Curriculum Vitae
STEFANO GOFFREDO CV
FUNDING ID
Dr. Stefano Goffredo (SG)
(a) Scientific Biography
SG is consolidating his career. His scientific initiative
promises to lead marine biology towards integrative
interdisciplinary syntheses. By extensive collaborations with
leaders in different fields, such as physics and chemistry, SG
developed multidisciplinary methodologies attacking the questions
identified by his field studies with novel laboratory tools. In his
research, SG has developed original aspects in the interpretation
of growth and population data, population
dynamics, reproductive biology and conservation
monitoring. Recently, he has expanded his interests to the
biomineralization field. His major contributions
were:
1. Analyzing the reproductive patterns of
sexual reproduction in temperate Mediterranean corals
(Goffredo S., Arnone S., Zaccanti F. 2002: Sexual
reproduction in the Mediterranean solitary coral Balanophyllia
europaea (Scleractinia, Dendrophylliidae). Marine Ecology
Progress Series , 229:83-94). SG's pioneering works on
reproductive biology of temperate corals are the first in the
Mediterranean ( Goffredo S. , Telò T. 1998:
Hermaphroditism and brooding in the solitary coral Balanophyllia
europaea (Cnidaria, Anthozoa, Scleractinia). Italian Journal
of Zoology, 65:159-165) since the ancient observations by
Lacaze-Duthiers dating back to 19th century. SG analyses
revealed peculiar reproductive patterns, a contribution for
understanding the evolution of coral sexuality (
Goffredo S. , Telò T., Scanabissi F. 2000:
Ultrastructural observations of the spermatogenesis of the
hermaphroditic solitary coral Balanophyllia europaea
(Anthozoa, Scleractinia). Zoomorphology, 119:231-240).
2. Modeling for the first time the population
dynamics of solitary corals in the tropical Red Sea and in the
temperate Mediterranean Sea ( Chadwick-Furman N. E., Goffredo
S., Loya Y. 2000: Growth and population dynamic model of the
reef coral Fungia granulosa Klusinger, 1879 at Eilat,
northern Red Sea. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and
Ecology, 249:199-218; Goffredo S.
, Mattioli G., Zaccanti F. 2004: Growth and population dynamics
model of the Mediterranean solitary coral Balanophyllia
europaea (Scleractinia, Dendrophylliidae). Coral Reefs,
23:433-443), introducing age-based population dynamics models in
coral biology and ecology, and in the field of invertebrate
zoology. This result led to the understanding of how age
controls the demographic parameters of corals, their biometry,
growth and reproductive activity, and how to develop management
approaches to fisheries ( Goffredo S. ,
Lasker H. R. 2008: An adaptive management approach to an octocoral
fishery based on the Beverton-Holt model. Coral Reefs,
27:751-761).
3. Assessing patterns of genetic
differentiation in Mediterranean corals ( Goffredo
S. , Mezzomonaco L., Zaccanti F. 2004: Genetic
differentiation among populations of the Mediterranean
hermaphroditic brooding coral Balanophyllia europaea
(Scleractinia, Dendrophylliidae). Marine Biology,
145:1075-1083; Casado-Amezúa P., Goffredo S.,
Templado J., Machordom A. 2012: Genetic assessment of population
structure and connectivity in the threatened Mediterranean coral
Astroides calycularis (Scleractinia, Dendrophylliidae) at
different spatial scales. Molecular Ecology, 21:
3671-3685). These studies revealed levels of population
structure and connectivity in gonochoric and hermaphroditic
brooding corals, and possible relationships with planula behavior
and mating system.
4. Assessing patterns of microendolithic
depth distribution in open and shaded habitats ( Gektidis M.,
Dubinsky Z., Goffredo S. 2007: Microendoliths of the shallow
euphotic zone in open and shaded habitats at 30º N - Eilat, Israel
- paleoecological implications. Facies, 53:43-55).
This study demonstrates that differences between habitat
light conditions have to be considered for bathymetric and
consequently paleobathymetric interpretations.
5. Analyzing for the first time the
relationships between environmental parameters and demographic
traits in temperate Mediterranean corals ( Goffredo
S. , Caroselli E., Mattioli G., Pignotti E., Zaccanti F.
2008: Relationships between growth, population structure and sea
surface temperature in the temperate solitary coral
Balanophyllia europaea (Scleractinia, Dendrophylliidae).
Coral Reefs, 27:623-632), which led to predictions
of the effects of global warming on Mediterranean coral
survival.
