Research interests

PhD in marine biology, University of Vigo, Spain. Since the start of my career as a graduate student, I have been very interested in the way marine resources respond to the environmental conditions, both as individuals and as a population. In the pursuit of this interest my career has been divided into two phases. On the one hand, I have worked extensively on cephalopod species in relation to external forcing during my PhD. On the other hand, as a post-doc, I’ve been focused on studying the various impacts on wild Atlantic salmon populations in Norwegian rivers working at the CEES in the University of Oslo. I’m now a post-doctoral researcher at the IIM and my current research still falls within the fisheries oceanography field. To this regard, I’m particularly interested in disentangling the multiple factors affecting the dynamics of several vertebrate and invertebrate populations targeted by small-scale fisheries. I have participated in various national and international projects, published several scientific papers and book chapters so as contributed to multiple conferences and seminars. I also participate in international working groups and popular science initiatives.

Selected papers

1. Otero J, Álvarez-Salgado XA, González AF, Miranda A, Groom SB, Cabanas JM, Casas G, Wheatley B & Guerra A (2008) Bottom-up control of common octopus Octopus vulgaris in the Galician upwelling system, northeast Atlantic Ocean. Marine Ecology Progress Series 362: 181-192.
2.  Otero J, Jensen AJ, L’Abée-Lund JH, Stenseth NC, Storvik GO & Vøllestad LA (2011) Quantifying the ocean, freshwater and human effects on year-to-year variability of one-sea-winter Atlantic salmon angled in multiple Norwegian rivers. PLoS One 6: e24005.
3.  Ohlberger J, Otero J, Edeline E, Winfield IJ, Stenseth NC & Vøllestad LA (2013) Biotic and abiotic effects on cohort size distributions in fish. Oikos 122: 835-844.
4.  Otero J, L’Abée-Lund JH, Castro-Santos T, Leonardsson K et al. (2014) Basin-scale phenology and effects of climate variability on global timing of initial seaward migration of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). Global Change Biology 20: 61-75.
5.  Otero J, Álvarez-Salgado XA, González AF, Souto C, Gilcoto M & Guerra A (2016) Wind-driven upwelling effects on cephalopod paralarvae: Octopus vulgaris and Loliginidae off the Galician coast (NE Atlantic). Progress in Oceanography 141: 130−143.
6.  Catalá TS, Álvarez-Salgado XA, Otero J, Iuculano F, Companys B, Horstkotte B, Romera-Castillo C, Nieto-Cid M, Latasa M, Morán XAG, Gasol JM, Marrasé C, Stedmon CA & Reche I (2016) Drivers of fluorescent dissolved organic matter in the global epipelagic ocean. Limnology and Oceanography 61(3): 1101−1119.
7. Bañón R., Otero J., Campelos-Álvarez J.M., Garazo A., Alonso-Fernández A. (2018) The traditional small-scale octopus trap fishery off the Galician coast (Northeastern Atlantic): Historical notes and current fishery dynamics Fisheries Research, 206: 115-128