Ph.D. Student
Integrative Marine Ecology Department
Tel.: +39 081 5833236
E-mail: isabella.provera(at)szn.it
Skype: proveraisabella
Group website: https://gpgroupszn.wixsite.com/website
Director of Studies: Gabriele Procaccini
External Supervisor: Lazaro Marin-Guirao (IEO Murcia, Spain); Fabio Badalamenti (CNR Palermo)
Program: Open University, XXIII cycle
Research Interests
During my studies and subsequent research experiences both in Italy and abroad, I have focused on the impact of global change on natural ecosystems in costal plants and macroalgae. My research interests address the response of these organisms to climate and environmental changes in order to determine their vulnerability and/or adaptive capacity.
My PhD project focuses on seagrasses as model species. Given their fundamental role in the functioning of coastal communities, it is extremely important to identify mechanisms that would increase their resilience in order to predict their survival and limit their current loss. The aim of the project is to explore two promising assisted evolution strategies that could enhance stress-tolerance and overall resilience of seagrasses to environmental challenges, namely, priming and selection of resistant genotypes. Priming is a technique based on the plant’s ability to store information after exposure to a stress event (i.e. stress memory); this improves plant’s performance during a second stress exposure. The second strategy aims to test the best adapted genotypes for current and future environmental conditions. Although these two strategies have been widely applied in agriculture, they are still poorly explored in
marine plants. The effectiveness of selected methods will be evaluated with a multidisciplinary approach that integrates genetic and transcriptomic tools with eco-physiological and morphological measurements and visual screening trials.
The results of these studies will have practical implications as establishing conservation plans and improving the restoration of these foundation species.
Selected Publications
Provera I., Piñeiro-Corbeira C., Barreiro R., Díaz-Acosta L., Díaz-Tapia P. (2021). Species identity matters: Functional responses to warming in congeneric turfs differ from those of a canopy algae but are species-specific. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 257, 107396.
Díaz-Acosta L., Barreiro R., Provera I., Piñeiro-Corbeira C. (2021). Physiological response to warming in intertidal macroalgae with different thermal affinity. Marine Environmental Research, 169, 105350.
