Mar Benavides
Research interests
Nitrogen fixation, diazotroph biogeography and drivers; Organic matter-microbe interactions; Physical-biological coupling; Linking spatiotemporal scales; Microbial identity-function matching
Education
2022 Diploma to supervise PhD students (Habilitation, HDR), Aix-Marseille Université, France
2013 PhD Oceanography, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
2008 MSc Oceanography, Universidad de Cádiz, Spain
2007 MSc Integrated Environmental Studies, University of Southampton, UK
2006 BSc Marine Science, Universidad de Cádiz, Spain
Appointments
2024-present Senior Research Scientist (permanent), National Oceanography Centre (NOC), UK
2018-present Chargée de Recherche Hors Classe (permanent), French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO), France (paused until 2028)
2017-18 Postdoctoral Researcher, Marine Biology Section, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
2014-16 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral fellow, MIO France – IRD New Caledonia
2013 DAAD Postdoctoral fellow, Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research (IOW), Germany
2008-12 FPI Predoctoral fellow, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), Spain
Service
2024-2027 Member of the NERC Cruise Programme Review Group (CPRG)
2024-2026 Associate Editor Limnology & Oceanography Letters
2024-now BioGeoSCAPES Science Plan writing team
2023-2026 Member of the High-Seas French Oceanographic Fleet Commission (CNFH)
2021-now Research Committee of the Turing Centre for Living Systems (CENTURI)
2021-now Member of the Aquatic N2-Fixation Research Coordination Network (ANF-RCN), NSF USA
2022-2023 Working group Specialized commission for Ocean-Atmosphere (CSOA), INSU, France
2021-2024 Associate Editor Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences
2021-2023 Associate Editor Frontiers in Aquatic Microbiology
2019-2023 Review Editor Frontiers in Marine Biogeochemistry
Awards
2024 ERC Consolidator Grant EXPAND Project Number: 101170891 (EU)
2022 MOGPA research fellowship (Benavides scientist in charge of grant to Elena Cerdán)
2022 Provence Department Research Prize (France)
2022-24 IRD bonus for research excellence and student mentoring
2022 Severo Ochoa travel grant, ICM-CSIC (Spain)
2021 CNRS -French National Centre for Scientific Research- early career scientist medal
2020 Nominated for the young researcher prize from the Provence Department (France)
2020 Exploration Japan travel grant, French Embassy in Japan
2019 IAPSO-International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans- early career scientist medal
2019-21 IRD bonus for research excellence and student mentoring (France)
2019 IRD Mission Longue Durée (funding for 2 months research in Vietnam)
2018 Young researchers’ installation award (City of Marseille, France)
2014 7th Framework Programme for Research (FP7) Marie Sklodowska-Curie Intra-European Fellowship, Project DIADOM (2013-IEF-625185)
2013 Postdoctoral Fellowship (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, Germany)
2013 Selected to participate in the C-MORE Summer Course on Microbial Oceanography (University of Hawai’i, USA)
2008-12 FPI Predoctoral Fellowship (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spain)
Professional memberships
Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO)
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Challenger Society for Marine Science
Microbiology Society
International Indian Ocean Expedition II (IIOE-2)
Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry (OCB) N2 fixation working group
JETZON - Joint Exploration of the Twilight Zone Ocean Network
Alliance of World Scientists
Mentoring and student supervision
Postdocs
2022-23 Elena Cerdán-García (MOPGA, France). Project: “Ecogenomics of particle-attached non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs”.
2022-24 Christian F. Reeder (Institut Océan, Aix-Marseille Université, France). Project: “Impact of particle microbial colonization on nitrogen cycling in the ocean”.
2022-24 Cora Hörstmann (Aix-Marseille Université, France). Project: “Fine scale dynamics of diazotrophs in the ocean”.
2020-21 Jean-Charles Cancel (IRD, France). Project: “Immunolabeling for near real-time detection of diazotrophs at sea”.
PhD students (*defended)
2022-25 Arthur Coët (Aix-Marseille Université, France). Co-supervised with Pierre Ronceray. Thesis: “Dynamics and architecture of non-cyanobacterial diazotroph particle colonization”.
