The CIM researchers collaborated in the development of more than twenty projects led by researchers from 11 foreign institutions who attended the facilities of the Toralla Marine Science Station, ECIMAT, under the transnational access program (TNA) within the project Assemble Plus (Association of European Marine Biological Laboratories Expanded).
The European program offers research and technical staff from public and private institutions around the world the use of the facilities and services in each of the infrastructures included in the Assemble Plus project, enabling as well collaboration with the research staff of each of the centers and the establishment of links between different marine research entities.
Among the 24 people who enjoyed the program until today, Tiago Repolho, from the University of Lisbon, Luigia Santella, from the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn and Isabel Teixeira, from the University of Aveiro, share their experiences.
Isabel Teixeira: Phytoplankton responses to a climate change scenario in the NW Iberian upwelling system
Isabel Teixeira (Universidade de Aveiro) focus her research on phytoplankton ecology, and I am especially interested on the response of phytoplankton communities to a future climate change scenario. “With Assemble Plus, I could access to excellent infrastructures and successfully perform climate change simulation experiments with natural phytoplankton communities. Collaboration with Cristina Sobrino (Biological Oceanography Group, CIM) allowed expanding the experimental design, resulting in the collection of more data than initially proposed, and enhancing the complexity of the project.
Thus, my experience was very positive, having obtained very good results and established new professional collaborations. I truly acknowledge the research and technical staff from the Access Provider for their help and involvement during my research stay”.
Luigia Santella: Role of the actin cytoskeleton in the regulation of the fertilization and early stages of development in sea urchin eggs
Luigia Santella studies at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (SZN, Italia) the cellular and molecular events regulating oocyte maturation and fertilization of starfish and sea urchin eggs. The results of the project developed at the ECIMAT in collaboration with the Rd Estefanía Paredes (Ecocost, CIM) have provided evidence that the alteration of the physicochemical properties and structure of the cortex of unfertilized sea urchin eggs caused by osmotic treatments and pH changes of seawater compromise the fertilization response and impaired embryogenesis. “The successful Assemble Plus program application has given me the possibility of using three different sea urchin species to access the biological resources of marine model organisms of ECIMAT, diving me information on the fertilization response of sea urchin species that are not available in our institute. My stay was pleasant, fruitful, and useful thanks to the excellent support of Dr. Estefania Paredes, with whom I have established a collaboration”.
Tiago Repolho: Evolution of Ascidians under Ocean Warming and Ocean Acidification
The aim of the research project of Tiago Repolho and Rui Rosa (Universidade de Lisboa) was to experimentally assess the adaptive potential of the sea squirt Ciona intestinalis to ocean warming and ocean acidification conditions, under a multigenerational perspective. “To kick start our project, myself and my colleague Dr Rui Rosa have applied to ASSEMBLE Plus program in order to collect adult individuals of this species, derived from different populations (western coast of the Iberian Peninsula). The support and logistics that were provided by the program itself and the service provider (ECIMAT) were primordial for us to start our project and achieve the research objectives being set. Overall, our experience with ASSEMBLE Plus was highly beneficial for our project, besides allowing us to further develop additional research collaborations for the near future”.
Font: Assemble Plus