PhD Student
Integrative Marine Ecology Department
Genoa Marine Centre (GMC)
Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn–National Institute of Marine Biology, Ecology and Biotechnology
Villa del Principe, Piazza del Principe 4, 16126 Genoa, Italy
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Contatto Skype: martina.arpaia94
Director of Studies: Emilio Sperone/Massimiliano Bottaro
Program: University of Calabria, XXXVIII cycle
PhD Student in “Life Sciences and Technologies”
Scientific interests in a nutshell
The management and conservation of vulnerable marine organisms such as elasmobranchs have always been my main research interest. Overfishing and bycatch of elasmobranchs have long been identified as the major threat to this group of animals, however, the effect of pollutants introduced by human activities is a growing concern for shark health and survival. Due their position as top predators in the food chain, their biological characteristics and limited data, sharks are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic threats and studying them can provide information on marine ecosystem changes. As part of my PhD project, I will study the potential of two shark species (Prionace glauca and Mustelus mustelus), as sentinels of the anthropization of Mediterranean Sea:in particular I will focus on their distribution, their susceptibility to capture and the concentrations of pollutants present in their tissues. This also aims to assess the threat to human health as both sharks are commonly traded.
