On January 26, at 19:00 p.m., the first talk of the II IROX Conference will be held. A series of conferences where some of the scientists from the Xàbia Oceanographic Research Institute will offer the latest knowledge in the subjects they study.
The first conference will be next january 26, in the Duanes Library by Joan Soto Ángel, a scientist trained at the University of Valencia and who currently works at the University of Bergen in Norway, on Arctic and Antarctic jellyfish. Joan Soto will talk about his participation in recent polar expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctic, the discovery of new species of jellyfish, bipolar animals and the research he carries out with these animals that are as fascinating as they are unknown.
Soto points out that jellyfish are typically associated with pain and considered little more than an unnecessary pest. Jellyfish (and other gelatinous zooplankton) don't have the best reputation in society. «Until recently, the scientific community itself viewed jellyfish as a dead end in the food chain due to their low nutritional content, and as the clear winners of climate change, with predictions that predicted a 'jellyfishing' of the oceans in the short term. term. Today, thanks to scientific advances, we know that jellyfish are an integral part of ecosystems, where they are both predators and prey," says the scientist.
He also adds that some jellyfish are key when it comes to understanding the origin of the nervous system in animals. Soto states that the polar regions are home to species whose populations could decrease drastically in the coming decades "and above all, we do not have good knowledge about the life cycles and true diversity of the group."
Joan J. Soto Àngel is a marine biologist, photographer, founding member of IROX, and a doctor in Biodiversity from the University of Valencia. He currently works at the Department of Natural History at the University of Bergen, Norway, where he studies the diversity and distribution of jellyfish and polyps, with an emphasis on polar species.
En in February Pep Bolufer's conference on the Cetaceans of the Balearic Sea.
And in March, l'IROX hopes to be able to give the conclusions of the study on the rock octopus (Octopus vulgaris) in Dénia. This talk will be given by the biologist, member of IROX who carried out the study, Frederic Alemany Sena.
