ABOUT

Francisco Bravo, PhD

Current job positions

Previous job positions
  • Ecological modeler and R&D project manager. CSIRO Chile Research Foundation. August 2016 to July-2024.

Research interests

  • Numerical modeling of socio-ecological systems in coastal areas, and industry-environment interactions

  • Coastal, estuarine and marine sediment biogeochemistry

  • Modeling and quantification of coastal ecosystem services

Education

  • 2011 – 2016. PhD in Oceanography. Dalhousie University, Canada
  • 2008-2009. Diploma in Environmental Management. Arturo Prat University. Valdivia, Chile
  • 2007. Marine biologist. Austral University of Chile. Valdivia, Chile
CURRICULUM VITAE

Work

  • Non-monetary reward for exceptional performance. CSIRO Chile Foundation. May 2019.
  • Best poster presentation. IMBER Conference 2017. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA.
  • Best poster presentation. AMEMR (Advances in Marine Ecosystem Modeling Research) Conference 2017. Plymouth, UK. July 2017.
  • Canadian Aquaculture Association. Travel award to attend AAC 2016 (September 2016).
  • Scholarship from the European Space Agency to attend the IMBIZO IV meeting (October 2015).
  • BECASCHILE 2009 scholarship holder for doctoral studies.
  • Exchange scholarship – POME (Prediction and Observation of the Marine Environment) exchange program 2014. Dalhousie University – University of Bergen. 2014.
  • Sea Experience Scholarships to participate in the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series Study (BATS). Dalhousie-BIOS Experiential Learning Fund. 2015.
  • Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). 2019. Oceans and Atmosphere Division. Recipient researcher: Dr. Beth Fulton. Collaboration area: Risk analysis in aquaculture and model of the entire system.
  • Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen, Norway. November-December 2014. Recipient researcher: Dr. Corinna Schrum. Collaboration area: Training in the coupled physical-biogeochemical model ECOSystem Model (ECOSMO).
  • Teaching assistant. BIOL 4160. Political Ecology. Biology Department. Dalhousie University. September-December 2015.
  • Research Coordinator. Characterization of contaminants and design of a monitoring network for the Bay of Quintero, Chile. Ministry of the Environment – Undersecretariat of the Environment. 2020-2021
  • Principal investigator. Environmental and agricultural practices in mussel farms in the Los Lagos Region, Chile. Identification of optimization opportunities. Industry funds. 2020-2022.
  • Principal investigator. Regional Development Strategies and Digital Public Transformation: Development of support tools for the evaluation of future climate change scenarios in Chilean Patagonia. The Scientific and Technological Development Fund (FONDEF). 2020-2022. https://research.csiro.au/modelo-systems-patagonia/csiro/
  • Investigator. Hyperspectral fingerprinting of red tide species by coupling remote and in situ bio-optical signals in southern Chile. The Scientific and Technological Development Fund (FONDEF). 2019-2020.
  • Co-investigator. “Environmental dynamics of Piscirickettsia salmonis”. National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (SERNAPESCA) and Salmon Technological Institute (INTESAL). 2019.
  • Co-investigator. Consulting for high-resolution hydrodynamic model in Macrozone 5 within the EPIVET project “Integrated Epidemiology for the early detection, diagnosis and control of Piscirickettsia salmonis and parasitism by Caligus rogercresseyi that affect Atlantic salmon in Chile. EPIVET Chile. 2019.
  • Co-investigator. SIMA Austral, the FIE V008 – Integrated Health and Environmental Ecosystem Management System for Aquaculture in Chile. 2017-2019.
  • Postgraduate thesis. NSERC-Cooke Industrial Research Chair in Sustainable Aquaculture. Dalhousie University. 2014-2017.
  • Co-author and co-executor. Technology dissemination program “Development of technical skills to integrate the value chain of seafood products from artisanal fishing in the Los Ríos Region, Chile” (fixed-term contract). Chinquihue Foundation. Co-financed by InnovaChile of CORFO. February 2011.
  • Alternative director. Project “New management systems, technologies and international market requirements associated with benthic resources from Benthic Resources Management and Exploitation Areas (AMERB), in China and Japan.” Chinquihue Foundation. Co-financed by InnovaChile of CORFO. November 2009.
  • Executive. Node Project for technological transfer in fishing and aquaculture in the Los Ríos Region, Chile (fixed-term contract). Institute of Science and Technology of the Arturo Prat University. Co-financed by InnovaChile of CORFO. March 2009 to March 2010.
  • Co-investigator. Evaluation of seabed conditions associated with geographical areas used for salmon farming in the Aysén Fjord, Aysén Region. Austral Coast Consultant – Austral University of Chile. 2009.
  • Co-investigator. Chemotherapy in salmon farming. Effects on the structure and biogeochemical properties of benthic communities of the Valdivia River, southern Chile. Austral University of Chile Scholarship. 2008-2009.
  • Workgroup. Regional consultancy responsible for the preparation of the Regional Agenda for Productive Development and Plans to improve competitiveness in the Los Ríos Region, Chile. Austral University of Chile. September-November 2008.
  • Workgroup. Fishing baseline study in the Los Ríos Region. Within the framework of the activities developed in the project “Regional development prospective study 2008 – 2018, Los Ríos Region”, Universidad Austral de Chile. July-September 2008.
