Summary
Understanding how marine mammals function, survive, and respond to disturbance in a rapidly changing ocean is central to designing effective conservation strategies. My research focuses on uncovering the physiological and behavioural mechanisms that underpin life in water, and on identifying how external pressures can alter these processes. In this talk, I will focus on my research programme centred on harbour porpoises, a small marine mammal whose high metabolic demands and sensitivity to disturbance make it an excellent model species for studying the links between behaviour, energetics, and survival. Using multi‑sensor tags, fine‑scale movement data, and physiological approaches, my work investigates how porpoises acquire energy, navigate their environment, and manage the constraints imposed by their unique adaptations. I further examine how these animals adjust their behaviour in response to stressors, such as vessel noise, and how these changes influence energy intake and expenditure. This mechanistic perspective provides the foundation for understanding how short‑term responses can negatively impact individual energy budgets, accumulate to affect fitness and survival, and potentially translate into changes into population-level consequences. Through this lens, my research aims to provide science‑based tools to support managers in reducing human impacts on marine mammal populations. I will conclude by briefly introducing my developing research on baleen whales, illustrating how the mechanistic framework established with porpoises can be extended to larger species and used to guide conservation efforts in the Mediterranean.
Brief biography
Laia Rojano Doñate is a marine ecophysiologist whose research explores how marine mammals function, adapt, and persist in an increasingly disturbed ocean. Her work bridges behavioural ecology, physiological adaptations, and quantitative modelling to understand how short‑term disturbances translate into long‑term biological consequences. She holds a BSc and MSc in Biology from the University of Barcelona and a MSc in Statistics from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, followed by a PhD in Biology from Aarhus University (Denmark). Her doctoral work focused on behavioural and physiological adaptations of marine mammals, using advanced biologging tools to study diving behaviour, foraging strategies, and movement ecology. As a postdoctoral researcher, Laia contributed to multiple international projects, including the H2020 SATURN project, where she worked within an interdisciplinary consortium to identify the impacts of underwater radiated noise from vessels on marine wildlife and to support the development of mitigation solutions. She is currently an Assistant Professor under a Marie Skłodowska‑Curie Global Fellowship shared between Aarhus University and Stanford University. Through this fellowship, she is expanding her previous research lines to the Mediterranean, developing integrative frameworks that connect fine‑scale disturbance responses with energetic and fitness outcomes in fin whales. Across her work, Laia seeks to link marine mammal ecology, physiology, and applied conservation to better predict and mitigate the impacts of environmental change and human activities, ultimately supporting evidence‑based management of ocean ecosystems.