2020-23 *Subhadeep Chowdhury (Aix-Marseille Université, France). Co-supervised with Sophie Bonnet. Thesis: “Dinitrogen Fixation in the Indian Ocean: an interbasin and seasonal comparison”.
2020-23 *Alba Filella-Lamadrid (Aix-Marseille Université, France). Co-supervised with France Van Wambeke. Thesis: “Diazotroph interactions with organic matter under climate change”.
2017-20 *Isabel Baños (Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain). Co-supervised with Javier Arístegui. Thesis: “The effect of climate change stressors on marine plankton respiration”.
MSc students
2023 Rémi Legrand (Aix-Marseille Université, France). Project: “Improving the nifH gene annotation database”.
2022 Arthur Coët (Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France). Project: “Particles as niches for non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs”.
2022 Cinthya Vieira (Universidad Autónoma de México, Mexico). Project: “DOM uptake genes in diazotrophs from the global expedition Tara Oceans”.
2020 Louis Conradt (Aix-Marseille Université, France). Project: “The role of fine scale on structuring diazotroph communities in the Wester Tropical South Pacific Ocean”.
2019 Emilie Poletti (Aix-Marseille Université, France). Project: “Diazotrophs under pressure”.
2015 Laure Papillon (Aix-Marseille Université, France). Project: “Analyse de sucres particulaires et dissous par chromatographie liquide afin d’évaluer des interactions entre les bactéries diazotrophes et la matière organique”.
BSc students
2020 Clara Ducrocq (Université de Versailles, France). Project: “Microbial respiration under climate change”.
2017-18 Ellen Salamon (University of Copenhagen, Denmark). Project: “N2 fixation in coastal temperate zones”.
2017 Clayton Evans (Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU), National Science Foundation, USA). Project: “Influence of environmental factors on microbial chitinase activity in the Narragansett Bay”.
Technicians and Engineers
2023-now Pierre McCavana, IRD, France. Hired on the “Fonds d’Amorçage” project (PI Benavides).
2023-now Cécile Carpaneto, Aix-Marseille Université, France. Hired on the FIESTA project (PI Benavides).
2021 Alana Boyer, Polytech, Marseille, France. Project: “Microbial particle colonization: functional traits and diversity”.
2021 Emile Seris, Institut Sup’Biotech, Paris, France. Project: “Diazotroph growth in an acidified ocean”.
2019-20 Louise Miech, Institut Sup’Biotech, Paris, France. Project: “Diazotroph-coral interactions under bleaching”.
Invited talks, lectures and seminars
2024 Invited seminar, Joint Marine Biogeochemistry Research Group Meeting: “Particle associated N2 fixation”, University of Southampton, UK.
2024 Invited seminar, Ocean Seminar Series: “Fine-scale dynamics of nitrogen fixation in the ocean”, University of Liverpool, UK.
2024 Invited seminar, Baltic Sea Nitrogen Cycle Network: “High latitude N2 fixation”, Stockholm, Sweden.
2024 Keynote speaker, µSudAqua workshop: “Particle-associated N2 fixation”, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2024 Invited talk Geology, Geochemistry and Geophysics Seminar Series (G3): “Multifaceted insights into particle-associated N2 fixation”, National Oceanography Centre and University of Southampton, UK.
2024 Invited talk IIOE-2 Steering Committee Meeting: “How is marine nitrogen availability being impacted by ocean desert expansion?”, Research Organization for Earth Sciences and Maritime”, Indonesia.
2023 Invited talk BioGeoSCAPES Science Plan workshop: “Multifaceted insights into particle-associated N2 fixation”, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts, USA.
2023 Invited talk Eurofleets+ conference: “Fine-scale diazotroph dynamics during the FIGURE cruise”. Online.
2022 Invited seminar: “Nitrogen fixation beyond the tropics: unexpected diazotrophs in unexpected environments”, Stockholm University, Sweden.
2022 Invited seminar: “Nitrogen fixation beyond the tropics: unexpected diazotrophs in unexpected environments”, LEMAR, Brest, France.
2022 Keynote speaker: “Fine-scale dynamics of N2 fixation in ocean”, FilaChange workshop, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France.
2022 Invited seminar: “Nitrogen fixation beyond the tropics: unexpected diazotrophs in unexpected environments”, ICM-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain.
