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Research Group in Microbial Diversity and Taxogenomics of Prokaryotes - TAXGEN-PRO

Studies of prokaryotic diversity in aquatic environments (especially marine) and bacterial taxonomy.

  • Polyphasic characterisation of bacteria and archaea, especially marine, for taxonomic purposes, formal description and conservation of new bacterial taxa and generation of databases useful for their identification.
  • Phenotypic and functional characterisation: cultural, structural, physiological, biochemical and nutritional characters, determination of chemotaxonomic characters (fatty acids, polar lipids, quinones, majority proteins by MALDI-TOF, G+C).
  • Comparative genomics applied to prokaryotic taxonomy: obtaining data (new sequences, extension and/or closed) of type strains and new isolates, comparative analysis and phylogenetic studies based on conserved genes (16S rRNA gene, various essential genes), phylogenomics based on complete genomes. Determination of in silico DNA-DNA hybridisation values and ANI (Average Nucleotide Identity) and AAI (Average Aminoacid Identity) indices from genomic sequences.
  • Formal aspects: Nomenclature in prokaryote taxonomy. 

Taxonomic groups: preferably families, genera and species of the phyla Pseudomonadota (especially families Vibrionaceae, Halomonadaceae and Rhodobacteraceae) and Bacteroidota (order Flavobacteriales), among other taxa.

Research Group on Ecology, Ethology and Evolution - e3

The group of “Ecology, Ethology and Evolution” gathers researchers from the Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology and is dedicated to fundamental and applied research at the interphase between ecology, animal behaviour and evolutionary biology. The aim is to contribute to the scientific knowledge of complex biological phenomena in which the relationship between individuals and their biotic and abiotic environment plays a fundamental role.

Examples include animal communication, sensory ecology, characteristics and behaviours associated with sexual and asexual reproduction, complex life cycles, non-linear population dynamics, response to environmental fluctuation and uncertainty, response to spatial heterogeneity, processes of co-evolution between symbionts, and the effects of anthropogenic factors on organisms.

From the methodological point of view, an integrative approach is used, combining theoretical analysis, laboratory experiments and field experiments and observations, as well as a wide range of conceptual and instrumental techniques: modelling, computational simulation, molecular, microscopic and audiovisual techniques, spectrophotometry, bioacoustics, demography, phylogenetic analysis, determination of parameters, classical and molecular taxonomy, etc.

The emphasis of the group is on basic or fundamental research, but attention is paid to all those branches of applied relevance: toxicity bioassays, aquaculture, population viability analysis, climate change effects, etc. In its researches, the group seeks to solve general, theoretically motivated biological problems using model systems and organisms in which its members are experts.

Research Group on Ecophysiology and Environmental Toxicology in Fish and Invertebrates - ECOFITOXFIN

Since the 80s of the last century, environmental quality has been gaining interest in the scientific field, being a challenge to develop tools to understand and evaluate the implications of the negative effects of anthropic action on the biosphere, while ensuring sustainable development.

Since then, the group's research activity has focused on the study of the mechanisms and responses triggered by physical and chemical agents in animals, with the aim of their application in various contexts: in the development of new pesticides, in the evaluation of animal responses to global warming, in the evaluation of the toxicity of environmental pollutants, in the ecophysiological characterisation of pest and invasive species, and in the development and optimisation of biomarkers indicative of animal health and welfare.

The group uses specialised methodologies to carry out bioassays with substances of agrochemical (pesticides) and environmental interest in different insect species as well as in freshwater and marine animals (fish, crustaceans and molluscs). The environmental agents and problems investigated by the group include pesticides, metals, pharmaceuticals, nanoparticles, nano- and microplastics, temperature increase in relation to global warming, as well as invasive animal species. Studies are carried out using a variety of methodologies including exposure of animals to toxicants via ectopic, alimentary, aerial or aquatic routes, all under controlled conditions.

