Scientific news

These animals build their skeletons and shells with calcium carbonate (chalk), such as corals, bryozoans, molluscs, sea urchins or crustaceans.

Organic forms of this compound play a key role in marine planktonic networks and are an important part of the models used to predict the Earth's climate.

Scientists have analyzed the proportion of stable isotopes of nitrogen and carbon in a collection of cetaceans stranded in the Canary Islands, Madeira and Azores since 1996.

This is the main conclusion of an ICM study that considers the latest DNA sequencing techniques, which make it possible to detect mutations on short time scales in the natural environment.

This is confirmed by a new study involving the ICM, which proves that these microorganisms contribute directly to the export and sequestration of carbon in the deep ocean.

The creation of this marine protected areas network constitutes an unprecedented expansion of the Catalan coastline where demersal fishing is not allowed.