Some of the participants, from the Department of Biology at UM, at the 42nd CIESM congress (left to right): Maria Attard, Daryl Agius, Christina Pisani, Annalucia Cantafaro, Prof. Patrick J. Schembri, Therese Ellul, Roberta Guastella, and Dr Julian Evans.
CIESM – the Mediterranean Science Commission – held its 42nd Congress in Cascais, Portugal, between 7 and 11 October 2019. CIESM is the largest association of Mediterranean marine scientists, and its congresses, held every three years, are the main fora where scientists from the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and the adjacent Atlantic, present the results of their latest research and exchange ideas.
Three academic members of staff from the Department of Biology at UM, Prof. Patrick J. Schembri, Dr Julian Evans, and Dr Leyla Knittweis, and seven UM postgraduate students participated in this congress and presented their work in the form of posters and short talks.
The topics treated by the UM academics and students were:
The topics treated by the UM academics and students were:
- Studies on the history of invasion of Maltese coastal waters, and on the ecology and impacts of a non-indigenous species of Foraminifera (a larger than normal representative of a single-celled group of organisms belonging to the so-called ‘Protozoa’).
- An investigation on the population ecology of an alien alga that started colonising Maltese coasts in 2013, and which has the potential to become invasive as has happened in Sicily.
- Works on the habitats and biodiversity of the deep-sea (200m - 1000m) within the Maltese 25-nautical mile Fisheries Management Zone (FMZ), particularly on the distribution and abundance of those species that structure these habitats and the different types of associations they form.
- A study on the discards (fish and other marine life that are of no commercial value and which are thrown back into the sea) resulting from the trawl fishery in the Malta FMZ.
- Perspectives on management of litter from Fish Aggregation Devices (FADs) used in the dolphinfish (lampuka) fishery.
Extended abstracts of the seven works presented will be published in the proceedings of the Congress.
The Department of Biology strives to be a centre of excellence in marine biological research, which is even more important now that the University of Malta is part of the SEA-EU – European University of the Sea, a consortium of European universities with a strong maritime tradition funded by the European Commission through its new ‘European Universities’ initiative.