Studies are also carried out in the natural environment. Toxicokinetic studies are carried out, as well as the evaluation of physiological parameters (reproduction, level of energy reserves, osmolality, plasma metabolites), biochemical parameters (oxidative damage, antioxidant defences, metallothionein level, biotransformation enzyme activities) or through the use of omics technologies. The group collaborates with Spanish and foreign research groups in carrying out joint work, and also actively participates in international congresses by attending and organising them.

Research Group on Global Change Unit - UCG

The study area of the Global Change Unit is related to the changes that our planet has experienced, which are analysed with the support of remote sensing satellites and the digital processing of the images provided by them. The aim of the research group is to develop operational algorithms in order to estimate different parameters such as land and sea surface temperature, land surface emissivity, albedo, thermal inertia, evapotranspiration, net radiation, total atmospheric water-vapour content, etc. The spatio-temporal dynamics of land cover from satellites is also studied. All of this is done based on the data provided by satellite-based sensors located on satellites platforms (AVHRR, TM, AATSR, MODIS, SEVIRI, METOP, ASTER, etc.) and airbone sensors (DAIS, AHS, etc.). In addition, the UCG also organises and carries out frequent field campaigns to determine some of these parameters using radiometers, thermal cameras, etc. 

The UCG has, among other scientific instrumentation, satellite image reception antennas corresponding to the MSG (Meteosat Second Generation) and NOAA satellites, as well as a reception station for obtaining images from the TERRA and AQUA satellites (www.uv.es/iplsat/). The UCG is a reference group that allows to apply the developed algorithms to the images received in real time; to maintain an archive of satellite data that can be available to any public body interested in monitoring natural disasters, desertification, forest fires, etc.; and to participate in projects for the development of future space missions for earth observation, both nationally and internationally.

The UCG also has extensive experience with active participation in different research projects, leading two European projects:

  • WATERMED "WATer use Efficiency in natural vegetation and agricultural areas by remalnom sensing in the MEDiterranean basin”, in which 5 groups from Spain, Denmark, France, Egypt and Morocco have participated. 
  • EAGLE "Exploitation of Angular effects in Land surfacE observations from satellites”, in which groups from Spain, the Netherlands and France have participated.

And participating in numerous European projects: WATCH "Water and Global Change" of the 6th framework programme and CEOP-AEGIS "Coordinated Asia-European long-term Observing system of Qinghai - Tibet Plateau hydro-meteorological processes and the Asian-monsoon systEm with Ground satellite Image data and numerical Simulations" of the 7th programme. In addition, we have participated and/or led other projects financed by the European Space Agency (CEFLES2, AGRISAR, SEN2FLEX, SPARC, SIFLEX y DAISEX), the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECI).

It is also worth mentioning the numerous collaborations of the UCG with research staff from national and international research centres, particularly with the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) of the Netherlands, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the Alterra Research Institute at Wageningen University and Research Center in the Netherlands, the University of Washington (USA), the National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR) of the Netherlands, the Institut National de Recherche Agronomique of Avignon and Bordeaux (France), the Groupe de Recherche en Télédetection Radiométrique at the Louis Pasteur University of Strasbourg (France), the Laboratory of Sustainable Agriculture of the CSIC in Córdoba, the Department of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resources at the University of Chile, the University of Marrakech (Morocco).

Research Group on Laboratory for Earth Observation - LEO

The Laboratory for Earth Observation (LEO, http://ipl.uv.es/leo/) is part of the interdisciplinary research unit Image Processing Laboratory (IPL) from the University of Valencia. Led by Prof. J. Moreno, deals with most of the technical and scientific aspects of Earth observation, including design of new instrument missions, processing of new data types, in particular optical multi-angular and hyperspectral data. 


