Marine ecosystems, their populations and habitats are affected by a wide array of factors, both of natural (environmental changes, seasonality, natural hazards) and anthropogenic (fishing activity, habitat loss, climate change) origin. The group mission is to provide the scientific basis for the sustainable use and conservation of the marine living resources and their habitats.

Multidisciplinary group devoted to investigate the processes that govern the dynamics of the current and recent marine sedimentary systems using observational and modelling techniques. We address the causes and effects of natural sedimentary processes and anthropic actions in the marine environment through a multidisciplinary approach, investigating the interactions they have with biological, geochemical and physical processes. We analyze their effects on the ecosystem, their implications for the management of the marine environment and natural resources and their consequences for society.

The Continental Margins Group focuses on basic and applied geological research on continental margins and deep marine environments. Throughout its history, it has gained extensive experience working in a variety of geological and geographical contexts, from the Mediterranean to the Antarctic. In addition to its research, the GMC manages one of the most important collections of marine sediments and seismic profiles in southern Europe

Our goal is to advance the knowledge of the marine pelagic ecosystem, to promote innovative research and inform the society about the importance of protecting the health of the oceans, for the benefit of human health and well-being. Our research focuses on studying the structure and dynamics of plankton, their response to environmental and anthropogenic disturbances (global warming, stratification, acidification, turbulence, atmospheric deposition, continental runoff, pollution -including plastics-) and their role in the cycling of key chemical elements in the ocean.

Our research addresses the central role of the marine biosphere in the cycling of elements (mainly C, N and S) in the oceans and across the ocean-atmosphere boundary in the context of global environmental change. Both benthic and pelagic ecosystems are considered as drivers and receptors of climate and biogeochemical changes, and the ecophysiological bases of their responses are addressed.

The group conducts research projects related to the factors and mechanisms that determine the resilience of marine benthic ecosystems face to the global change impacts. To this end the group adopted a multidisciplinary ranging from taxonomy and systematics, to species biology, structure and dynamics of populations and communities, both benthic and planktonic, and the relationship of biological processes with environmental factors.

The group's activity is focused on the study of the interactions between the chemical composition of the diet and certain physiological and health parameters. Thus, issues such as digestive and metabolic utilization of nutrients, and the physiological effects at both local (intestine) or systemic levels of chemical fractions of foods (proteins, carbohydrates, fiber, etc.) are studied.

The group investigates, at cell and molecular levels, the role of antioxidants, free radicals and nitric oxide in the physiology of horticultural species (pepper, tomato, olive, pea, etc.) for the development of biotechnological tools/strategies which allow a better exploitation of the nutritional features of these crops.

One research line studies the redox signalling in chloroplasts and how it regulates the photosynthetic efficiency and the carbohydrate metabolism through reverse genetics analyses and by using biochemical, molecular and microscopy techniques, amongst others. Other research line investigates the impact of biotic and abiotic stress in the plant metabolism by biochemical, molecular, proteomic and imaging techniques, mainly those related to plant phenotyping.

We use an integrated approach to study the biochemical and molecular mechanisms of ion homeostasis in plants in order to develop biotechnological applications to improve salt tolerance, mineral nutrition and water use efficiency in crop plants.