Valerio Zupo
Benthic ecology group, Functional and Evolutionary Ecology Laboratory, Stazione Zoologica A. Dohrn, Italy

Biography

Valerio Zupo is a Marine Ecologist at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn of Naples (Italy). Obtained a degree in Biology at the University of Naples, with a thesis on the food webs in the Posidonia oceanica meadows and started a PhD course at the University Libre of Bruxelles on the energy budgets of benthic invertebrates. He has been a full bright fellow for a research on the ecology of shrimps in the Indian River Lagoon (FL, USA) and dedicated much research attention to the role of wound-activated apoptogenic compounds produced by benthic diatoms, able to trigger the sex reversal of the shrimp Hippolyte inermis, given their possible biotechnological power. He is presently head of the Unit Model Organisms at the Stazione Zoologica and Mediterranean delegate for the International Society of Invertebrate Reproduction and Development. His main field of study is centred on the plant-animal interactions in marine benthic communities.

Research Interest

Marine Ecology, Seagrasses, Decapod Crustaceans, Food webs, Chemical Ecology, Plant-Animal interactions.