Research lines of LEO involve: Theoretical modeling of radiative transfer processes of natural surfaces, with emphasis on hyperspectral sampling of the electromagnetic radiation Development of algorithms and implementation of physical model inputs in Earth observation products: model inversion and data assimilation. Development of new instruments and techniques related to detection of fluorescence. Development of data processing methods (atmospheric correction, geometric corrections related to multi-angular systems, processing chains) Monitoring of natural vegetation, hydrological cycles, desertification, CO2 fluxes, and energy balances using Earth observation data. Definition of requirements, development of processing algorithms and data simulation for future sensors and missions (FLEX, CHIME, SPECTRA), calibration and validation of optical satellite data (Sentinel-2, Sentinel-3, PROBA) and airborne data (CFL, AHS, CASI, HYPER).


The LEO group started its work in the field of imaging spectroscopy in 1998 with the participation of Prof. José Moreno as coordinator of the field activities for ESA's DAISEX98 experiment. This experiment was set up to test the new hyperspectral airborne DAIS sensor developed by the German Aerospace Agency (DLR). Since then, LEO has been involved in more than 50 national and international research projects. In those projects, the group has dealt with most of the technical and scientific aspects of Earth observation, including design of new instrument missions, processing of new data types, in particular optical multi-angular and hyperspectral data.


The group has developed a processing chain for automatic image preprocessing; starting from raw data, identifying and correcting for all types of noise, until delivery of atmospherically and geometrically corrected reflectance data and derived products (e.g. cloud maps, aerosol optical depth) at the highest possible quality. This processing chain is currently implemented in the ESA Basic ERS & Envisat (A)ATSR and MERIS Toolbox (BEAM) and has recently been applied to new generation optical sensors. 


LEO has taken the lead in the ESA FLuorescence EXplorer (FLEX) project running since 2007, which will be the first mission designed to globally map chlorophyll fluorescence emission originated from the terrestrial vegetation (http://ipl.uv.es/flex-parcs). FLEX was been accepted to become ESA's 8th Earth Explorer, which is planned to be launched in 2022. FLEX is proposed to fly in tandem with Copernicus' Sentinel-3 satellite to detect interrelated features of fluorescence, hyperspectral reflectance, and canopy temperature.
 

Research Group on Limnology - Limnologia

This group has a recognised prestige for the numerous quality works it has carried out in inland aquatic ecosystems and for the new researchers that have been trained. The following are some of the basic and applied research topics carried out by this group.

Basic research in:

  1. Specific richness and dynamics of populations and communities of aquatic organisms: bacteria, phytoplankton, periphyton, zooplankton, acoto- and zoo-benthos and fish, and their controlling factors.
  2. Dynamics and functioning of aquatic ecosystems: biogeochemical cycles, productivity, microbial processes.
  3. Study of aquatic food webs, their structure, key species and vulnerability to global change.
  4. Community coupling: mechanisms and rules.
  5. Biogeochemistry of carbon in aquatic ecosystems, GHGs and climate change.
  6. Molecular ecology.
  7. Paleolimnology and global change.
  8. Polar zone limnology.
  9. Pancrustacean genomics.
  10. Ecotoxicology.
  11. Remote-sensing.

Applied research in:

  1. Aquatic pollution and eutrophication processes.
  2. Physico-chemical and microbiological water quality.
  3. Characterisation of aquatic ecosystems.
  4. Monitoring and assessment of the environmental and conservation status of aquactic ecosystems.
  5. Management and restoration of aquatic ecosystems.
  6. Assessment of the response of aquatic ecosystems to global changes, including chemical pollution.
  7. Ecosystem management applied to climate change mitigation.
  8. Water purification and naturalisation in artificial wetlands.
  9. Bioremediation.
  10. Alien invasive species in inland waters.
  11. Remote-sensing as a tool for the study of environmental quality and ecological status of inland waters.
Research Group on Marine Zoology - ZOOMAR

The Marine Zoology Unit (UZM) is a research team of the Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology that has proved to have a high capacity to attract external funding in order to develop its scientific objectives and that also has a long history of international cooperation. The UZM operates in new, state-of-the-art facilities in the Parc Científic and shares this building with the Experimental Aquaculture Plant of the Universitat de València. It’s been conducting research on Conservation Biology and Parasitology of fish, reptiles and marine mammals since 1982. 

