V. Fernandez-Gonzalez

• PhD. Marine Sciences
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Alicante

Identifying drivers that shape biodiversity across biogeographical regions is important to predict ecosystem responses to environmental changes. While β‐diversity has been widely used to describe biodiversity patterns across space, the dynamic assembly of species over time has been comparatively overlooked. Insights from terrestrial and marine stud...

Black corals are important components of mesophotic and deep-water marine habitats. Their presence at great depths (e.g., 50 to 200 m) makes accessibility difficult, limiting our understanding of the associated biodiversity. Amphipods dominate vagile epifauna in marine habitats around the world, fulfilling important ecosystem functions. However, th...

Studies of non-indigenous species (NIS) often tend to focus on medium and large-sized taxa with potential for remarkable ecological and/or economic impact, whereas the early detection of small invertebrates is often delayed due to taxonomic challenge, lack of consistent, standardised monitoring efforts and limited funding. This study represents the...

In this work, we extracted chitosan from marine amphipods associated with aquaculture facilities and tested its use in crop protection. The obtained chitosan was 2.5 ± 0.3% of initial ground amphipod dry weight. The chemical nature of chitosan from amphipod extracts was confirmed via Raman scattering spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spec...

Amphipods are one of the dominant epifaunal groups in seagrass meadows. However, our understanding of the biogeographical patterns in the distribution of these small crustaceans is limited. In this study, we investigated such patterns and the potential drivers in twelve Cymodocea nodosa meadows within four distinctive biogeographical areas across 2...

In developing a holistic and innovative approach to determining the carrying capacity in marine finfish aquaculture, we carried out a modified Delphi exercise in which we asked industry experts to identify the factors influencing the production levels of the activity under different scenarios. We disseminated and discussed three rounds of questionn...

Sea lice infestations have been a major problem for the global salmon farming industry for several decades. To date, few studies have addressed the measurement of lice abundance in plankton samples and a standardized method to quantify sea lice larvae in water samples is still lacking. This study aims to: (1) evaluate the methods used to detect sea...

Artificial structures can be considered as high spatially structured habitats in the marine pelagic system, where patch connectivity would be strongly dependent on the exchange of larvae or dispersing individuals. Fish-farms located offshore may alter ecological connectivity, modifying trophic resources, and species dispersal among patches. High po...

Detection of new non-indigenous species is often delayed when taxonomically challenging taxa are involved, such as small-sized marine organisms. The present study highlights the relevance of scientific cooperation in the early detection of the invader amphipod Stenothoe georgiana. Originally described from North Carolina (USA), the species was rece...

Detection of new non-indigenous species is often delayed when taxonomically challenging taxa are involved, such as small-sized marine organisms. The present study highlights the relevance of scientific cooperation in the early detection of the invader amphipod Stenothoe georgiana. Originally described from North Carolina (USA), the species was rece...

Rhodolith seabeds are habitats underpinned by free-living calcareous macroalgae. We partitioned the relevance of the scale of temporal (four seasons throughout two successive years) and spatial (three depth strata: 18, 25 and 40 m) variation on the diversity, structure and abundance of amphipod assemblages living in rhodolith seabeds from Gran Cana...

Rhodolith seabeds are habitats underpinned by free-living calcareous macroalgae. We partitioned the relevance of the scale of temporal (four seasons throughout two successive years) and spatial (three depth strata: 18, 25 and 40 m) variation on the diversity, structure and abundance of amphipod assemblages living in rhodolith seabeds from Gran Cana...

Changes in bacterial assemblages along an environmental gradient determined by the distance to aquaculture installations were analysed, using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis to assess the influence of fish farming on marine sediments. Our findings show that changes in the structure of the bacterial community are a useful indicator for deter...

Bivalve cultivation, in single cultivation or in polyculture (including integrated multitrophic aquaculture; IMTA), is generally limited to eutrophic waters. We carried out a modeling study to test if, under meso- and oligotrophic conditions, depth could be a key factor for bivalve productivity associated to IMTA and other polyculture strategies. W...

Los arribazones son estructuras procedentes del desprendimiento de las hojas y rizomas de la fanerógama marina Posidonia oceanica, que se acumulan a modo de barrera en gran parte de las playas del mar Mediterráneo (Vacchi et al., 2016). Estas estructuras contienen agua y nutrientes, y son capaces de fertilizar el complejo arenoso y dunar, además de...

The Spanish National Advisory Board of Mariculture (JACUMAR) developed an initiative to unify methodologies between the regions of Spain, in which they proposed the implementation of site-specific “Environmental Monitoring Plans” (EMPs). In this study, we tested the feasibility of an EMP on a fish farm in the Mediterranean Sea. The methods and tool...

Current trends in aquaculture research are towards more sustainable aquaculture, implementing more environment-friendly models such as integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) systems. One possible IMTA strategy involves taking advantage of the species that naturally grow on aquaculture facility structures. Since amphipods have been cultured on...