6. Launching a new attractive application of
“Citizen Science” to marine biodiversity monitoring (
Goffredo S ., Piccinetti C., Zaccanti F. 2004:
Volunteers in marine conservation monitoring: Mediterranean
Hippocampus Mission, a study on the distribution of
seahorses carried out in collaboration with recreational scuba
divers. Conservation Biology, 18:1492-1503; Goffredo
S. , Pensa F., Neri P., Orlandi A., Scola Gagliardi M.,
Velardi A., Piccinetti C., Zaccanti F. 2010: Unite research with
what citizens do for fun: “recreational monitoring” of marine
biodiversity. Ecological Applications, 20: 2170–2187).
This has opened new horizons in the modern
field of applied conservation biology by enabling the collection of
huge datasets at little cost for institutions (current
project: www.STEproject.org
).
7. Addressing questions on biomineralization
and macromolecular crystallography in corals, contributing to the
understanding of how biologic and environmental factors interact to
regulate biomineralization ( Goffredo S. , Vergni
P., Reggi M., Caroselli E., Sparla F., Levy O., Dubinsky Z., Falini
G. 2011: The skeletal organic matrix from Mediterranean coral
Balanophyllia europaea influences calcium carbonate
precipitation. PLoS ONE, 6:e22338). SG showed that both
soluble and insoluble components of the intra-skeletal organic
matrix (OM) influence calcium carbonate crystal morphology,
aggregation and polymorphism as a function of their relative
composition, and of the content of magnesium ions in the
precipitation media. This sheds light on the role of the
OM, which appears mediated by the presence of magnesium ions in the
crystallization environment.
8. Investigating the mineralogy of modern
Mediterranean corals across their life cycle, its relationships
with species' habitat and ecological strategies, and its
implications for paleoclimatology ( Goffredo S. ,
Caroselli E., Mezzo F., Laiolo L., Vergni P., Pasquini L., Levy O.,
Zaccanti F., Tribollet A., Dubinsky Z., Falini G. 2011: The
puzzling presence of calcite in skeletons of modern solitary corals
from the Mediterranean Sea. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta,
85: 187-199). SG showed that, in addition to aragonite, a
significant amount of calcite correlated to the age of the coral.
The presence of calcite can greatly affect the interpretation of
paleoecological archives, suggesting the need for
investigations of coral skeletal composition in order to obtain
accurate paleoclimatic reconstructions.
Thus, SG has contributed to the opening of new horizons in
invertebrate biology, including reproduction, demographic modeling,
biomineralization and conservation monitoring, and created a novel
school in Italy: the Marine Science Group,
www.marinesciencegroup.org, at the University of Bologna (UNIBO)
founded by SG in 1998 during his PhD with funds by private
companies. SG team is an active research group
in which the main experimental tools are innovative ideas,
generated from the interaction between SG and his enthusiastic
students (# supervised: 41, BSc + MSc; 6, PhD).
Recently, together with Zvy Dubinsky (Bar-Ilan University)
and Giuseppe Falini (UNIBO), SG conceived the European Research
Council (ERC) funded project "CoralWarm" (FP7 IDEAS, g.a. n°
249930, www.coralwarm.eu; total grant amount: 3,332,032.00
€). His work has resulted in the publication of 30
papers in journals of the subject categories Marine &
Freshwater Biology, Ecology, Oceanography, Zoology, Environmental
Sciences, and Biology (cited 120 times, excluding auto
citations, in journals of the above categories, and of
Paleontology, Biodiversity and Conservation, and the
Multidisciplinary Sciences categories; SG h-index: 11). SG
is the recipient of private and public international and national
grants (e.g. Project AWARE Foundation Switzerland; European
Research Council).
