Position: PhD student
SZN Dept: Integrative Marine Ecology
Email: lorenzo.minoia(at)szn.it
Skype: lollo.ari
Telephone:
Twitter: @LorenzoMinoia95
Web: SZN webpage
Web: Google scholar
Personal keywords: #Elasmobranchs, #MarineEcotoxicology, #Fishery, #Bycatch
Scientific interests in a nutshell:
Marine ecosystems have been affected by human activities for centuries. While overfishing is known to be the main threat to cartilaginous fish, there are other stressors that require our attention. Exposure to pollutants introduced into the marine environment through human activities is one of them. Elasmobranchs are particularly vulnerable to pollutants because of their position in the food web and their long life span, which makes them more susceptible to contaminants. Since sharks are susceptible to contamination, this makes them a tool to assess the contamination status of an environment. my work aims to study the concentration of pollutants in the tissue of different shark species in the western Mediterranean Sea. We want to understand which pollutants are present in the tissues of sharks and the differences in concentration between species. This information will allow us to understand the levels of pollution that sharks are exposed to and give us an insight into the levels of contamination in the marine environment. In addition, this study aims to assess the concentration of pollutants in commonly fished shark species and evaluate the threat their consumption may pose to human health.