Dr Darren Fa

Director of Academic Programmes & Research, Chair of the Research and Research Degrees Committee

Academic BoardAcademic Quality & Standards CommitteeEthics PanelExecutive TeamNatural Sciences & EnvironmentPhD SupervisorResearchResearch & Research Degrees CommitteeResearch Ethics CommitteeStaff

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Research Background

Research Background

darren.fa@unigib.edu.gi

ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5900-9814

Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Darren_Fa

Academia.edu: https://unigib.academia.edu/DarrenFa

Background

After obtaining a first-class honours degree in Education with QTS in 1990, Darren taught for ten years during which he read for and completed his PhD in Biological Oceanography at the University of Southampton. He then moved to the Gibraltar Museum in 1999 during which time he also read for a Master’s Degree in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester. Darren was then chosen to be seconded as part of the team that developed and implemented the roadmap for the creation of the University of Gibraltar, eventually joining its team as Director of Academic Programmes and Research in 2014.

Role

Darren is responsible for all the academic research that takes place under the aegis of the Research Office of the University, as well as related outreach activities and academic partnerships with other Universities and institutions. He is Chair of the University’s Research and Research Degrees Committee as well as a member of its Academic Board. He also sits on both the University’s Research Ethics, and Academic Quality and Standards, Committees. His role also involves working on the development and delivery of a number of its academic programmes, and was directly responsible for the programme specifications of the MSc in Marine Science and Climate Change and the University’s flagship PhD programme.

Amongst other things, Darren is a Visiting Professor at Abertay University in the UK,  a European Commission Expert on the Environment and Higher Education and an appointed mentor by the Association of Commonwealth Universities to its Futures Climate Research Cohort. He is a registered Scientific Diver, Chartered Biologist, and an elected Fellow of the Linnaean Society of London and the Royal Society of Biology. External committee memberships include HMGoG’s statutory Nature Conservancy Council, Climate Change, and Scientific Diving Committees, as well as the Gorham’s Cave Complex UNESCO World Heritage Site Steering Committee. He is married with three daughters and somehow finds time to dive, ride and play music when he can.

Teaching

  • Masters in Marine Science & Climate Change (MSc)
  • Master’s Degree in Environmental Science & Climate Change (MSc)
  • PhD Research

Research

Darren’s research mainly focuses on the marine ecology and biology of rocky intertidal and shallow benthic ecosystems, particularly on aspects of diversity, biogeography, climate change impacts and conservation, with a specific focus on marine molluscs. He is a recognised authority on the highly endangered Mediterranean ribbed limpet, Patella ferruginea. Other research has concentrated on the archaeological and ecological implications of global climatic events (particularly Pleistocene glacial cycles and sea-level changes) on the behaviour, distribution, evolutionary dynamics and extinction of palaeofauna including prehistoric human populations, with special reference to the relationship between people and the sea in the past.

As well as co-editing journals and authoring a number of books, he has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters mainly on ecological, palaeoecological and archaeological subjects, and has been a principal investigator on a number of EU, DEFRA and EFCHED-funded projects, several of which received international awards.

Selected Publications

Mackelworth, P.C., Teff Seker, Y., Vega Fernández, T., Marques, M., Lopes Alves, F., D’Anna, G., Fa, D.A., Goldborough, D., Kyriazi. Z., Pita, C., Portman, M.E., Rumes, B., Warr, S.J. & Holcer, D. (2019). Geopolitics and Marine Conservation: Synergies and Conflicts. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6: Article 759, DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2019.00759.

Fa, D.A., Finlayson, G., Sempere-Valverde, J. & García-Gómez, J.C. (2018). ‘Impossible’ re-introduction of the endangered limpet Patella ferruginea Gmelin, 1791? Progress in resolving translocation mortality. Endangered Species Research, 37: 219-232 DOI: 10.3354/esr00921.

Fa, D.A., Finlayson, J.C., Finlayson, G., Giles Pacheco, F., Rodríguez-Vidal, J. & Gutíerrez López, J.M. (2016). Marine Mollusc exploitation as evidenced by the Gorham’s Cave (Gibraltar) excavations 1998-2005: the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic Transition. Quaternary International, 407: 16–28.

García-Gómez, J.C., Guerra-García, J.M., Espinosa, F., Maestre, M.J., Rivera-Ingraham, G., Fa, D.A. & González, A.R. (2014). Artificial marine reserves networks: an innovative approach to conserve marine littoral biodiversity and protect endangered species. Marine Ecology, DOI:10.1111/maec.12167.

Rodríguez-Vidal, J., d’Errico, F., Giles Pacheco, F., Blasco, R., Rodell, J., Jennings, R.P., Queffelec, A., Finlayson, G., Fa, D.A., Gutíerrez López, J.M., Carrión, J.S., Negro, J.J., Finlayson, S., Cáceres, L.M., Bernal, M.A., Fernández Jimenez, S & Finlayson, C. (2014). A rock engraving made by Neanderthals in Gibraltar. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1411529111.

Colonese, A., Mannino, M.A., Bar-Yosef Mayer, D.E., Fa, D.A., Finlayson, J.C., Lubell, D. & Stiner, M.C. (2011). Marine mollusc exploitation in Mediterranean prehistory: an overview. Quaternary International, 239: 86–103.

Fa, D.A., Finlayson, G. & Finlayson, C. (2011). Applying a Conservation Prioritization approach to Submerged and Coastal Heritage Sites. ARCHAEOMAP Programme Handbook ‘Archaeological Management Policies in the Mediterranean’, UNESCO pp. 107–116.

Ferguson, J.E., Henderson, G.M., Fa, D.A., Finlayson, J.C. & Charnley, N.R. (2011). Increased seasonality in the Western Mediterranean during the last glacial from limpet shell geochemistry. Earth & Planetary Science Letters, 308: 325–333.

Fa, D.A. (2008). Effects of tidal amplitude on intertidal resource availability and dispersal pressure in prehistoric human coastal populations: the Mediterranean-Atlantic transition. Quaternary Science Reviews, 27 (23-24): 2194–2209.

Finlayson, C., Giles Pacheco, F., Rodriguez-Vidal, J. Fa, D.A., Gutierrez López, J.M., Santiago Pérez, A., Finlayson, G., Allue, E., Preysler, J., Cáceres, I., Carrión, J.S., Férnandez Jalvo, Y., Gleed-Owen, C., Jimenez Espejo, F.J., López, P., López Sáez, J.A., Riquelme Cantal, J.A., Sánchez Marco, A., Giles Guzman, F., Brown, K., Fuentes, N., Valarino, C., Villalpando, A., Stringer, C., Martinez Ruiz, F. & Sakamoto, T. (2006). Late survival of Neanderthals at the southernmost extreme of Europe. Nature, 443: 850–853.

Full Publications List