Our research has an important practical orientation, both for its interest in the management and conservation of marine species and the protection of their habitats, as well as for its importance in the analysis and solutions of parasitic pathologies in aquaculture. But neither do we neglect aspects of basic research, oriented towards the study of evolutionary and ecological processes, especially in the context of parasite-host associations. The conservation biology research focuses on cetaceans, pinnipeds and sea turtles. The UZM keeps a record of cetacean strandings in the Valencian Community. 

Over the years, our objectives have grown progressively more ambitious and, currently, we also monitor strandings of sea turtles and cetacean and turtle interactions with fishing gear in the waters of the Valencian Community. Since 1988, the UZM acts by delegation of the Valencian Government as the scientific body in charge of the registry of strandings and incidental catches in fishing gear of cetaceans and turtles in the Valencian Community. 

The Marine Zoology Unit hosts the Mediterranean Database of Cetacean Strandings under the auspices of ACCOBAMS and the United Nations Environment Programme. Additionally, the Unit has coordinated an in-depth study funded by the Ministry of Environment under the EU Natura 2000 initiative. The objective of this study was to identify and designate protection areas for cetaceans and sea turtles in Spanish Mediterranean waters. Our contribution to the project involved carrying out aerial surveys in the Valencian Community and the Region of Murcia to obtain estimates of the size of cetacean and sea turtle populations. We have also carried out studies on the distribution, migration and nesting behaviour of sea turtles in Equatorial Guinea and the Dominican Republic, and on the feeding of turtles and cetaceans in the Mediterranean. 

The UZM’s second research line focuses on parasitological studies of marine vertebrates (mammals, turtles and fish), including taxonomic (both conventional and molecular), ecological and evolutionary aspects. Our pioneering studies on the ecological and evolutionary determinants of cetacean and sea turtle parasitic communities deserve special mention. Some of the studies carried out by our group have used parasite data to obtain information on the migrations and social structure of marine mammal populations.

Research Group on Multimodal Education and Multiliteracy through Literature, Art, Foreign Languages and Learning & Knowledge Technologies - LiTerart

This group brings together researchers from different universities and disciplines who share a common goal: to develop research aimed, firstly, at providing a comprehensive education that contributes to the personal, intercultural and social education of 21st century students and, secondly, at developing their reading, linguistic, critical and creative skills and abilities.

To this end, we combine educational research with didactic innovation to study the pedagogical value of the use and impact of multiliteracies and multimodal resources in the classroom, through the approach of several cross-disciplines related primarily to the humanities, art education, foreign language teaching and new technologies for learning and knowledge (TAC).

The aim of Lit(T)erart is to deepen the contribution of these areas, mainly in teacher training and in the development of curricular proposals that promote the cognitive, conceptual, socio-cultural and aesthetic dimensions, and then focus on the design of an evaluation system based on the creation of rubrics that show the progress of students and the validity of the proposed methodology.

In line with the EHEA guidelines, we propose to build a didactic scaffolding based on the pedagogy of multiliteracies that not only considers language as an exclusive form for the construction of meanings, but also incorporates multimodality as a mode of representation for creating and expressing ideas.