The rapidly expanding Atlantic bluefin tuna fattening industry is characterized by high stock densities and a high input food biomass in the form of whole bait seafood. The environmental impact of this activity must be effectively monitored within a proper sustainable development framework, to address concerns about the potential adverse effects. H...

Aquaculture facilities provide a suitable habitat for a wide group of marine species that are able to colonise and settle on artificial structures. This study aims to determine the composition of fouling communities in off-coast facilities, with special emphasis on motile epifauna and amphipods as a main group. Seventeen aquaculture sites were samp...

An undescribed species of tanaidacean belonging to the genus Hexapleomera, tribe Pancolini, Hexapleomera bultidactyla sp. nov. was found in fouling community samples from off-coast fish farms cages in the western Mediterranean Sea. The species can be distinguished from other Hexapleomera species by the presence of a ventral apophysis on the dactylu...

Fish farms commonly support high abundances of invertebrates, especially amphipods, associated with fouling communities developed over nets, ropes and buoys. Protozoan epibiont ciliates of the genus Conidophrys were observed on three of the most abundant amphipod species collected from ropes of a fish farm in the western Mediterranean Sea. The amph...

Resúmenes del Simposio

Current aquaculture activities imply the use of aquafeeds with high inclusions of vegetable oils of terrestrial origin. These vegetable oils are rich in n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids but scarce in n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are essential for marine teleost and generally abundant in marine organisms. The submerged structure...

Organic loading from fish farming constitutes a significant disturbance to marine sediment, normally reducing species abundance and richness and creating disturbed patches in soft-bottom communities. In contrast, floating fish farms harbour a high abundance of invertebrates associated with fouling communities, particularly amphipods. Changes in mac...

Fish farms commonly support high abundances of invertebrates, especially amphipods, associated with fouling communities developed over nets, ropes and buoys. Two protozoan epibiont ciliates of the genus Conidophrys were observed on two of the most abundant amphipod species collected from ropes of a fish farm in the western Mediterranean Sea. Specim...

The non-indigenous caprellid Caprella scaura Templeton, 1836, native to the western Indian Ocean, was firstly recorded in the Mediterranean Sea in 1994, and all Mediterranean populations discovered to date are related to shoreline areas. A total of ten fish farms were sampled off the coasts of Spain (4), Italy (1), Croatia (2), Greece (1) and Malta...

The production of fish in coastal fish farms is carried out using artificial food which traditionally includes fish meal and oils. For different ecologic and economical reasons, part of these fish products has been replaced by terrestrial vegetable oils originating from corn or soya bean, among others. Modified fatty acid profiles have been widely...

Introduction Coastal fish farms act as good artificial reefs providing protection and high food availability (Sanchez-Jerez et al., 2011). Fish farms have been reported to show an environmental effect on the physicochemical properties of the water column and sediment, and also on macrofauna abundances (Dempster et al., 2002; Fernandez-Jover et al.,...

A 5-factor design survey was carried out to examine the spatial distribution at different scales of amphipod assemblages and sedimentary variables in soft bottoms adjacent to coastal aquaculture installations. Natural variability of sediment variables showed the highest values at the scales of sites (10s of meters) and locality (1 to 10 km), while...

En este trabajo se presenta un conjunto de casos de estudio donde se han aplicado distintas metodologías que ayudan a la formación de conocimiento utilizando aprendizaje autónomo o semiautónomo. En todos los casos propuestos se ha podido percibir por ambas partes del proceso formativo el éxito en los resultados de aprendizaje. Entre los casos de es...

RESUMEN (ABSTRACT) La presente red tiene como objetivo analizar casos de estudio donde se hayan aplicado metodologías que ayudan a la formación de conocimiento utilizando aprendizaje autónomo o semiautónomo. Así, ha sido posible identificar algunos casos de éxito metodológico y que pueden ser reutilizados en otras asignaturas o actividades. Se han...

Aquaculture activities have importantly increased in coastal marine areas since floating cages for intensive aquaculture started to develop. The establishment of these installations generates new artificial habitat; structures such as ropes, nets and buoys are rapidly colonized by fouling communities, which are mainly dominated by bivalves, hydroid...

Effects of sea bass and sea bream farming (Western Mediterranean Sea) on peracarid crustacean assemblages. Benthic soft–bottom assemblages are good indicators of environmental disturbance, such as coastal aquaculture, considering their rapid response in terms of diversity and abundance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the response of peracari...

XIII Cong. Nac. Acuicultura 21-24 Nov. Barcelona Comunicación 521 “Utilización de perfiles ecológicos para la selección de variables geoquímicas de sedimentos marinos como indicadoras del impacto ambiental generado por los cultivos marinos en mar abierto” A. Carballeira1, F. Aguado-Giménez2, N. González3, P. Sánchez-Jerez4, J.M. Texeira5, J.I. G...

Estudios recientes en la teoría de metapoblaciones, ecología del paisaje y la macroecología han revelado la gran importancia de la configuración del paisaje en la diversidad local y en la estructura de la comunidad. Por ello, los análisis del paisaje, usado tradicionalmente en ecología terrestre, han desarrollado una serie de índices para detectar...