2022 Invited speaker: “Le futur des océans: négocier la biodiversité marine”, National History Museum of Vienna, organized by the Embassy of France in Vienna, Austria.
2022 Keynote speaker: “On the role of non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs as a source of nitrogen for the Southern Indian Ocean”, International Indian Ocean Science Conference, Goa (India).
2021 Keynote speaker: “Interactions between diazotrophs and organic matter: from coral lagoons to the dark ocean”, Science for Life Laboratory Biodiversity symposium (Stockholm, Sweden).
2021 Invited seminar: “N2 fixation across spatiotemporal scales”, University of Liverpool (UK).
2021 Invited seminar: “N2 fixation in the Gulf Stream”, CANAIMOC Workshop, IFREMER (France).
2019 Invited seminar: “N2 fixation across scales”, invited talk at the National Oceanography Centre (Southampton, UK).
2019 Invited seminar: “Microbial degradation of black carbon particles”. SOOT-SEA Workshop organized as part of the IRD GDRI SOOT-SEA by Xavier Mari, USTH, Hanoi, Vietnam.
2018 Invited seminar: “Microbial degradation of black carbon particles”. IBT, Hanoi, Vietnam.
2016 Invited seminar: “Linking microbial diversity and function to organic matter in the ocean: from coral lagoons to the dark ocean”. University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
2016 Invited seminar: “The contribution of diazotrophs to coral heterotrophic nutrition”. Institute de Recherche pour le Développement, Nouméa, New Caledonia.
2015 Invited seminar: “The interaction between organic matter and microbes as a carbon sequestration pathway in the ocean”. Laboratoire d’Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales (LEGOS), Toulouse, France.
2014 Invited seminar: “Oceanic nitrogen fixation and organic matter interactions”. Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO), Marseille, France.
2014 Invited seminar: “Linking microbial diversity and function to organic matter in the ocean: heterotrophic N2 fixation from coral lagoons to the dark ocean”. University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Dartmouth, USA.
2013 S Invited seminar: “Nitrogen fixation in the subtropical North Atlantic: new views and constraints”. Institute for Baltic Sea Research (IOW), Warnemünde, Germany.
2011 Invited seminar: “Nitrogen fixation in the subtropical North Atlantic”. Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain.
2010 Invited seminar: “Perspectives on Atlantic N2 fixation”. Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma, Spain.
Meeting organization and chairing
2024 Chair of session OB005 - Exploring the ecology and importance of non-cyanobacterial N2-fixers across ocean ecosystems. Ocean Sciences Meeting, New Orleans, LA, USA.
2022 Co-chair of session OB019 - Moving beyond Trichodesmium: assessing the importance of non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs and other previously overlooked nitrogen-fixers in marine ecosystems. Ocean Sciences Meeting, Honolulu, HI, USA.
2021 Scientific advisor and organizer - CENTURI day, Marseille, France.
Scientific advisor and organizer - European conference of Aix-Marseille University: protect our oceans, the challenge of Europe’s global leadership, Brussels, Belgium.
Chair of session SS39 - The present and future of nitrogen fixation in aquatic systems. ASLO Aquatic Sciences virtual meeting, Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
2020 Co-chair of session OB020 - New Tools and Approaches to Constrain the Marine Nitrogen Cycle: From the Surface to the Sediments. Ocean Sciences Meeting, San Diego, CA, USA.
Commissions of trust
Agencies: National Science Foundation (NSF, USA), Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR, France), German Science Foundation (DFG, Germany), Mexican National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT), INSU-LEFE (France), Israel Science Foundation (ISF, Israel), Czech Science Foundation (GACR), Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation (Germany)
Reports: 5th IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate
Journals: Nature, Science, Nature Communications, ISME J, Trends in Microbiology, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Limnology & Oceanography, Microbial Ecology, Marine Biology, Aquatic Microbial Ecology, Biogeochemistry, Progress in Oceanography, Biogeosciences, PLOS ONE, Frontiers in Marine Science, Frontiers in Microbiology, Scientific Reports, mBIO, Annals of Microbiology, Global Change Biology, Continental Shelf Research, Science of the Total Environment
Teaching
2023 Invited lecture: “Principles of marine N2 fixation”, Aix-Marseille Université, France.
2022 Invited lecturer: “Changing paradigms in marine N2 fixation”, Marine microbial ecology: from genomes to biomes graduate course, Stockholm University, Sweden.
