Research

CEPHALOPODS & BIOLOGGING

As a postdoctoral researcher my new project and priority is the development of a new low-cost digital tag for medium-large squid, to study their swimming behaviour and its relationship with environmental factors such as temperature, salinity, depth, etc. This new tag should be small and recoverable allows multiple tagging sessions over time. This project will be partially developed on Madeira and Canary Islands where research on the ecology of deep-sea cetaceans is being carried out. Monitoring the simultaneous movements of squid and their main predators could shed light on many aspects of their ecology (trophic link, behaviour...). Institutions: MARE-Madeira (Portugal), Universidad de Vigo (Spain), Universidad de La Laguna (Spain).

MACARONESIAN CEPHALOPODS DIVERSITY

Since my master thesis I am researching on the cephalopod diversity of the Canary Islands by reviewing collections and new specimens found around these islands, applying molecular tools to verify the classification of species. Consequently, several new records have been made for the region, as well as the validation of doubtful species (e.g., Chtenopteryx spp., Octopoteuthis spp.), these works never end and are now expanding to new areas of the Macaronesian archipelagos.

Some key papers:

• Alejandro Escánez, Ángel Guerra, Rodrigo Riera, Francisco J. Rocha. (2020) Revised species records reveal the Canary Islands as a cephalopod biodiversity hotspot. Regional Studies in Marine Science 41, 101541  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsma.2020.101541 

• Alejandro Escánez, Sergio Rodríguez, Rodrigo Riera, Francisco Rocha, Alberto Brito. (2018) Octopods of the Canary Islands. New records and biogeographic relationships (2018) Molluscan Research. 39-1, pp. 1 - 12. https://doi.org/10.1080/13235818.2018.1527970

• Alejandro Escánez, Álvaro Roura, Rodrigo Riera, Ángel F. González; Ángel Guerra (2018) New Data on the Systematics of Comb-fin Squids Chtenopteryx spp. (Cephalopoda: Chtenopterygidae) from the Canary Islands. Zoological Studies. 57 - 40, pp. 1 -11. http://zoolstud.sinica.edu.tw/Journals/57/57-40.html 

CEPHALOPODS TROPHIC ECOLOGY

Molecular trophic markers (stable isotopes, fatty acids) are useful tools for exploring the trophic ecology of rare and elusive cephalopod species, such as the giant squid (Architeuthis dux) or the giant seven-armed octopus (Haliphron atlanticus). I am applying stable isotope and fatty acid analyses to these species, among others, to help elucidate their niches and trophic ecology.