Alejandro Bernal-Ibáñez

photo showing the skin of sea otters, in 1892, by @NOAA archives

Marine #megafauna is at risk in many seas
Sea otters are iconic predators in the north Pacific, but they were heavily hunted for their fur in the 18th and 19th centuries, as @nancyknowlton.bsky.social comments in this post
#GES4SEAS #MOOC #oceanoptimism

Marine Heatwaves and Reduced Dietary Diversity Weaken Herbivory Control Over the Invasive Seaweed Rugulopteryx okamurae The brown macroalga Rugulopteryx okamurae, identified as invasive in the Strait of Gibraltar a decade ago, is rapidly expanding across the NE Atlantic and the NW Mediterranean, displacing native asse....

My first paper as last author 🎉
We show how marine heatwaves and biological invasions interact to weaken top-down control in coastal ecosystems. Rising temperatures strongly reduce grazing by Paracentrotus lividus and potential control over invasive spp onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Evaluating respiration rates of #Paracentrotus lividus fed with different proportions of the invasive alga #Rugulopteryx okamurae

The sea urchin Paracentrotus seems to not like to graze on the invasive macroalga Rugulopteryx okamurae.
@bernalocean.bsky.social
#ITRS2025
🧪🦑

My first #ITRS! Very happy to have spent a fantistic week with colleagues and many friends full of macroalgae, sea urchins, and much more!!

This is phenomenal.

Sea surface temperatures are >5C above average to the west of the UK and around Iceland. It's the strongest area of anomalous warmth on the planet at the moment.

It's the warmest in recorded history for northwest Europe.

Almost there! Excited for the next #ITRS2025

A small cunner (Tautogolabrus adspersus) peers through strands of sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima) in a lush kelp forest ecosystem on Cashes Ledge in the Gulf of Maine.

Kelp forests on the coast of Maine are in decline owing to rapid ocean warming and are being replaced by turf algae, which alter the ecosystem’s chemistry, hindering the recovery of kelp forests.

Learn more in this week's issue of Science: scim.ag/4dwzl8j

Once we hit 500 followers, we'll randomly select a winner from our followers list. Credit can be used on any course-online or in person!

#WinCourses #SocialMediaGiveaway
#500Followers #FollowToWin #FreeLearning #CourseCredit #UpskillNow #LifelongLearning #ProfessionalDevelopment

During our first week of sampling, we have already noticed a remarkable difference between the percentage cover of macroalgae in the same spots in the Cyclades Islands. Once macroalgal forests, now turf...

During our first week of sampling, we have already noticed a remarkable change in the percentage cover of macroalgae in several sites of the Cyclades Islands. Once macroalgal forests, now turf...
@skatsanevakis.bsky.social @rilovlab.bsky.social @ceabcsic.bsky.social

Another experiment started! How fishes are interacting with the invasive macroalgae #Rugulopteryx okamurae?

Trump is stripping protections from marine protected areas – why that’s a problem for fishing’s future, and for whales, corals and other ocean life America’s marine protected areas help fish populations thrive. Trump’s plan to open them to industrial fishing may ultimately harm the fishing industry itself.

Last week, President Trump removed key protections from a marine protected area that's home to coral reefs, whales, sea turtles, and countless fish. My op-ed for @us.theconversation.com explains why that's bad and we should not do that.

theconversation.com/trump-is-str... 🧪🦑🌎🐟

YouTube video by Rachel Forbes Filming Greenland Sharks for Science!

For my graduate research, I'm using Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUV) surveys to study the elusive Greenland shark. Check out our video below to learn more about this unique species! #ArcticScience #SharkResearch
youtu.be/UxjJOKBlsE4?...

Join us!! 👇👇👇

If you are attending the next #ITRS25 in Brest and are interested in sea urchin barrens and their impacts on temperate reefs join our pre-conference workshop!
@ceabcsic.bsky.social @uwaoceans.bsky.social @adriatix.bsky.social @bernalocean.bsky.social

itrs-home.org/sea-urchin-b...

This work was supported by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. projects #BIOKAMURAE I [PP.FEM.PPA202200.002] and #BIOKAMURAE II [PR.FEMPA.DIP2023B.001.04.]

My first PostDoc first publication! Our study shows long-term negative effects of the invasive macroalga #Rugulopteryx #okamurae on the common sea urchin #Paracentrotus #lividus. Invasion context matters!
sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

My number of followers here is already higher than in the older-toxic platform. Time to full adopt Blue Sky.

“The growing threat of invasive alien species in Europe”. What are we doing to understand the invasion by #Rugulopteryx #okamurae? Thanks @euronews.com for spreading part of our work at IFAPA - Junta de Andalucía www.euronews.com/green/2024/1...

Hi Lauren! Impressive work, congrats!! We want to explore it for macroalgae benthic systems. Do you have a publication about it or could you provide info about the method so we try to replicate it here? Thanks in advance!

Yesterday filming for @euronews.com to show how we are describing the invasion by #Rugulopteryx #okamurae in S Iberian Peninsula within #BiokamuraeII project

Would love to see this network evolve to be better than the bird site!

please connect with me if you’re interested in any of the following: coral reef ecology, scuba diving, photogrammetry / 3d modeling, statistics/ statistical modeling, AI, robotics/automation, or academia 💙

Giant kelp forests are being restored in Tasmania. This kelp forest is one of the healthiest I’ve seen for many years.

Hey Matt! Can I be added? Thanks!!

Hi John, can I be added? Thanks in advance!!

Thank you Lars!

We also tested that the position of the recruits within the patch may influence their survival. Recruits located directly under the adults have lower survival rates than those at the edge or outside the canopy, likely due to adult-recruit intraspecific competition

Through an herbivory exclusion experiment, we observed the low potential of natural recovery of marine forest species in barren areas and the main effect of grazers (less than 48h!!)

This work includes 4 different experiments (3 in the field, 1 in the lab). In the field, we analyzed how the natural context influences the survival of recruits. Highlight: we detected a #MHW which caused a massive mortality of adults and recruits of #Cystoseira foeniculacea

The last chapter of my #PhD is now published in @JPhycology! We explored biotic and abiotic interactions around the initial crucial stages of development of a #marineforest former species in Madeira with implications for future restoration actions. OA link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....