The biological carbon pump is a mechanism by which photosynthetically fixed organic carbon produced in surface waters is transferred to the ocean’s interior, mainly by gravitational sinking, thus acting as a sink for atmospheric CO2 and contributing to offset the elevated anthropogenic emission of this greenhouse gas. Indeed, being able to quantify the role that marine ecosystems have in the global carbon cycle is essential to provide accurate climate projections.

In 2010 I was awarded a FPU fellowship by the Spanish Government to conduct my PhD studies at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. During my PhD, I used naturally occurring radionuclides to quantify the strength (i.e., magnitude of the carbon flux) and the efficiency of the biological carbon pump. In 2016, I moved to Perth (Australia) as a postdoctoral fellow at Edith Cowan University, where I continued my work with radioactive tracers in the open ocean. During my time in Australia, I widen my interests beyond the quantification of carbon fluxes, and I started to apply my knowledge to quantify the export of trace metals, as well as expanding my collaborations to other diverse fields. It was also during my postdoctoral period in Australia that I had the opportunity to get my hands on some microbial data and, guided by Prof. Gasol (ICM-CSIC), I realized that I had to include the research line of microbial ecology into my portfolio if I wanted to have a more complete understanding of the biological carbon pump.

Marine microbes play a crucial role in marine biogeochemical cycles, however they are overlooked or oversimplified in the global marine biogeochemical models. This is the knowledge gap that currently drives my research. As a Junior Leader – La Caixa fellow at ICM-CSIC, I aim to combine the use of molecular biology and radiotracers, apply advanced genomic characterization techniques and incorporate a modelling component to gain insight into the impact of marine microbes on the biological carbon pump.

I also enjoy participating in oceanographic research voyages, having spent about 15 months at sea across diverse oceanic regions, from the ice-sheets of the Arctic and the Southern Ocean to the tropical Atlantic. These voyages gave me the opportunity to collaborate with diverse research groups working in a wide range of expertise, which has allowed me to develop a multidisciplinary and dynamic research profile and a strong network of international collaborators.