(b) Curriculum Vitae
Stefano Goffredo (SG; Bologna, 27 January 1969) received a
master degree in Biological Sciences cum laude from the
University of Bologna (UNIBO), in 1995, with the thesis “Growth
of Ctenactis echinata (Pallas, 1766) and Fungia
fungites (Linnaeus, 1758) (Scleractinia, Fungiidae) on a coral
reef at Sharm el Sheikh, Red Sea, South Sinai, Egypt”
(supervisor Prof. Francesco Zaccanti). In 1996-1997 served in the
civil service. In 2000 he completed a PhD in Animal Biology from
UNIBO with the thesis "Population dynamics and reproductive
biology of the solitary coral Balanophyllia europaea
(Anthozoa, Scleractinia) in the Northern Tyrrhenian Sea"
(supervisor Prof. Francesco Zaccanti). Since 2000 he has been a
Post-Doctoral fellow and contract researcher at the Department of
Evolutionary and Experimental Biology (UNIBO), where he has worked
on population dynamics and reproductive biology of temperate and
tropical corals, and their relationships with environmental
parameters, and on new perspectives and trends in the field of
biodiversity monitoring, with the development of several novel
Citizen Science based programs. Recently, June 28th 2010,
he progressed to the position of tenure track researcher
in UNIBO, where he is now consolidating his program on biology and
autoecology of marine invertebrates, biometry, population dynamics
modeling, and marine biodiversity monitoring, and opening a new
research line on the biomineralization process, crystallography and
mineralogy of biominerals in various calcifying
organisms. At the
University of Bologna SG teaches “demographic modeling” to PhD
students in Biodiversity and Evolution at the Department of
Evolutionary and Experimental Biology; “dispersal, connectivity,
and structure of marine populations” and “scientific diving” to
master students in Marine Biology and in Biodiversity and
Evolution, and “laboratory of ecology” to bachelor students in
Biology at the Faculty of Science; “animal biology” to bachelor
students in Applied Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Faculty of
Pharmacy. As guest lecturer, he taught population dynamics
modeling at the US National Science Foundation International
Programs “International Research Experiences for Students”
through Auburn University that took place at the Marine Science
Station in Aqaba, Jordan
(http://www.auburn.edu/jordan/index.html). His activity attracted
over 41 BSc and MSc students, many of whom have continued in their
fields as PhD students and Post Docs. Currently, he is advisor of 1
Post Doc, 5 PhD students, 3 MSc students, and 3 BSc students
(www.marinesciencegroup.org). SG is a teacher with friendly
disposition, attracting scores of students to devote their careers
to marine science and protection of marine heritage.
International students are visiting SG lab, carrying out research
in reproductive biology, population dynamics and genetics.
Currently, 1 Spanish PhD student from the Museo Nacional de
Ciencias Naturales, and 1 American Post Doc from Harvard University
are guests of SG.
SG spent several periods of study and research abroad: (i) in 1996,
at the Interuniversity Institute of Marine Science in
Eilat (Israel) guest of Prof. Nanette Elisabeth
Chadwick-Furman to study the abundance, distribution and population
dynamics of corals in the Northern Red Sea; (ii) in January 2005,
he was chief researcher of the Tsunami Interministerial Task Force
of the Government of the Republic of the Maldives,
who organized the first expedition on Maldivian coral reefs after
the 2004 Tsunami; (iii) in 2005, at the State University of
New York at Buffalo (USA) guest of Prof. Howard R. Lasker,
developing models of Caribbean corals biometry and growth, and, in
collaboration with Prof. Mary Alice Coffroth, analyses on
population genetic structure and biogeography of both
zooxanthellate algae and coral host in symbiotic corals; (iv)
invited by Prof. Lasker at the Miami University to
join several research cruises on board of the R/V F. G. Walton
Smith (2005-2007), where he conducted extensive diving fieldwork
for data collection on growth, demography and reproductive activity
of Caribbean corals, and elaboration of a sustainable management
model for coral fisheries in the Bahamas (Coral Reefs best
paper award 2008 short list; Goffredo S., Lasker H. R. 2008,
Coral Reefs, 27:751-761).
SG has an important and tight collaboration with Prof.
Giuseppe Falini of the Department of Chemistry (UNIBO) for
biomineralization studies, and with Prof.
Zvy Dubinsky of the Faculty of Life Sciences at the
Bar-Ilan University (Israel) to study the ecophysiology of
corals. These collaborations have led to the
FP7-IDEAS-ERC Grant “CoralWarm” for a project on
Corals and Global Warming (www.coralwarm.eu), in
which Zvy Dubinsky, Giuseppe Falini, and Stefano
Goffredo are scientific coordinators. SG
conducting all of CoralWarm's tasks in Italian waters including
complex and challenging underwater surveys and long-term
experiments. SG is also the conceiver and coordinator of
the citizen science-based international project on Red Sea coral
reef biodiversity monitoring “STE: Scuba Tourism for the
Environment” (www.STEproject.org).
