Serena Sgarzi

During my childhood, I developed a great attraction for everything that involved marine environment, and time told me that I was right, and aquatic biology has become one of the most important things in my life. It was not a childish dream, but a reality that has given me a lot of satisfactions. After a PhD thesis about factors influencing size structure in Mediterranean ponds, I worked for PONDERFUL project during my first Research Post-Doc, followed by a Teaching Post-Doc position at UCD Dublin. Although I love Research, teaching has always been my greatest passion

Place of Birth: Bologna, Italy

Date of Birth: 06/01/1986

Gender: Female (She/her)

• Diving license 'Open Water Diver' PADI (2007), and ‘technical scientific underwater license’ of University of Bologna (2008)
• Sailing license (off limits from the coast and up to 24 mt. long boats) (June 2011)
• TOEIC (ETS) certificate of English with the score 940 (Independent- Proficient user) (June 2015)
• Certificate of 'Creativity and Innovation in teaching' (July 2023). Innovation Academy UCD, Dublin.
• UDL Badge for Universal Design for Learning (December 2023). Teaching & Learning UCD, Dublin.

2021 - 2022. PONDERFUL Project, Horizon 2020, University of Vic. Post-doc researcher

2016 - 2017. S.O.S FARTET project, Fundación Biodiversidad. Protect an endemic cyprinodont fish of Mediterranean ponds. PhD, Uvic-UCC, Spain

2016.  Research on zooplankton size structure in reservoirs, professor Boping Han's laboratory, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China. Horitzó Àsia fellowship from Uvic-UCC

2015 - 2020. ANDRENA project, fundació per a la vida aquàtica, restoration of temporary ponds in Empordà (Catalunya, Spain). PhD, Uvic-UCC, Spain

2014. 'Will climate-related changes in fish stocks lead to significant ecosystem shifts in the natural eutrophic Lake Myvatn (Iceland)?' Biological Station of Lake Myvatn, Iceland. Mesocosm experiments to analyze the potential impacts of climate change on the food web of lakes. University of Vic (Catalonia, Spain) and Aarhus University (Silkeborg, Denmark), funded by Carlsberg foundation

2010. Master thesis: Effect of multiple sources of disturbance on benthic assemblages in some rocky localities of Salento, Apulia, Italy. Monterey, CA, USA, Stanford University

2007. Bachelor degree thesis: Studies about biodiversity and infralittoral zonification of hydrozoan fauna in the 'Strait of Gibiltair', led in professor’s Ferdinando Boero's lab, University of Salento, Apulia, Italy

2008. Underwater research in marine ecology, Calvì, Corsega, STARESO (Station de Recherches Sous-marines et Oceanographiques) marine station

2008. Marine Spray impact of different level of intensity on sandy shore vegetation, Pisa, Italy, University of Pisa

• 2016. Horitzó Àsia fellowship, Uvic-UCC, three months, Guangzhou, China
• 2010. Fellowship to lead master thesis abroad, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
• 2004-2010. Grants for scholar merit, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy

2015- Currently. Jury in a literary event, Premi Llegim Ciència – (PLC-UVic): in this project a different scientific novel is worked on in each edition (one per year). High school teachers accompany the students to read a novel and once they have read it, they write stories that respond to one of the two modalities formulated according to each of the triptychs where there are the bases of the literary competition. Afterwards, they hand in the stories and present them and the jury makes an exhaustive assessment in order to award the awards to the best stories of each modality and category

• Roselli L., Cañedo-Argüelles M., Sgarzi S., D’Adamo R., Temporal and spatial variability of nutrients and phytoplankton in a Mediterranean non-tidal coastal lagoon (Varano lagoon, Italy), Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, Submitted
• Cañedo-Argüelles M., Sgarzi S., Arranz I., Quintana XD., Ersoy Z., Landkildehus F., Lauridsen TL., Jeppesen E., Brucet S., Role of predation in biological communities in naturally eutrophic sub-Arctic Lake Mývatn, Iceland, Hydrobiologia, 2017
• Ersoy Z., Jeppesen E., Sgarzi S., Arranz I., Cañedo-Argüelles M., Quintana XD., Landkildehus F., Lauridsen TL., Bartrons M., Brucet S., Size-based interactions and trophic transfer efficiency are modified by fish predation and cyanobacteria blooms in Lake Mývatn, Iceland, Freshwater Biology, 2017
• Bartrons M., Arranz I., Cañedo-Argüelles M., Sgarzi S., Lauridsen TL., Landkildehus F., Quintana XD., Brucet S., Jeppesen E., Fish shift the feeding behaviour and trophic niche diversification of their prey in subarctic Lake Mývatn, Iceland, Hydrobiologia, 2018
• Sgarzi S., Badosa A., Leiva-Presa A., Benejam L., López-Flores R., Brucet S., Plankton Taxonomic and Size Diversity of Mediterranean Brackish Ponds in Spring: Influence of Abiotic and Biotic Factors, Water, 2019
• Sgarzi S., Brucet S., Bartrons M., Arranz I., Benejam L., Badosa A., Factors Influencing Abundances and Population Size Structure of the Threatened and Endemic Cyprinodont Aphanius iberus in Mediterranean Brackish Ponds, Water, 2020
• Sgarzi S., Badosa A., Leiva-Presa A., Bartrons M., Ersoy Z., López E., Brucet S., Water depth and resource availability mediate planktonic size spectra in temporary Mediterranean ponds along the hydroperiod, To be submitted

August 2021

SIL 35th congress of the International Society of Limnology in Southern Korea (online) with the speech: ‘Size spectra of phytoplankton and zooplankton in Mediterranean temporary ponds along the hydroperiod gradient’

July 2017

SEFS X Symposium of European Freshwater Sciences in Olomouc (Czech Republic) with the Speech: ‘Size-based interactions in pelagic trophic webs of Mediterranean ponds’

May 2016

Poster presentation at the ‘International Workshop’ Uvic-UCC about early results of ‘S.O.S. fartet project’ supported by ‘Fundación Biodiversidad’

July 2016

AIL XVIII Congreso ibérico de limnología in Tortosa (Spain) with the speech: ‘Role of predation in biological communities in naturally eutrophic subarctic lake ‘Mývatn’ (Iceland)’

June 2010

CIESM Venezia, Italia.

June 2008

XXXIX S.I.B.M. (Società Italiana Biologia Marina) Cesenatico, Italia.

September 2007

UZI, CoNISMa (Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Scienze del Mare) Lecce, Italy