The Bay of Cádiz is characterised by extensive saltmarshes a large part of which over the centuries have been transformed to salt pans (salinas) and extensive aquaculture ponds. Despite the high economic, social, cultural and biodiversity value (for avifauna) of these anthropised systems, the interest in these activities is progressively declining.

In the last year, we have been collaborating with the project FOCUS “Importance of trophic interactions in food webs for Fish and mOllusCs qUality in estuarieS” (PI: Oscar Godoy del Olmo adn Ivan Franco Rodíl) to study the flow of carbon and the interactions between different trophic levels in such an aquaculture system in order to evaluate the processes that lead to the high quality products they provide.

In this context, in our group we measure the C and N fluxes at the sediment water interface, the carbon and nitrogen content in the sediment and water column, as well as quantifying the communities of autotrophic pico and nanoplakton, microphytobenthos and bacteria.

Recently, we were interviewed by the regional TV channel interested in these systems.

https://www.canalsur.es/television/programas/conciencia/noticia/2033525.html

The project FOCUS is funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union Next Generation EU/PRTR funds.