2021 Invited lecture: “Changing paradigms in marine N2 fixation”, CIVIS (online course).
2021 Invited lecture: “Marine diazotrophic cyanobacteria”, University of Jena (Germany).
2020 Invited lecture: “N2 fixation in the Ocean”, Université de Liège (Belgium).
2020 Invited lecture: “Marine diazotrophic cyanobacteria”, Cyano2020 Summer School, Heinrich Heine University (Düsseldorf, Germany). Video recording available here.
2017 Invited lecture: “The depths of N2 fixation”. PhD course “Molecular analyses of bacterioplankton composition and function”, Marine Biology Section, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
2010 Invited microbial oceanography lecture at the MSc in Marine Ecology, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
Member of PhD committees and juries
PhD committees
2024-now Julia Dordal-Soriano (Universidad de Barcelona, Spain).
2023-now Ariadna Aldrich (Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Mexico). Thesis: “Caracterización de la Fijación Biológica de Nitrógeno en ambientes diferenciados dentro de la zona costera del Pacífico Mexicano”.
2022-now Mateo Léger-Pigout (Aix-Marseille Université, France). Thesis: “Sargassum microbiome”.
2021-now Natalia Torres (Aix-Marseille Université, France). Thesis: “Marine Hg species dynamics and distribution”.
2021-now Andrea Márquez (Universidade de Vigo, Spain). Thesis: “Nitrous oxide distribution in the North Atlantic Ocean”.
2021-now Daniel Fernández (Universidad de Vigo, Spain). Thesis: “N2 fixation in the Galician coast”.
2020-now Chloé Baumas (Aix-Marseille Université, France). Thesis: “marine particle remineralization: influence of particle typology and associated prokaryotic diversity”.
2020-now Jacqueline Umbricht (Rostock University, Germany). Thesis: “Diazotroph grazing under climate change”.
2019-21 Valentine Meunier (Université de la Nouvelle Calédonie). Thesis: “Interactions between diazotrophs and corals under climate change”.
PhD jury member
2024 Rui Zhang (Sorbonne Université, France). Thesis: “Temporal and spatial dynamics of trace metal acquisition by prokaryotic communities in the Southern Ocean”.
2024 Jacqueline Umbricht (Rostock University, Germany). Thesis: “Nitrogen assimilation and phytoplankton communities in changing environments”.
2022 Inès Mangolte (Sorbonne Université, France). Thesis: “Effet des fronts océaniques sur les communautés de plancton”.
2022 Kandasamy Priyanka (Annamalai University, India). Thesis: “New and Primary production uptake role in marine environment using isotopic and remote sensing techniques in the Northern Indian Ocean”.
2022 Nauzet Hernández-Hernández (Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain). Thesis: “Short-term drivers of phytoplankton community structure and primary production in the Canary Current Region”.
2022 Christian Furbo-Reeder (Southern Denmark University, Denmark). Thesis: “Ecology of marine diazotrophs: past, present, and future”.
2021 Victor Fernández-Juárez (Universitat de les Illes Balears, Spain). Thesis: “Response of nitrogen fixers associated with Posidonia Oceanica to environmental factors and emerging pollutants”.
2019 Gema Batanero (Universidad de Granada, Spain). Thesis: “Microbial ecology in saline wetlands: nitrogen, flamingos and drought as drivers”.
2018 Víctor Moreira Coello (Universidade de Vigo, Spain). Thesis: “Biological N2 fixation in the upwelling region off NW Iberian Peninsula: magnitude, relevance and players”.
2015 Francisca García (Universidad de Oviedo, Spain). Thesis: “Predicting the metabolic balance of the oceans”.
Master jury member
2023 Laura Giraud (AMU, France). Project: “Détermination et caractérisation des nutriclines en mer Méditerranée en période stratifiée (pour une meilleure estimation du flux diffusif)”.
2023 Yanis Maire (AMU, France). Project: “Effects of turbulence on diatoms of the genus Pseudonitzschia spp. and associated bacteria”.
2023 Pierrick Lemasson (AMU, France). Project: “Limitation de la production primaire océanique par la disponibilité en fer à l’échelle globale”.
