The project is led by Doctor Virginia Iorio, under the supervision of Professor Francesca Cagnacci. The project is also supported by the team within the Cagnacci Lav at the Fondazione Edmund Mach and collaborators at various national and international institutions.

Virginia Iorio

Virginia is a marine biologist specialized in marine mammals. Throughout her career, she has studied the behavior of bottlenose dolphins and seals in Scotland using telemetry and acoustic methods.

Given the crucial role sound plays for marine mammals, she continued her work by investigating how noise from human activities affects the behavior of dolphins, porpoises, and whales.

As part of the Lighthouse Field Station at the University of Aberdeen, she contributed to the Marine Mammal Monitoring Programme and the PrePARED Project, both focused on the impact of offshore windfarm construction on marine mammals and the broader marine ecosystem.

Before joining the Cagnacci Lab, Virginia worked for an environmental consultancy, Natural Power, where she contributed to various environmental impact assessments, analyzing different types of ecological data and writing scientific reports.

Francesca Cagnacci

Francesca is an ecologist specializing in the conservation of terrestrial ecosystems, with a focus on the ecological and evolutionary drivers of animal behavior, movement, and resource use.

Her research explores the impacts of climate change and human-driven transformations—such as land use, management practices, and conservation policies—on animal spatial distribution and interspecies interactions.

She is also involved in the ecology of wildlife diseases, investigating host-parasite dynamics and the emergence and persistence of diseases in changing human–natural systems.

Francesca applies cutting-edge technologies and quantitative approaches in animal ecology, including bio-logging through GPS telemetry, wireless sensor networks, and analytical tools for spatio-temporal georeferenced data. She also develops mechanistic models of animal movement and is the founder of the EUROMAMMALS permanent research consortium.