Seminar: "From Feeding Links to Ecosystem Health", by Abril Reynés

The Oceans's Challenge groups are organizing a new seminar by Abril Reynés Cardona, PhD researcher at Ghent University.

Seminar: "From Feeding Links to Ecosystem Health: Food Web Stability in the Belgian North Sea" 

Speaker: Abril Reynés Cardona, PhD researcher at Ghent University

• Date: Thursday, June 18th, 2026
• Time: 12h
• Venue: Room Z/032 ICTA-UAB & online https://zoom.us/j/94438470843?pwd=znnR6UX7Sfr1UXF6ToMSPodZCUL8z8.1

Marine faunal communities are increasingly affected by global climate change and local human pressures, driving shifts in biodiversity that alter both ecosystem structure and functioning. Food web ecology provides a powerful framework to understand these changes by viewing ecosystems as networks of feeding interactions and energy flows, from which we can derive indicators of functioning and stability. In her PhD, she compiles and integrates food web data from multiple habitats in the Belgian Part of the North Sea to investigate how anthropogenic impacts and habitat type shape food web structure, carbon pathways, and ecosystem stability. Ultimately, her research aims to improve our understanding of how human activities influence marine ecosystem functioning and to support more informed monitoring and management of coastal environments.

Abril Reynés Cardona is a PhD researcher at Ghent University investigating how anthropogenic impacts affect trophic interactions and food web structure and how this relates to ecosystem functioning and stability.