Esther Velasco

Esther Velasco

Postdoctoral researcher

Email: esther.velasco@ieo.csic.es

Bio

My work focuses on phytoplankton ecology in coastal upwelling systems, with particular attention to the dynamics, structure, and spatiotemporal variability of planktonic communities. I am especially interested in the most frequent harmful algal blooms (HABs) in the Rías Baixas, studying their ecological niche, adaptive strategies, and relationship with oceanographic processes.

In 2025, I obtained my PhD in Marine Sciences, Technology, and Management from the University of Vigo (DoMar Doctoral School, University of Vigo). I developed my doctoral thesis, “Habitat conditions driving phytoplankton community assembly, succession and the dynamics of HAB species at the northern limit of the Canary Current Upwelling System (NW Spain),” at the Vigo Oceanographic Center (IEO, CSIC), under the supervision of Dr. Enrique Nogueira and Dr. Beatriz Reguera, with an FPI contract (BES-2017-083021) within the REMEDIOS project. Previously, I earned a degree in Marine Sciences and Environmental Sciences from the University of Cádiz (2014) and completed the Inter-University Master’s Degree in Oceanography, specializing in the Open Ocean, from the University of Cádiz and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (2017).
I currently work on the assessment and monitoring of pelagic planktonic habitats in the Marine Strategies project in the North Atlantic Demarcation. My work combines oceanographic expeditions, laboratory work, and ecological data analysis. I have experience in CTD rosette sampling and plankton nets, as well as flow cytometry techniques with image acquisition (CytoSense, FlowCAM, PlanktoScope), traditional microscopy, and data analysis in R, including multivariate techniques, time series analysis, and clustering.