Currently, SG research activities mainly address the influence of
environmental parameters (irradiance, water temperature, pH) on
coral reproductive biology and demography (population density,
growth, longevity), marine biodiversity monitoring,
biomineralization and crystallography in corals and other
calcifying organism (in collaboration with Prof. Giuseppe Falini),
coral ecophysiology (in collaboration with Prof. Zvy Dubinsky),
mechanical properties of coral skeletons (in collaboration with Dr.
Luca Pasquini of the Department of Physics of UNIBO), and the
degree of external environment control on fine structure, and
composition of coral skeleton (in collaboration with Dr. Oren Levy
of the Faculty of Life Sciences at Bar-Ilan University).
The research activities of SG are carried out through the use of
several experimental techniques. He uses fully equipped
laboratories of histology, molecular biology and electronic
microscopy (SEM, TEM). He is responsible for a new advanced unit of
image analysis and cytometry. Two latest generation underwater
multiparametric sensors belong to his labs, for field measurements
of pH, PAR, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, salinity, and
temperature. He has organized a fully equipped center for
scientific diving, with the newest apparatuses for air and nitrox
dives, a refilling unit, and a 5 m deep swimming pool (25 x 15 m)
for divers training. Through the collaboration with Giuseppe
Falini, SG's team has last generation diffractometers (powder and
single crystal), scanning electron, probe and spectroscopic (FTIR
and Raman) microscopes, and an inorganic laboratory to carry out
crystallization experiments in vitro; through Luca Pasquini, SG
team has nanoindentation facilities, and through Zvy Dubinsky and
Oren Levy, novel and unique, high-tech, computerized metabolic
chambers, respirometers, photoacoustics facilities, an high-tech
aquarium system, and last generation facilities for molecular
marine ecology.
Scientific Advisory: SG acts as reviewer for
several journals (Biogeosciences, Coral Reefs, Marine Biology,
Marine Ecology Progress Series, Marine and Freshwater Research,
Biodiversity and Conservation, Molecular Ecology, Cell & Tissue
Research, The Biological Bulletin, Journal of Theoretical Biology,
BMC Evolutionary Biology), and for proposals submitted to the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Currently he is member of the editorial board of The Open
Conservation Biology Journal, and Frontiers in
Invertebrate Physiology. He is co-editing a new book
by Springer "The Mediterranean Sea: Its History and Present
Challenges" (Editors: Stefano Goffredo, University of
Bologna, Italy; Hannah Baader, Max-Planck-Institut, Germany; Zvy
Dubinsky, Bar-Ilan-University, Israel). The book will focus on the
effects of climate change in the Mediterranean and its shores from
its birth, through its present state, to the predicted uncertain
future.
Scientific Diving: SG has been a diving instructor since
1991. In 2006, he introduced in Italy the standards for
scientific diving of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences
(www.aaus.org) with the creation of the Scientific Diving School
(www.sdseducational.org), the first AAUS Organizational Member in
Italy. SG is the AAUS representative at the Italian Parliament
working group for the national legislation on diving activities,
and developed a scientific diving curriculum for MSc students at
UNIBO.
Invited presentation to an international
school
2008 and 2009, Marine Science Station at Aqaba (Jordan)
“Population dynamics of Red and Mediterranean Sea cnidarians.
Computer modeling of age-based population dynamics”. National
Science Foundation International Programs (International
Research Experiences for Students, IRES). US-Jordan Project: NSF
program leader and organizer: Nanette Elizabeth Chadwick-Furman,
Auburn University, Alabama (USA).
Awards and patronages
1999, Patronage of the Italian Ministry of the Environment to
the research project “Mediterranean Hippocampus Mission: a
study on the geographical and ecological distribution of
seahorses”; role in the project: conceiver and coordinator.
2002, Patronage of the Italian Ministry of the Environment and
the Protection of the Territory to the research project “Divers for
the Environment: Mediterranean Underwater Biodiversity Project”;
role in the project: conceiver and coordinator.
2006, Patronage of the Ministry of Tourism of the Arab Republic
of Egypt and of the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Land
and Sea Protection to the project “STE: Scuba Tourism for the
Environment. Red Sea Biodiversity Monitoring Program”; role in the
project: conceiver and coordinator.
2010, Grant of the European Research Council to the project
“CoralWarm. Corals and Global Warming: The Mediterranean versus the
Red Sea”; role in the project: conceiver and coordinator together
with Prof. Zvy Dubinsky (Bar-Ilan University, Israel) and Prof.
Giuseppe Falini (University of Bologna, Italy);
www.coralwarm.eu