Current activities: PhD student in Macquarie University. Francisco (Paco) is very interested on marine ecology, marine habitat value and connectivity, commercial fish ecology, and fisheries management.

Paco is currently working in his PhD in Oysters a fish habitat in NSW:

The main objective of this PhD is to study the fish communities that surrounds oyster assemblages in two estuaries of NSW, Botany Bay and Port Stephens. The work is focussed on 4 main research lines:

- Fish communities in three different oyster assemblages: mangroves, rocky reefs and oyster reefs.

- Fish communities within a mosaic system that includes, oyster reefs, mangroves, seagrasses beds, bare and oyster farms. Behaviour and connectivity between them.

- Fish communities in oyster farms. Are there difference in habitat value provided by different farming methods? Rack and rail vs Baskets.

- Trophic ecology of an estuarine mosaic system, focussing on an oyster reef.

This PhD will assist in both developing restoration strategies, and defining the expected benefits from oyster reef restoration. 

Background

He worked as an intern in the Institute of Marine Sciences of Barcelona (ICM-CSIC) in the Department of Renewable Marine Resources for three years, as part of the ECOTRANS project, assessing the trophic ecology of the entire Western Mediterranean Sea. Thanks to that, he is now very experienced in trophic ecology, and stable isotopes analysis.

His master thesis was about the trophic ecology of the squid, Illex coindetii in the Western Mediterranean Sea, and published various articles about trophic ecology in various squids species using different methods.

Academic qualifications

Paco did two degrees in Marine Sciences and Environmental Sciences between the University of Cadiz (Spain), Kingston University, London (UK) and the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain) and a MSc in Biodiversity in Barcelona University (Spain).

Membership of key national committees