Nerea Piñeiro Juncal

Nerea Piñeiro Juncal is a Researcher at the University of Santiago de Compostela, affiliated with the Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry in the Faculty of Biology. Her research focuses on marine biogeochemistry, coastal carbon sequestration, and seagrass ecosystems, with particular attention to blue carbon dynamics, soil organic carbon preservation, and microplastic pollution in marine environments.

She holds a PhD from the University of Santiago de Compostela (2021), where her dissertation explored the biogeochemistry of marine phanerogam soils. Her work combines field studies, laboratory analysis, and modeling to address critical questions in coastal ecosystem management and climate change mitigation.

Key projects include the EURO-CARBON initiative, which developed a European seagrass and saltmarsh carbon database, and PALEOPARK, analyzing long-term ecological changes in Mediterranean seagrass meadows. Her research also addresses institutional support for early-career researchers and the impacts of microplastics on marine ecosystems.

Her publications span over a decade, with recent focus on methane emissions in seagrass meadows, decadal carbon decay rates, and microplastic contamination in Mediterranean soils. She collaborates internationally, particularly in North African coastal studies and Mediterranean-wide ecosystem analyses.