Brazilian researchers with their tutor at the University of Navarra.
PHOTO: Manuel Castells

The School of Science of the University of Navarra has received two researchers from the Federal University of Paraná in Curitiba, Brazil. Marcelle Bettoni and Eliseu Geraldo Dos Santos will be collaborating until December in several programs of study on the effect of climate change on plantscarried out at department of Environmental Biology.

The researchers' stay has been possible thanks to the programs of mobility and exchange with some of the main Brazilian institutions with which the University of Navarra has agreements. In the case of Bettoni, through the"Science without Borders" program, which offers 80,000 grants for the exchange of Brazilian students, professors and researchers, -of which it is estimated that 10,000 can come to Spain-, and Geraldo Dos Santos with a postgraduate program of the Fundação Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), which seeks to train teachers or high-level researchers for their professional insertion in the country and the promotion of international scientific cooperation.  

It should be recalled that in 2012 a representation of the School, led by its Dean, Ignacio López-Goñi, traveled to Brazil with the objectives of establishing links for future collaborations at teaching and research, and to sign agreements for the exchange of students and professors between the Navarre institution and the main universities of the South American country.

Expansion of programs of study field
The programs of study in which the two researchers are participating at the University of Navarra are part of a larger project graduate 'Photosynthetic acclimation, production and quality of alfalfa, grapevine and lettuce plants grown under different climate change scenarios'. They will also complete their respective thesis projects on millet (Eliseu) and onion (Marcelle), extending the field study they conducted in Brazil with trials carried out with these plants in a context of climate change with high CO2 and drought.

According to his tutor at the center, María Nieves Goicoechea, "the big difference with Brazil is that they conduct field trials there, while here they work in the thermal gradient tunnels to better understand the effect of increased CO2, drought and the combination of both factors on the physiology, production and quality of the crops".