Juliano M. Vilke is a Ph.D. student in Marine, Earth, and Environmental Sciences at the Centre for Marine and Environmental Research of the University of Algarve (CIMA - UAlg). He earned his M.Sc. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2023 from the Santa Catarina State University (UDESC), Brazil. His research focuses on marine ecotoxicology, specifically evaluating the impacts of metals and emerging contaminants (
e.g., micro- and nano-plastics, plastic-released chemicals, and pharmaceuticals) on marine organisms. He also investigates how these stressors interact with climate change, with a particular emphasis on invertebrate species. He is member of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), Deep-Sea Biology Society (DSBS), and The Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI). He is currently involved in three major projects (
DEEP-REST,
BiDiRisk, and UAlg- BGR) that aim to assess the threats of deep-sea mining on deep-sea biota. Additionally, he is working on his thesis focused on the Comparative evolutionary ecotoxicological adaptations to anthropogenic disturbance in sea anemones from Antarctica and the deep sea.
Keywords: Marine ecotoxicology, biomarkers, metal toxicity, marine pollution, emerging contaminants, deep-sea mining, cold-adapted environments.