Obiettivo
Research objectives and content
The aim of the project is to find natural substances which can potentiality be used as antifouling agents. To do this we pretend to study the biotic factors responsible for the recruitment of benthic invertebrates in the sublittoral system, mainly focused on the possible roles that allochemicals perform in the inhibition/induction of the colonisation processes. The work will carried out analysing the spatial/temporal structure of the invertebrate larvae pool across the water column, studying the influence of the biotic substratum, establishing the role that chemically mediated interactions play in the larval behaviour, comparing the structure of the larval pool with that of the benthic assemblage, designing a descriptive model explaining the respective roles played by the biological and chemical parameters studied on the colonisation process in benthos, searching the inhibitors of the larvae settlement. The field study will be conduced in the circalittoral zone of the Mediterranean Sea doing scuba dive collection.
Training content (objective, benefit and expected impact)
The objective and benefit of this training would be: 1) the general formation of the candidate on topics of biochemistry and laboratory work, field work and design of experiments. 2) the general knowledge of the biotic factors responsible for the recruitment of benthic organisms which can be then applied to find some antifouling substances. We expect to publish all this work (in minimum four publications) on impact international journals.
Links with industry / industrial relevance (22)
The expected results will be relevant for the industry of the marine antifouling paints.
Campo scientifico
Argomento(i)
Invito a presentare proposte
Data not availableMeccanismo di finanziamento
RGI - Research grants (individual fellowships)Coordinatore
17300 Blanes
Spagna