  • Thesis. Sediment profile images of coastal marine sediments and their temporal biogeochemical signature. (FONDECYT Scholarship). 2005-2007. Austral University of Chile.
  • Principal investigator. Review of coastal marine invertebrates of the Juan Fernández Islands. Chili. Austral University of Chile Scholarship (Faculty of Marine Biology). 2005.
  • Australian Alumni Week 2021. Building the industry of the future Brazil-Australia scientific and technological collaboration. June 2020
  • Member of the evaluation committee of secondary level research projects at the Regional School Congress of Science and Technology EXPLORA CONICYT in 2009 and 2010.
  • Voluntary monitor EXPLORA-CONICYT initiative “Let’s open our laboratory to school scientific research”, Geobenthos Laboratory, Institute of Geosciences, Universidad Austral de Chile. 2006.
Publications
  1. Claudio Pareja Pineda; Álvaro Salazar; María Paz Acuña; Diego Ocampo Melgar; María Ester Sepúlveda, Francisco Bravo. A multimethod approach for building climate literacy and a climate portal in the context of spatial regional planning in northern Patagonia. Journal of Environmental Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.125397
  2. Bravo, F., Amorim, J., Amirkandeh, M., Bodorik, P., Cerqueira, V., Gomes, N., Korus, J., Oliveira, M., Parent, M., Pimentel, J., Reilly, D., Sclodnick, T., Grant, J., Filgueira, R., Whidden, C., & Torgo, L. (2024). Advancing Precision Aquaculture Through Big Data Analytics and Machine Learning in Canadian Fish Farming (p. 6). https://doi.org/10.1109/OCEANS55160.2024.10754571
  3. Cerqueira, V., Pimentel, J., Korus, J., Bravo, F., Amorim, J., Oliveira, M., … & Torgo, L. (2024). https://doi.org/10.3389/faquc.2024.1365123 Forecasting ocean hypoxia in salmonid fish farms. Frontiers in Aquaculture, 3, 1365123. 
  4. Jess Melbourne-Thomas, Desiree Tommasi, Marion Gehlen, Eugene J Murphy, Jennifer Beckensteiner, Francisco Bravo, Tyler D Eddy, Mibu Fischer, Elizabeth Fulton, Mayya Gogina, Eileen Hofmann, Maysa Ito, Sara Mynott, Kelly Ortega-Cisneros, Anna N Osiecka, Mark R Payne, Romeo Saldívar-Lucio, Kim J N Scherrer, Integrating human dimensions in decadal-scale prediction for marine social–ecological systems: lighting the grey zone, ICES Journal of Marine Science, Volume 80, Issue 1, January 2023, Pages 16–30, https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsac228
  5. Joseph R. Crosswell, Francisco Bravo, Iván Pérez-Santos, Geoffrey Carlin, Nagur Cherukuru, Cassie Schwanger, Rob Gregor, Andrew D.L. Steven. Geophysical controls on metabolic cycling in three Patagonian fjords. Progress in Oceanography. Volume 207, 2022. 102866, ISSN 0079-6611. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2022.102866 .
  6. Bravo F, Sidhu S, Bernal P, Bustamante R, Condie S, Gorton B, Herzfeld M, Jimenez D, Mardones F, Steven A (2020). Hydrodynamic connectivity, water temperature, and salinity are major drivers of Piscirickettsia salmonis dispersion and transmission among salmon farms in Chile. Aquaculture Environment Interactions 12:263-279. https://doi.org/10.3354/aei00368
  7. Bravo F, Grant J (2020) Benthic habitat mapping and sediment nutrient fluxes in a shallow coastal environment in Nova Scotia, Canada. Estuar Coast Shelf Sci:106816. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2020.106816.
  8. Steven AD, Aryal S, Bernal P, Bravo F, Bustamante RH, Condie S, Dambacher JM, Dowideit S, Fulton EA, Gorton R, others. 2019. SIMA Austral: An operational information system for managing the Chilean aquaculture industry with international application. Journal of Operational Oceanography.1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/1755876X.2019.1636606
  9. Bravo, F., and Grant J (2018). Modelling sediment assimilative capacity and organic carbon degradation efficiency at marine fish farms. Aquaculture Environment Interactions. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/aei00267
  10. Bravo F. Playing with Mud. Investigating the ecological value of coastal sediments. Current Tides, Volume 3, 2017. Dalhousie Oceanography Research Magazine. http://currenttides.ocean.dal.ca/
  11. Bravo, F., and Grant J. Predicting sediment assimilative capacity of organic wastes at marine fish farms: implications for environmental management. Bull. Aquacul. Assoc. Canada 2016‐2, 1-5.
  12. Woelfl, S., Mages, M., Encina, F., & Bravo, F. (2006). Trace metals in microcrustaceans and Brazilian waterweed from a contaminated Chilean wetland using total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. Microchimica Acta, 154(3-4), 261-268.
  13. Schrödl, M., Alarcón, M. A., Bedriñana, L. R., Bravo, F. J., Bustamante, C. M., Carvalho, R., … & Salmen, A. (2005). Nudipleura (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia) from the southern Chilean Comau Fjord, with redescription of Polycera priva Marcus, 1959. Vita Malacologica, 3, 23-33.
Other publications
  1. Bravo, F., Duarte, G., Bieler, R. & Schrödl, M. 2005. Plocamopherus from Chile. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/14695
  2. Fecci, E., Ilabel G., Ríos W., Klett B., Gonzalez G., Bravo, F. Metodología de emprendizaje en programa complementario de emprendimiento. Aprender a emprender. Memorias XXI Congreso Latinoamericano sobre Espíritu Empresarial. ISBN: 978-958-8357-45-4. 2015.
  3. Bravo, F. 2006. Sediment biogeochemistry to Reloncaví fjord and estuary, X region, Chile. Undergraduate thesis. Marine Biology. Universidad Austral de Chile.
  4. Rovira et al. 2008. Estudio de Prospectiva Regional 2008-2018. Región de Los Ríos, Chile. Technical Report · October 2008.

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