Since 2015 I am an ICREA Research professor at University of Vic and Coordinator of the Aquatic Ecology Group (GEA). I hold a PhD in Biology (2003) from University of Girona (Spain). After my PhD I was a postdoc at the University of Oslo (2006) and the National Environmental Institute of Denmark (2006-2008). From 2009 to 2012, I worked as a research scientist at the European Commission-Joint Research Centre (Italy). I passed European Commission full competitions for Research Administrators (AD5 and AD7). In 2013, I was awarded a Marie Curie Intra European Senior Fellowship to work at the University of Aarhus (Denmark) for two years. In 2013, I was also a Visiting Scientist at the Middle East Technical University, Turkey. In 2021, the researchers from the Center for the Study of Mediterranean Rivers (CERM) joined our GEA research group that now has 16 members.

Research interests

Our research focuses on the response of aquatic ecosystems and their biodiversity to global changes (e.g. eutrophication, habitat destruction, climate change). We use the organisms’ size structure, in combination with taxonomical approaches, to assess biodiversity and ecosystem processes. We are also interested in basic and applied aspects of ecological theories relating organisms’ body size, metabolism and temperature. Our research includes the whole trophic structure from phytoplankton to fish. We focus on different aquatic ecosystems (lakes, rivers, ponds) and use complementary approaches such as experiments, latitudinal comparisons and models. Another important line of research is the study of the biodiversity and functioning of ponds ecosystems. Within this line I am coordinating the EU H2020 project PONDERFUL with the main objective to use pond ecosystems as Nature Based Solutions to mitigate and adapt to climate change and to protect biodiversity. Ultimately, we aim to apply our research results to solving problems related with the conservation of aquatic ecosystems. We also pay particular attention at transferring our knowledge into European policies and platforms (e.g. Water Framework Directive, Biodiversity Strategy, IPBES) and the general public.