Oceanographic cruises (>400 days and >30,000 km at sea)
2023 RRS Discovery, N-ARC cruise. Arctic Ocean, 37 days (July-August 2023)
2022 R/V Atlantic Explorer, FIGURE cruise. Gulf Stream, 10 days (Chief scientist)
2022 R/V Kilo Moana, NCD cruise KM2206. Hawaii, 28 days
2021 R/V Tethys II, PARTY cruise. Mediterranean Sea, 7 days
2019 R/V L’Atalante, TONGA cruise. Tonga volcanic arch, 37 days
2017 R/V Endeavor, cruises EN596&597 Gulf Stream Nitrogen Fixation Experiment, 20 days
2015 R/V L’Atalante, OUTPACE cruise. New Caledonia-French Polynesia, 36 days
2014 R/V Thomas G. Thompson, MoorSPICE cruise. Solomon Sea, 31 days
2013 R/V Kilo Moana, C-MORE Microbial Oceanography course, station ALOHA, 10 days
2012 R/V Atlantic Explorer, cruises GUAYOTA-II. El Hierro island submarine volcano (Canary Islands, Spain), 3 days
R/V Atlantic Explorer, cruise GUAYOTA-III. El Hierro island submarine volcano, 3 days
2011 R/V Sarmiento de Gamboa, cruise Expedición Malaspina. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain)-Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), 56 days
2010 R/V Atlantic Explorer, cruises LUCIFER. Canary Islands, 7 days
2009 R/V Sarmiento de Gamboa, cruise CAIBEX-II. Iberian Peninsula-Canary Islands, 30 days
R/V Sarmiento de Gamboa, cruise CAIBEX-III and CAIBEX-monitoring 5, 30 days
R/V Al Amir Moulay Abdullah, cruise CAIBEX-monitoring 6, 10 days
R/V Al Amir Moulay Abdullah, cruise CAIBEX-monitoring 4, 10 days
R/V Al Amir Moulay Abdullah, cruise CAIBEX-monitoring 3, 10 days
R/V Al Amir Moulay Abdullah, cruise CAIBEX-monitoring 2, 10 days
STS Tenacious (Jubilee Sailing Trust UK). Canary Islands, 15 days
2008 R/V Al Amir Moulay Abdullah, cruise CAIBEX-monitoring 1, 10 days
R/V Sarmiento de Gamboa, cruise GIBRALTAR 08. Strait of Gibraltar, 14 days
Recent training and courses
2024 ENSPIRE ERC interview training, online
2023 EMBO Lab Leadership Workshop for Group Leaders (online)
2022 CNRS project management leadership, CNRS, France
EMBO Self-leadership Workshop for women scientists (online)
LC-MS-based Marine Metabolomics Workshop
EBAME Workshop on Computational Microbial Ecogenomics, IUEM, France
2021 DADA2 bioinformatics pipeline training, MIO, France
ERC CoG writing workshop, Protisvalor, France
2019 ERC StG writing workshop, Protisvalor, France
2018 PhD student supervision workshop, IRD, France
Visiting scientist
2022 (2 weeks) Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, India
2019 (2 months) Institute of Marine Environment and Resources (IMER) and University of Science and Technology of Hanoi (USTH), Vietnam
2018 (1 month) Institute of Marine Environment and Resources (IMER) and University of Science and Technology of Hanoi (USTH), Vietnam
2018 (6 months) Marine Biology Section, University of Copenhagen (KU, Denmark)
2017 (5 months) University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (UMD, USA)
2014 (3 months) University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (UMD, USA)
2011 (4 months) Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS, USA)
2010 (4 months) Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ, The Netherlands)
2009-11 (various visits of ~1 month) Universitat de les Illes Balears (UIB, Spain)
Languages
English Fluent (CAE, IELTS)
French Read advanced level, written intermediate level, spoken advanced level
Portuguese Fluent (resident in Portugal for 7 years)
Italian Read advanced level, written basic level, spoken basic level
Spanish Fluent (mother tongue)
Catalan Fluent (born in Catalonia and studied in Catalan until age 12)
Miscellaneous
2017 SCUBA diving PADI: Deep Diver Specialty
2016 SCUBA diving PADI: Open Water Diver, Enriched Air Diver, Advanced Open Water Diver
2004 Driving license