last decades our knowledge has increased considerably, thanks mainly to technological advances such as remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and manned underwater vehicles, as well as new acoustic techniques that allow us to see the sea floor on a computer screen...

La exploración del océano sigue siendo uno de los grandes retos de la humanidad. En las últimas décadas se ha avanzado mucho en su conocimiento, gracias sobre todo a adelantos tecnológicos como los vehículos operados remotamente (ROV) o los submarinos tripulados, además de técnicas acústicas que permiten visualizar el relieve del fondo marino en la...

Morphological variability in gorgonians is frequent and commonly associated with habitat variability, often resulting in segregated morphotypes. Paramuricea macrospina is an endemic Mediterranean gorgonian species found on rocky bottoms between 40 and 160 m depth and has recently been reported as one of the most abundant species in continental shel...