#BiodiversityDay2025 – Centre Balear de Biodiversitat

Celebrating the International Biodiversity Day, the Centre Balear de Biodiversitat (CBB-CMB-UIB) and the Institut de Biología Evolutiva (IBE) co-organise the 2nd edition of the Biodiversity Interdisciplinary Meeting, with the aim of promoting biodiversity research, strengthening the connection between different scientific groups and fostering new collaborations.

Under the theme #UIBiodiversityDay2025, this multidisciplinary event will bring together researchers, students and managers in biology, evolution, ecology, conservation and environmental sciences, among other disciplines. Together, we will explore the challenges and opportunities for biodiversity, approaching its study, management and conservation from a collective and innovative perspective.

Thematic areas

Throughout the day, experts will share the latest lines of research in our environment, highlighting topics such as:

– Strategies for the conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity.
– Acceleration in the discovery and characterisation of organisms.
– New tools for the study and analysis of biodiversity.
– Ecology, biological responses to environmental variables, and use of organisms as bioindicators.

Venue

Place: Auditorium FundaciónBit (Google Maps)
Date: May 22, 2025
Time: 9am to 6pm
Lingua Franca: English
How to get there:
Option 1: Take the Bus 19 to ParcBit (last stop)
Option 2: Take the Metro Line M1 to UIB Estació (last stop) and walk 20min

Programme

Welcoming by Margarita Gomila, Director of the Multidisciplinary Biodiversity Centre (UIB), and by María Capa, Coordinator of the Balearic Biodiversity Centre (CMB-UIB)

Scientific talks by invited researchers specialised in different taxonomic groups, disciplines and technical approaches

Speed talks (3min) and poster session where researchers and students will be able to present their latest findings (with student awards!)

Networking opportunities will also be set up to encourage dialogue and collaboration among the scientific community, private sector and NGOs in a relaxed and enriching atmosphere

Coffee break, finger food for lunch, closing beer time are included

Book of Abstracts (PDF Format)

Detailed programme

8:15 – 9:30 Sign up and poster’s set up

9:30 – 9:45 Welcoming and opening remarks. Margarita Gomila. Director of the Centre Multidisciplinar per a la Biodiversitat Balear (UIB)

9:45 – 10:00 “Balearic Biodiversity Centre and the role of the national Biodiversity Centres”. María Capa. Coordinadora Centre Balear de Biodiversitat (CMB-UIB).

10:00 – 10:30 “Ecological and evolutionary implications of fish behavior in exploited species”. Josep Alós. Institut Mediterrani d’Estudis Avançats (UIB-CSIC)

10:30 – 11:00 “Understanding plant biodiversity by improving genome annotations”. Aureliano Bombarely. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas (CSIC-UPV)

11:00 – 11:20 Speed talks (Four speakers, followed by five minutes for questions)

– Adrián Ventura (Status of the Vespa velutina (Vespidae) Population in Mallorca in 2024)
– Caterina Marquès Gomila (Host-gut microbiota coevolution and its role in insular adaptation: A case study of the Balearic lizard Podarcis lilfordi)
– Chiara Zanoli (Tick-tock tune the clock: ongoing search for peracarida evolutionary timeline)
– Chloé Fernandez (Using environmental DNA metabarcoding to assess marine mammal biodiversity in the Western Mediterranean)

11:20 – 11:45 Speed talks (Five speakers, followed by five minutes for questions)

– Gabriel Arbona (On the trail of Osmia Bees: Exploring pollinator diversity in the balearic almond orchards)
– Guillem Coll García (Low salinity seawater as a potential source of extremophilic halophiles)
– Inés Galán-Luque (Genomic Insights into Adaptation to Arid Environments in the Sun Spider Gluvia dorsalis)
– Jordi Nonell (The genome of the smalles predator in the oceans)
– Josef Thomas Greenhalgh (Microplastics Under Review: How Research Has Evolved, and What Comes Next)

11:45 – 12:15 Coffee Break + Posters

12:15 – 12:45 “Ancient DNA as a time machine for biodiversity research or lost and found: Rediscovering biodiversity with ancient DNA”. Pere Bover. Universidad de Zaragoza

12:45 – 13:15 “The genomic basis of animal terrestrialization”. Rosa Fernández. Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-UPF)

13:15 – 13:45 “Unveiling species by species the diversity of culturable ascomycetes in Spain: From terrestrial substrates to aquatic sediments”. Josepa Gené. Universitat Rovira i Virgili.

13:45 – 14:05 Speed talks (Four speakers, followed by five minutes for questions)

– Karen D. Schöninger Almaraz (The genome sequence of Tethysbaena scabra (Pretus, 1991), the first known in the peracarid crustacean order Thermosbaenacea)
– Laura Baldo (Antimicrobial resistance of the endemic Balearic lizard Podarcis lilfordi and implications for population resilience)
– Lluís Moragues Solanas (Using Nanopore’s Adaptive Sampling to enrich metabarcoding reads to analyse diet composition in Parapenaeus longirostris.)
– Noemi Colinas (Inhibition of sexual reproduction in rotifer populations: A transgenerational effect in relation to environmental predictability)

14:05 – 14:25 Speed talks (Four speakers, followed by five minutes for questions)

– Rocío Mozo (Isolation and culture of symbiotic bacteria from Mediterranean corals.)
– Sergi Tulloch Jiménez (Unleashing The Secrets Of Iberian Snakes: Exploring Their Venom Evolution Through Multi-Omics)
– Tyler Alioto (Approaching T2T genome assembly at scale for the Earth Biogenome Project)
– Tomás Golomb (Specifind: Automating Species’ Occurrence Discovery in Scientific Literature through NLP.)

14:25 – 15:30 Lunch Break + Posters

15:30 – 15:45 “Catalan Initiative for the Earth Biogenome Project: Building bridges in biodiversity genomics”. Javier del Campo and Marta Riutort. Co-Presidents of the Catalan Initiative for the Earth Biogenome Project (CBP)

15:45 – 16:00 “A new platform for balearic biodiversity data integration and research”. Tommaso Cancellario. Centre Balear de Biodiversitat (CMB-UIB)

16:00 – 16:30 “Exploring the hidden diversity of the smallest marine protists. Ramon Massana. Institut de Ciències del Mar (CSIC)

16:30 – 17:00 “Shedding light on ocean DNA: Exploring marine biodiversity across ecosystems and biological dimensions for enhanced conservation”. Naiara Rodriguez-Ezpeleta. AZTI – Centro de Investigación Marina y Alimentaria

17:00 – 17:30 “Challenges in the conservation of marine biodiversity: The case of Pinna nobilis”. Maite Vázquez. Centre Oceanogràfic de les Balears (IEO-CSIC)

17:30 – 19:00 Cocktail

We are grateful to the Fundació balear d’innovació I tecnologia (FundacióBit) for lending its auditorium for the event

Organisers

Scientific committee: Enrique Arboleda (CBB-UIB), Maria Capa (CBB-UIB), Javier del Campo (IBE / CSIC-UPF), Joan Pons (IMEDEA / CSIC-UIB)

Organization committee: Matteo Agazzi (IBE / CSIC-UPF), Joan Díaz, (CBB-UIB), Sergi Guasch (CBB-UIB), Claudio Padua (CBB-UIB), Jorge Palomo (CBB-UIB)

Funding

free registration