On Thursday, April 20 at 11am, in the ECIMAT auditorium, a new session of the Café con Sal Conference Series will take place. On this occasion, it will be Ana García, a doctoral student at the Rey Don Juan Carlos University (URJC), who will present part of the results of her thesis, carried out in collaboration with Celia Olabarria (Coastal Ecology group) with the talk entitled “Is Codium fragile spp fragile an invasive species along NW Spain?“.
Biological invasions and climate change are among the main threats to biodiversity. In a climate change scenario, native species face greater difficulty adapting to new environmental conditions, while invasive species adapt more easily. In the case of C. fragile (an invasive species), rising temperatures enhance its growth potential and improve its competitive ability. Being a cryptic species—morphologically identical to its native congener, C. tomentosum—C. fragile can remain undetected in ecosystems for long periods. Although C. fragile is classified as an invasive species, it currently coexists with C. tomentosum along our coasts, and its invasive potential remains unclear.
In this context, Ana García, under the supervision of Rosa María Vello García and Brezo Martínez Díaz-Caneja (URJC), is developing her doctoral thesis (Determinant Factors of Contractions and Expansions in the Distribution of Coastal Founding Species: Improving Predictions under Climate Change Scenarios). The main objective is to identify the biotic and physical factors that determine the distribution ranges of a contracting species (Fucus serratus) and an expanding species (Codium fragile), with the aim of improving predictions of species distributions under climate change scenarios.
During this conference, Ana will present the results of several experiments developed at ECIMAT under the direction of Celia Olabarria focused on the study of the population dynamics of the two species of Codium along the northwest coast of the peninsula and the study of the competition process between the two.
See the Conference poster and the Complete Program of the Café con Sal Conference Cycle.
