POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER
Following wildlife through a changing world.
I study animal movement to understand how wildlife interacts with changing landscapes and how ecological connections emerge across space.
Explore research
Foto: Unsplash
Animal Movement, One Health & Environmental Change
Research interests
Connecting wildlife and environments.
Combining movement ecology, field observation and laboratory approaches to understand environmental exposure across wildlife populations.
RESEARCH APPROACHES
FIELDWORK · GPS TRACKING · SPATIAL DATA · GIS & REMOTE SENSING · NETWORK ANALYSIS · STATISTICAL MODELLING · LABORATORY ANALYSES · MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
Fieldwork
Tagging GPS in seabirds, water and wildlife sampling, and methodological design across campaigns in the Chafarinas Islands, Doñana, Barcelona, the Dominican Republic and Ladakh (India).
Movement ecology
Managing GPS tracking databases, spatial analyses and network approaches to understand movement across landscapes.
Laboratory approaches
Applying laboratory approaches to investigate antimicrobial resistance, plastics, persistent organic pollutants and other environmental exposures through sentinel wildlife.
Applied science
Working with public institutions, including Barcelona’s Public Health Agency, and as Associate Editor at Journal of Applied Ecology to connect ecological evidence with real-world decisions.
Equality & queer science
Member of the SIBECOL Diversity Commission, ICM Equality initiatives and the BES ALDER Group — advancing intersectional, inclusive research cultures.
RECENT publications
A selection of recent peer-reviewed work.
Environmental Pollution / 2026
Ambio / 2026
Environmental Research / 2026
Urban Ecosystems / 2026
Journal of Applied Ecology / 2026
ACTIVE PROJECTS
Movement and ecosystem functioning across interconnected landscapes.
ACTIVE · 2026—2029
CONWET
Connecting key wetland sites through waterbirds: implications for plant populations.
€190,000 · PI Andy Green · Team member
ACTIVE · 2025—2028
ALLIES
Synanthropic wildlife as allies in monitoring ecosystem health and the early detection of pollutants and pathogens in urban environments.
€210,000 · PI Joan Navarro · Hired researcher
ACTIVE · 2026—2028
WOOS
Wings over Ocean: seabird biologging for monitoring unreported fishing.
€80,000 · PI Isabel Afán · Hired researcher (from Nov 2026)
ACTIVE · 2024—2027
NewFluPrev
Understanding avian influenza epidemiology across hosts, microbiota and environment to improve surveillance.
€225,000 · PI Úrsula Höfle · Data analyst
TEAM
Teaching, learning, and collaborating.
Students and collaborators bring distinct perspectives to shared questions in movement ecology, wildlife and environmental change.
CURRENT STUDENTS
PhD student · FPU Fellowship
Marisa González
Pelagic ecology of marine megafauna.
Supervised with Joan Navarro and Francisco Ramírez.
PhD student · PIF Fellowship
Catarina F. Oliveira
Synanthropic gulls as sentinels of pollutants in urban environments.
Supervised with Joan Navarro and Núria Cortés-Francisco.
Master’s student
Julio Cesar San Miguel
The role of gulls in seed dispersal across the rice fields of the Ebro Delta.
Supervised with Néstor Pérez-Méndez.
Master’s student
Álex Domínguez Rosco
Risk assessment of urban gull collisions at Barcelona Airport.
Supervised with Joan Navarro.
CURRENT MAIN COLLABORATORS
Joan Navarro
Tomás Montalvo
Sara Sabaté
Raquel Planell
Clara Morral-Puigmal
Núria Cortés-Francisco
Pablo Cermeño
Raül Aymí
Fran Ramírez
Isabel Afán
Joan Giménez
Montse Solé
Odei García-Garín
Néstor Pérez-Méndez
Juan Bécares
Esther Sebastián-González
Úrsula Höfle
Andy J. Green
Marta I. Sánchez
Julián Cano-Povedano
Cosme López-Calderón
Yingjun Wang
María José Navarro-Ramos
Manuela G. Forero
Francisco Hortas
INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATORS
Judy Shamoun-Baranes
Chris Thaxter
Wendt Müller
Luc Lens
Eric Stienen
David Grémillet
Marion Vittecoq
Karen McCoy
Casper van Leeuwen
Jonas Bonnedahl
Mariëlle van Toor
Haruko Ando
FORMER STUDENTS / ARCHIVE
Catarina Oliveira (2025)
Living in polluted cities affects the enzymatic activity of urban wildlife.
Universidade do Algarve, Portugal. Supervised with Joan Navarro.
Sara Yagüe (2025)
Ecology and behaviour of urban gulls (JAE-INTRO)
Universitat de Barcelona. Supervised with Joan Navarro.
Ana Max (2024)
Urban gulls as sentinels of plastic pollution in urban marine environments.
Universitat de Barcelona. Supervised with Odei García-Garín and Joan Navarro.
Joana Domingo (2023)
Distribution and selection of nesting sites of an opportunistic predator in urban ecosystems.
Universitat de Barcelona. Supervised with Joan Navarro.
Adrián Monreal (2022)
Seed dispersal by wintering geese in a Mediterranean wetland complex: differences between natural and artificial habitats.
Universidad de Sevilla. Supervised with Andy J. Green.
CV / contact
Open to thoughtful collaborations across spatial ecology, health and enviromental change.
I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC), where I am a member of the IMARES research group within the Department of Marine Renewable Resources.
From November 2026, I will join the CEFE-CNRS (Montpellier) as a MOPGA Fellow, where I will continue developing my research in movement ecology, wildlife and environmental change.
Previously, I was a PhD researcher and postdoctoral researcher at the Doñana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC) and the University of Alcalá, where I developed my research in movement ecology and wildlife ecology.
I am always interested in new collaborations, research ideas and interdisciplinary projects. Feel free to get in touch.
Download CV
Víctor Martin-Vélez / Ecologist
© 2026