Understanding emergent phenomena in novel materials at the fundamental level.

Human activity in mountains has decreased drastically in the last decades, modifying plant communities and landscape, mainly through shrub and tree encroachment with the detriment and reduction of pastures. Besides, global warming is affecting species distribution, and consequently the organization of communities, being particularly relevant for very specialized organisms and those adapted to extreme conditions like alpine ecosystems or dry habitats.

We focus on developing methods and strategies for the management and restoration of ecosystems and natural resources. Emphasis is allocated to identify and quantify the human impacts causing the degradation of terrestrial and aquatic communities and the socio-ecological interactions. We applied methods ranging from experimental manipulation to extensive field-work and ecological modeling, at multiple spatial-temporal scales.

The group investigates the environmental variability in continental areas during the Quaternary at different time scales from glacial cycles to annual and at different spatial scales including monitoring, from small basins to interhemispheric teleconnections. We use palaeoarchives as landscape and geomorphic systems, lakes, caves, biogenic deposits and archaeological sites.

Study of climate variability and relationships between global change and geomorphological and hydrological processes at different spatial scales: from slopes to large basins.

The research group on Fish Physiology and Sustainable Aquaculture is working in this activity since mid-seventies. Its research activity focuses on the study of basic and applied physiological aspects of fish culture, from reproduction process and throughout larval development up to the juvenil stage of both consolidated fish species and new species with high potential for aquaculture. This research is being done with a multidisciplinary perspective using biochemical, histological, bioenergetics, cellular and molecular techniques, and including genomic approaches.

The group is dedicated to the analysis of aquatic systems by implementing conceptual and technological tools generated in the field of oceanography. These analyses range from the physical processes that govern water masses to the consequences they have for the biogeochemistry and for key levels for management either because they are economic resources for their contribution to biodiversity.

Activities of the research group are focused on the study of biodiversity of aquatic systems, from molecular to population levels, as well as their responses to environmental stress related to global change. The group focuses on the study of marine biogeochemical cycles in both coastal and oceanic areas.

Assessment and diagnosis of soil and water contamination by pesticides and toxic elements in agricultural areas and development of physicochemical technologies for pollution prevention based on the immobilization of contaminants or the stablishment of remediation strategies.

Fruit trees breeding by using genetic engineering tecniques and physiological and biochemical studies of the antioxidative metabolism of fruit trees, as well as their response to environmental stress. We also study role of reactive oxygen species in seed germination and bud dormancy.