Fixed nitrogen cycling and nitrous oxide production in the Arctic Ocean:
shelf transformation processes and implications for Arctic biogeochemistry
Sofia Muller (UOC)

Long-term study of the MHWs in the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea:
an assessment of their trends, drivers, and their early indicators
Manal Hamdeno ELAWADY (GHER)

Marine heatwaves (MHWs) are intensifying under climate change and are a major driver of ocean variability and ecosystem stress. This thesis analyzes MHW dynamics in the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea (1982-2024), showing increasing frequency, duration, and intensity, with strong regional contrasts linked to basin structure. Our results show that MHWs are driven by the interaction between long-term warming, atmospheric forcing, and oceanic processes, and extend below the surface, creating subsurface heat storage and ocean memory. Their impacts include enhanced stratification, reduced nutrient supply, decreased productivity, and direct thermal stress on marine organisms. In addition, compound events and interactions with atmospheric heatwaves amplify their intensity and persistence, and interactions with Medicanes show a two-way of impacts, highlighting that MHWs are complex, vertically structured, and coupled ocean-atmosphere extremes.

Mapping benthic traits over the northwestern shelf of the Black Sea: a trait-based modelling approach
Severine Chevalier (MAST)

The biological communities found at the bottom of the sea, the macrobenthos, play a critical role in marine ecosystems by influencing biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem functioning. Therefore, the macrobenthos is a primary target for biodiversity conservation. Despite the availability of databases compiling millions of species records, benthic biodiversity remains poorly mapped at a larger scale, which hinders the establishment of Marine Protected Areas. This PhD thesis addresses this critical gap by developing predictive modelling tools capable of mapping macrobenthos characteristics at the shelf scale. This study takes a functional approach to biodiversity, defining living communities by their traits (e.g. mobility, burrow type). The methodology was developed for the northwestern shelf of the Black Sea. Trait distribution models were developed to link benthic traits and their “niche” (the environmental conditions to which they are suited) and to predict their spatial distribution using maps of environmental conditions provided by an ocean model. These maps of benthic traits can serve as ecological indicators for assessing ecosystem health and can be useful for conservation policy.

Variability of Jupiter's aurora, moons, and magnetosphere investigated using advanced data analysis
Linus Head (LPAP)

3D modelling of stellar structure in close binaries and tidally excited oscillations
Loïc Fellay (ASTA)

Revisiting the SHINE high-contrast imaging exoplanet survey using the Regime Switching Model
Mariam SABALBAL (PSILab)

High-contrast imaging is a key technique for detecting and characterising young giant exoplanets, probing parameter space largely inaccessible to other methods. Despite advances in adaptive optics, coronagraphy, and post-processing, ground-based observations remain limited by residual stellar noise, particularly at small angular separations. This thesis investigates the application of the Regime Switching Model (RSM) to the F150 sample of the SHINE survey to improve detection sensitivity in this regime. RSM was applied to more than 200 observations to derive detection maps and limits, while the influence of observing conditions on detection thresholds was investigated using clustering and noise modeling. RSM improves contrast by approximately a factor of two overall and up to five at small angular separations compared with standard PCA processing. A total of 89 signals were recovered, including four background-star candidates and no new planetary candidates. Distinct observational regimes show detection-threshold variations of up to an order of magnitude, highlighting the importance of accounting for observing conditions. Overall, this work demonstrates that RSM is an effective detection framework for improving the sensitivity of high-contrast imaging observations, particularly at small angular separations. However, robust threshold calibration and PSF subtraction remain important challenges for its reliable application to archival and future imaging surveys.

Insight into the polarization and population of particle-accelerating colliding-wind binaries based on radio measurements
Agustina BLANCO (MEGA)

Monitoring the Activity and Composition of Long Period Comets with TRAPPIST Telescopes
Said HMIDDOUCH (COMETA)