Marine research and monitoring in the the Jaume Ferrer Research Station

(La Mola, Menorca) 26 May 2018

Jaume Ferrer research station Aims

Research objectives

External activities of marine research

Formation, high degree education(PhD, masters..)

Jaume Ferrer research station agreement between Balearic Government and Balearic Oceanographic Center

(IEO) www.ba.ieo.es/es/estacion-jaume-ferrer

Biodiversity and conservation

Marine ecosystems and sustainable exploitation of

their resources

Monitoring and global impacts estimation in the

sea

Evaluation and management of marine ecosystems

The station offers housing scientists (technicians and

researchers), and use facilities offered by the

station

Facilities and equipment of Jaume Ferrer Research Station

Indicators and Reserve Biosphere

Indicators on fisheries, benthic communities, water

masses, pelagic invertebrates, pollution

Jaume Ferrer research station

Providing valuable data for management of marine

resources and coastal and offshore marine

ecosystems

Long term series of

data

Coastal monitoring

Scientific program of the Jaume Ferrer Research Station

Seawater chemical-physics

Fisheries

Benthic species

Pelagic invertebrates

Pollution

Each marine monitoring program is supervised by researches from IEO or others academic institutions within the main topics:

Sea water Temperature monitoringInstallation of permanent temperature sensors from 5 m to 40 meters depth with a sensor every 5 m

Seawater chemical-physics

Illa de Porros: until -40m

Illa de l’ Aire: until de -25m

Seawater chemical-physics

Menorca in the T-medNET (www.t-mednet.org) network and monitoring Global Change

Collaboration with SOCIB (Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System, www.socib.eu) in oceanographic monitoring of water masses with sensors placed

between 15 and 20 m depth and installed in Mahón harbor

Coastal water masses

Seawater chemical-physics

10

13

16

19

22

25

28

Temperatura (ºC)

Fisheries

Trawling

To evaluate the fishing resources exploited by trawlers in Menorca we performed shipments on the three trawlers Mao fishing fleet, main indicators: abundance indices, biomass and demographic structure of the main species exploited are evaluated

Aristeus antennatus

Nephrops norvegicus

Mullus surmuletus

Loligo vulgaris

Merluccius merluccius

Fisheries

Trawling ResultsRendimiento Plataforma costera (50-100 m)

Total Comercial Descarte

n/h 465,45 339,89 125,56SD 0,13 18,14 4,22

Kg/h 77,50 57,41 20,10SD 1,06 1,19 0,82

Rendimiento Talud medio (500- 800m)Total Comercial Descarte

n/h 1535,57 778,85 756,72SD 69,66 45,27 86,84

Kg/h 17,71 14,96 2,75SD 0,31 0,42 0,079

I P V O0,00,51,01,52,02,53,0

PCKg / h

I P V O0,0

0,5

1,0

1,5

2,0

2,5

TS

TMKg / h

I P V O0

5

10

15

20

TMKg / h

Merluccius merluccius

Mullus surmuletus

Aristeus antennatus

Artisanal fishing

Monitoring to identify the fishing gears, fishing effort and demographic structure of commercial species with special emphasis on lobster

Monthly shipments around the island on several fishing boats thanks to the collaboration with the fishery of Menorca: Maó, Fornells, Ciutadella

Palinurus elephas Hacelia attenuataCharonia lampasCalappa granulata

Fisheries

Fisheries

Artisanal fishing Results

Palinurus elephas

Palinurus elephas (lobster) recruitment

Artificial collectors and underwater census in the rocky bottoms to observe the recruitment state and the abundance of juvenile lobster in Menorca

Benthos

Benthos

Macroalgae: Cystoseira forests conservation

Cystoseira barbata forest restoration in Maó bay and monitoring of the growth state, recruitment and population dynamics

Benthos

Macroalgae: Cystoseira forests conservation

Pinna nobilis

Benthos

Pinna nobilis is largest endemic bivalve in the Mediterranean. We monitored population around the island, after a mass mortality caused by a pathogen.

Benthos

Pinna nobilis mortality

Invasive Algae

Monitoring of abundance and distribution of all the invasive algae species detected in Menorca: sampling 32 stations around the Island.

Benthos

Caulerpa racemosav. cilindracea

Womersleyella setacea

Lophocladia lallemandii

Acrothamnion preissii

Asparagopsis taxiformis.

Caulerpa racemosa v. cilindracea

Benthos

Benthos

Womersleyella setacea

Bleaching in the Marine Reserve

Several research with the collaboration of the Jaume Ferrer Station are studying a bleaching event caused by excessive herbivorism. This event leaded to disappearance of Cystoseira forest in the zone.

Research

Jellyfishes

European networks

Pelagia noctiluca

Velella velella

Rhizostoma pulmo

Cotylorhiza tuberculata 

The research station is included within the european network CIESM (http://www.ciesm.org/) providing observations about the presence of jellyfish species.

Pollution

Microplastic pollution

study microplastic contamination at main harbors (Maó, Ciutadella)

Water quality using macroalgae as bioindicators

Eutrophication

Jaume Ferrer research station promotes studies in the marine ecosystems. The interlink with the ‘Reserva Biosfera’ is essential to provide knowledge on the treats to the marine life by providing indicators about sustainability on the long term

•Scientific and educational communications•Open-doors events

Thank you