University of Oviedo

The Faculty of Biology at the University of Oviedo is one of the 20 most productive centers in Marine Sciences in Spain. Activities range from Marine Ecology through Biological Oceanography to Genetics of Marine Resources. Recent projects involve the detection of patterns in Marine Biodiversity and their relationship to landscape features and global change, the biology of the Spring Phytoplankton Bloom (DINAPROFIT), carbon fluxes in oligotrophic oceans (CARPOS, ), long-term changes in coastal and marine ecosystems (RADIALES, in collaboration with the Spanish Institute of Oceanography http://www.seriestemporales-ieo.net/), algal invasions in European Shores (ALIENS, http://www.uniovi.es/bos/Aliens/E-aliens.htm), genetic identification of fish stocks and commercial fraud by species-specific DNA markers, evaluation of the genetic diversity of Atlantic Salmon. Other research groups involved in the EMBC but in different faculties specialize in Marine Paleoceanography (Faculty of Geology http://www.geol.uniovi.es/), Economy of Natural Resources (Faculty of Economics), or legal aspects of marine resources (Faculty of Law). The Faculty of Biology has an important ERASMUS exchange and has generated spinoff in the aquaculture, environmental and food industry.

The Oceanographic Center of Gijón is located at 28 km from Oviedo and belongs to the Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO; Spanish Institute of Oceanography, http://www.ieo.es/CoGijon/index.htm). Researchers at this center are deeply involved in the teaching activities of the EMBC, and their expertise includes modelling of marine ecosystems, fisheries ecology, global change studies or Marine Microbiology. Collaboration between the University of Oviedo and the IEO is active, and contributes to a critical mass of Marine Biodiversity researchers in the Asturias region which will ensure a high quality EMBC program. Other institutions directly involved in the EMBC are the Instituto de Hidraulica Ambiental (Institute of Environmental Hydraulics, University of Cantabria, http://www.ihcantabria.com/), ADENA/WWF (Madrid), the Red de Seguimiento del Estado Ecológico de las Aguas de Galicia (Network for the Ecological Monitoring of Galician Waters), the Department of Natural Resources Conservation (University of Massachusetts, US) and the FIOCRUZ Institute (Brazil).

The region of Asturias comprises an important biogeographic frontier which serves as a natural laboratory for the study of Marine Biodiversity. The University of Oviedo has seagoing, culturing, and laboratory facilities for the scientific analysis of marine biota, and collaborates with governmental and private institutions. Oviedo is a beautiful, monumental city, with lively universitary community and intense cultural life. The Asturias region comprises a high (up to 2500 m) mountain range with excellent conditions for winter skiing, hiking and outdoor activities, and a coastline with more than 100 beaches.