CRETUS STAFF
Jesús R. Aboal Viñas
• Associate Professor
• Department: Functional Biology
• Center: Faculty of Biology (USC)
• Research Group: Ecotoxicoloxía and Ecofísioloxía Vexetal (ECOTOX)
• Tel .: +34 881 811 000
• Email: jesusramon.aboal@usc.es
• Group Web: http://imaisd.usc.es/grupoficha.asp?idpersoatipogrupo=75121&i=es&s=-2-26-148
Bio
I graduated in Biological Sciences, Plant Biology Specialty, from the University of Santiago de Compostela in 1993. The following five years I dedicated myself to professional work in various environmental consultants, working for different administrations such as ICONA and the Ministry of Environment of the Canary Islands Government . Among the works carried out, the main one was the planning and management of Natural Spaces, participating in the drafting of various plans, decrees and research related to protection figures. This work I combined with the completion of the doctoral thesis at the University of La Laguna in the Department of Plant Biology, defended in 1998. That same year I agreed as a researcher at the University of Santiago de Compostela, where my teaching work has been developed and researcher to the present day (starting in the 3rd cycle, later as Associate Professor, Contracted Professor, Doctor and Full Professor in 1st, 2nd, 3rd cycle and undergraduate and postgraduate). Currently I am a Full Professor of the Ecology Area (accredited to full professor). Teaching in this period has been varied, teaching various subjects, with continuous changes throughout the courses. In relation to the quality of teaching, the satisfaction surveys with the teaching received by the students have always evaluated me in a very satisfactory way, always surpassing the scores of the university, center and subject. Since it has been possible, I have used e-learning platforms generating my own digital content and using a wide variety of teaching materials. The main lines of research maintained have been plant ecology (allometry, spatial structure, succession, etc.), biogeochemical cycles linked to forest cover and ecotoxicology, mainly investigating aspects related to biomonitoring (ie optimization of both active and passive). As a result of this research, 82 articles (JCR) are the majority in the most prestigious journals in the area, with a high level of acceptance in the scientific community, which has been reflected in an index of h = 20 (scopus). I frequently act as a reviewer for many of these magazines and serve on the editorial committee for some. The scientific production is accompanied by various participations in international conferences and projects both in competitive calls (appearing in some as IP), as agreements with the administration and contracts with companies. Among the different projects and agreements, the implementation of an Environmental Samples Bank stands out (which currently has more than 40,000 samples deposited). The result of these investigations has been the creation of a USC Spin-off dedicated to biomonitoring with the implementation of a registry. I have co-directed or supervised 5 doctoral theses (currently co-directing 2 more), 12 undergraduate theses, 15 final master’s projects, 5 final degree projects and more than 20 supervised research papers and academically supervised works. Regarding management positions, I have been Director of the Botanical Garden of Santiago for more than two years (equivalent to Department Management), as well as a member of the Quality and Teaching commissions and a member of the USC Senate. Currently I am Vice Dean (quality manager) of the Faculty of Biology of the USC.
Lines of investigation
• Plant ecology (allometry, spatial structure, succession)
• Biogeochemical cycles linked to forest cover
• Ecotoxicology. Passive and active environmental biomonitoring
Current projects
• Standardization and optimization of the use of bryophytes for passive and active biomonitoring of inland water quality. Preparation of protocols. Mineco-Excelencia 2015 (2016-2019), Project Code CTM2015-70578-P. IP: R. Aboal Viñas. € 160,080
• Creating and testing a method for controlling the air quality based on a new biotechnological tool. Use of a devitalized moss clone as passive contaminant sensor (MOSSCLONE) (2010-PI036) Ref. 282952. European Comission. Collaborative Project. FP7- ENV.2011.3.1.9-1: Eco-innovation! (part of the Ecoinnovation Call). 04/01/2012 to: 03/31/2015 IP: José A. Fernández Escribano € 423,117.28
Main Indicators (2005-2015)
• SCI research publications: 82
• H index: 20
• SCOPUS Citation: 1011
• Books:
• Chapters of books:
• Research publications without impact index:
• International participation: (conferences, presentations):
• Patents: 2
Most relevant publications
Debén, S., Aboal, J.R., Carballeira, A., Cesa, M., Real, C., Fernández, J.A. Inland water quality monitoring with native bryophytes: a methodological review. Ecological Indicators 53 / 115-124 / 2015.
Ares, A., Fernández, J.A., Carballeira A., Aboal, J.R. Do moss bags containing devitalized Sphagnum denticulatum reflect heavy metal concentrations in bulk
deposition? Ecological Indicators 50 / 90-98 / 2015.
Ares, A., Fernández, J.A., Carballeira A., Aboal, J.R. Towards the methodological optimization of the moss bag technique in terms of contaminants concentrations and replicability values. Atmospheric Environment 94 / 496-507 / 2014.
Ares A., Aboal J.R., Carballeira A., Giordano S., Adamo P. and Fernández J.A. Moss Bag Biomonitoring: A Methodological Review. Science of the Total Environment 432 / 143-158 / 2012.
Aboal, J.R., Pérez-Llamazares, A., Carballeira, A., Giordano, S. & Fernández, J.A. Should we samples used as biomonitors of atmospheric contamination be washed? Atmospheric Environment 45 / 6837-6840 / 2011.