Research Group on Pathogens in Aquaculture: Fish and Zoonotic Pathogens - PAFZP
  1. Basic research on zoonotic pathogens of interest in aquaculture. Model bacteria Vibrio vulnificus, fish and human pathogen.
  • Aim: To understand the mechanisms of V. vulnificus-host interaction at functional and molecular level using eel and mouse as model animals to predict virulence for fish and humans, respectively. 
  • Methods: classical microbiology; molecular microbiology and genetics; classical and molecular immunology; tissue culture and cell lines; genomics, transcriptomics; microarrays; manipulation of laboratory animals.
  1. Research applied to aquaculture-related companies.
  • Aim: to develop:
    • diagnostic methods for infectious fish diseases.
    • molecular methods for pathogen detection.
    • vaccines and vaccination and immunostimulation procedures.
Research Group on Sustainable Development, Global and Regional Governance, Contemporary International and European Order - DSGMROIEC

The Research group to which this application refers is called “Sustainable development, global and regional governance, contemporary international and European order and values.” This is a subject on which the applicant Research group has been working for several years with the support of various regional, national and international research grants and projects.

In the current phase of development of the Research group’s activities, the focus is broadening from the perspective of environmental protection to the wider aspects of sustainable development, which includes three pillars: economic, social and environmental. This is an essential concern of contemporary international and European communities, whose constitutional foundations for the coming years have been set out in the document entitled “The Future We Want”, adopted at the Rio + 20 Summit on Environment and Development, held on June 2012 under the auspices of the United Nations. The main elements of the Research group’s activity, as its name suggests, are four.

Firstly, contents related to the paradigm on sustainable development in its international and European dimension, including, among other issues: the legal nature of the concept of sustainable development, the content of the notion of sustainable development in its economic, social, cultural and environmental aspects, the basic characteristics of the criterion of sustainability, issues linked to disparities in the development of peoples, the concept of common but differentiated responsibilities, the notions of developed countries, developing countries and emerging countries, as well as intergenerational justice.

Secondly, it will examine all the issues linked to global governance in the field of sustainable development, paying particular attention to the evolution of the international institutional framework, both at global level (institutions of the United Nations Organisation system) and at a regional level (Latin America, Africa, Asia, Antarctica, Arctic), proposals and implementations in the economic, social and enviromental fields in order to achieve sustainable development. In this context, particular attention will be paid to developments within the European Union and the Council of Europe.

Thirdly, as the Research group is mainly composed of internationalists specialised in Law and International Relations, particular attention will be paid, among other issues, to the impact of the concept of sustainable development in the various sectors of International Law (International economic law, International human rights law, International environmental law, International labour law), conceptual and normative developments at international and European level,  with particular attention to new legal instruments that have been recently adopted and those that will be adopted in the coming years. The results of the research will be issued in scientific publications, whether articles in national or international indexed journals, or monographs published by publishers of excellence.

Fourthly and finally, we will analyse the values that both the international community and the European Union consider necessary to govern their relations and therefore worthy of legal protection, both at international, European and national levels.

Continuing the tradition of the Research group, our activities will also include: participation in various research activities at transnational level, organisation of and participation in scientific conferences at international, European and national level, participation in the Meetings of the Parties on the International Conventions for the protection of the environment, contribution to the development of legal instruments in the status of international experts, membership in various bodies linked to the effective implementation of international and European standards in the field, etc.

Research Group on Synthesis of Molecules for Biotechnological Applications - SYMOBIA

The group’s research activity focuses on the design, preparation and characterisation of any type of organic molecules, both natural and synthetic substances, and their use for various biotechnological applications. These include, fundamentally, obtaining antibodies and developing immunoassays for the determination of analytes of interest in agri-food and environmental samples, and the development and scaling of the synthesis of pheromones for its application in ecological integrated control of agricultural pests.

Research Group on Systematics, Evolution and Biogeography of Fungi, Seaweeds and Plants - SEBHAP

Research activity focuses on acquiring new knowledge about fungi, seaweeds and plants, which is applied:

  1. In studies on the biodiversity of: fungi, lichens, seaweeds, bryophytes and vascular plants, in the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean Sea and other areas.
  2. For the solution of problems related to their Identification, Systematics, Phylogeny, Biogeography and Conservation status.

The research activity is carried out with a multidisciplinary approach from different perspectives developing four lines of research: "Mycology and Lichenology", "Marine Botany", "Bryology" and "Plant ecology".