On September 1, the definitive list of “R&D&I PROJECTS” of the state programs for Knowledge Generation and Society Challenges (2019 call) was published, which had already been provisionally advanced on July 24. The Marine Research Center (CIM) managed to attract 854,000 euros in this call, representing 22% of the funding raised and 17% of the number of projects granted to the University of Vigo. This funding will launch 6 new research projects lasting between 3 and 4 years. These projects are part of the areas of aquaculture, marine pollution, and ocean observation and global change, involving seven research groups from the CIM. The University will make the funding effective in the coming days, facilitating the start of the research funded by these grants.
In the field of aquaculture, two projects were granted: “Homeostatic control of food intake in fish with special attention to the gut-brain axis and interaction with hedonic responses”, led by researchers from the Fish Physiology Group (FB2, CIM) José Luis Soengas and Jesús Manuel Míguez, and “Mitogenomics and mitoproteomics of marine mussels with double uniparental inheritance of mitochondrial DNA and different genetic background” led by Ángel E. Pérez and Paloma Morán, researchers from the Population Genetics and Cytogenetics Group (XB2, CIM).
The project led by the staff of the Fish Physiology Group aims to advance knowledge of the processes that regulate food intake in teleost fish, delving deeper not only into the homeostatic and circadian mechanisms studied to date, but also into the hedonic or reward mechanisms, not addressed in detail so far. The work is part of a project also led by the University of Vigo under the leadership of Jose Luis Soengas and has the collaboration of the Fish Neuroendocrinology groups of the Complutense University of Madrid and the Fish Intake Control group of the Torre de la Sal Aquaculture Institute-CSIC. The research team, which has been working together on this line for the last 15 years, hopes that, in the medium term, the transfer of the project results to the production sector will contribute to improving the design of feeding strategies in aquaculture and, consequently, help strengthen its competitiveness and sustainability.
The project led by the Population Genetics and Cytogenetics Group will analyze from an evolutionary point of view, and through high-throughput genomic and proteomic technology, mitochondrial proteins with differential expression of different species of the genus Mytilus that have an important function in mitochondrial biology and fertilization. Its objective is to know the potential involvement of the selected mitochondrial proteins in reproductive isolation, the mechanism of double uniparental inheritance (DUI), and sex determination. Furthermore, the project aims to propose a program for the production of unisex mussel lines for the species Mytilus galloprovincialis and to establish protocols for the cryopreservation of gametes and early larval stages that allow to avoid the dependence of mussel production on its natural reproductive cycle. The work team will have the contribution of the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, The University of Washington and The Swansea University.
In the field of marine pollution, the researcher of the Coastal Ecology Group, Ricardo Beiras (Ecocost, CIM) will be the principal investigator of the University of Vigo in the subproject “ECOPLAS: Ecotoxicological evaluation of recyclable polymers and biopolymers”. This subproject is part of a project coordinated by the QANAP Environmental Chemistry group of the University of A Coruña and aims to study in depth the possible environmental impact of biopolymers, compounds manufactured from biological material, potentially biodegradable, which aim to replace conventional plastic. The Ecotoxicology and Marine Pollution team (Ecotox, Ecocost group, CIM), led by Beiras, will evaluate the mechanism of aquatic toxicity, derived from the release of micro and nanoparticles that are toxic to organisms. The results obtained will be made known to the plastic industry to evaluate the replacement of conventional polymers with biodegradable ones.
In the line of research related to ocean observation and global change, three projects were awarded.
The first of them, “Tropical Indian Ocean Variability versus Global (paleo)climatic Change (TRIOPACC)”, will be led by researchers from the Group of Marine and Environmental Geology (Geoma, CIM) Gianluca Marino and Daniel Rey. TRIOPACC will contribute to quantifying the planet’s response to a temperature increase of 1.5 – 2°C, as collected by the Faro de Vigo in July. The study will be carried out through a thorough analysis of the tropical Indian marine sediments deposited over the last 500,000 years and will count on the collaboration of prestigious entities such as The University of Arizona, the Escuela Politécnica Federal de Zürich (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich) and The Australian National University. This project represents an important success for the Paleoclimate Laboratory that, within GEOMA, is being led and is being built by Professor Marino, distinguished researcher at the University of Vigo and honorary professor at the National University of Australia.
The second of them, “Biennial Observation of Carbon, Acidification, Transport and Sedimentation in the North Atlantic (BOCATS2)”, is a subproject led by researchers Guillermo Francés and Gabriel Rosón from the Geological Oceanography and Biogeochemistry (XM1, CIM) and Physical Oceanography (GOFUVI, CIM) groups. The overall project will be coordinated by the Institute of Marine Research (IIM, CSIC). The subproject led by researchers Francés and Rosón will focus on the millennial and submillennial variability of deep currents through the deep channels that cross the Reykjanes Ridge (Bight and Charlie-Gibbs fracture zones). These two fracture zones constitute the main deep-water communication routes between the western and eastern basins of the North Atlantic and their hydrography is quite unknown, especially in the past and under different global climatic conditions. The research team has the contribution of specialists from the Instituto de Ciencias del Mar (ICM, CSIC) and the Instituto Tecnolóxico do Mar (INTECMAR, Xunta de Galicia). The work team also collaborates with researchers from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC, UK), the Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER, France), the University of Bremen (Germany) and Royal Holloway University (UK). The research team aims with this project to advance the precise detection of the anthropogenic impact on the climate and to improve the projections of the adjusted climate models that support the IPCC reports for the North Atlantic subpolar gyre, a region known for its strong influence on the European climate.
Finally, Sandra Martínez-García, distinguished researcher at the University of Vigo belonging to the Biological Oceanography Group (GOB, CIM), will lead her own subproject from the University of Vigo within the project “TRAITS: An approach to the study of microbial ecology based on traits and guilds”. The coordinated project will be led by the National Center for Biotechnology (CNB, CSIC). The team led by researcher Martínez-García will carry out different experiments in microcosms, consisting of the addition of organic matter derived from phytoplankton to natural bacterial communities in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, and will describe bacterial functional groups related to the use of nutrients in the ocean through bioinformatics analysis of different databases. The research team also has the participation of the University of La Laguna. With the results obtained, the research team aims to improve the information included in models of marine ecosystems on the functional role of bacteria in nutrient flows in the ocean.
The director of the Marine Research Center, Daniel Rey, highly values the success achieved in this call. He emphasizes that the scientific quality and leadership capacity of its researchers contribute with determination to the advancement of scientific knowledge in the marine environment, in particular, and of our planet in general. These projects address some of the most important challenges that society is currently facing. The Center’s research activity also has the support of the Xunta de Galicia and the European Union, through its co-financing under the FEDER/FSE Galicia 2014-2020 Operational Program.
