AbellÓ Sala, Pere

Biography

I am a research scientist at the Institut de Ciències del Mar (CSIC) in Barcelona and specialise in the field of decapod crustacean biology. I graduated from Universitat de Barcelona - Facultat de Biologia in 1981. After wasting 18 months in the navy, I undertook my PhD in the Instituto de Investigaciones Pesqueras (CSIC) at Barcelona where I studied the faunistics and community structure of epibenthic decapod crustaceans along the continental shelf and slope of Catalonia (western Mediterranean), as well as the biology of one of the key species of the area, the crab Liocarcinus depurator, under the supervision of Dr. Carles Bas. After completing my PhD in 1986 I did a first post-doc at the Institut de Ciències del Mar (CSIC) in Barcelona focused on the population biology of decapod crustaceans affected by the hake fishery in the Benguela upwelling system off Namibia, under the supervision of Dr. Enrique Macpherson. Later on I got another postdoctoral fellowship to perform studies at the School of Biological Sciences/School of Ocean Sciences of the University of Wales - Bangor (UK) in 1988-1989, where I conducted studies on the behavioural ecology of crabs (activity rhythms and reproductive behaviour) under the supervision of Prof. Ernest Naylor. I got a permanent position in Institut de Ciències del Mar (CSIC) in 1990, where I have been based since. Among the academic tasks I have undertaken, I am especially proud of having acted as Scientific Editor of our journal Scientia Marina since 1993, and of being its Editor in Chief during the years 2002-2006. I have supervised six PhD and several postgraduate theses and published over 160 scientific papers.

Research Interest

Over the last years my research has focused on population biology of decapod crustaceans with a relatively wide scope including biogeography, behavioural ecology, population biology and genetics, larval morphology and ecology, etc. Most of my research can be included within an ecological approach to fisheries frame. In this way, most of the research is field-focused and many information is obtained from fisheries research surveys, as well as from integrative biological and environmental oceanographic cruises. Present research geographically focuses on the western Mediterranean and adjacent Atlantic Ocean and is directed towards 1) population biology and genetics of epibenthic and pelagic decapod crustaceans, 2) settlement, population dynamics and connectivity of key and fishery-interest species, 3) biodiversity: faunistics and biogeography of decapod and stomatopod crustaceans, 4) larval morphology and phylogeny, and 5) adaptive morphological and population biology responses to global change effects.